Jamie & Matt have an AI chat

This conversation explores not just how AI is changing business, but how it is beginning to reshape human behaviour in ways we are only just starting to notice.

On the surface, AI is delivering clear benefits. Productivity is increasing, execution is faster, and access to knowledge is more widespread than ever. Within businesses, it is already enabling teams to do significantly more with fewer resources.

However, beneath those advantages, there are deeper questions emerging.

One moment in the discussion highlights a subtle but important shift. Faced with an eight page legal document, the instinct was not to read it, but to consider uploading it to AI for a summary. While this may seem efficient, it raises a critical concern. When convenience replaces engagement, what happens to our willingness to think, analyse, and take responsibility for important decisions?

Alongside this, there is a broader risk around judgement. Today, the real value in using AI lies in the ability to assess whether its output is good or not. But as reliance increases, there is a concern that this layer of human intelligence may begin to erode. If people lose the ability to question or validate what AI produces, then the role of human thinking fundamentally changes.

These points shift the conversation beyond productivity and cost. They highlight that AI is not just a tool improving efficiency. It is something that may redefine how we process information, make decisions, and interact with the world around us.

The discussion ultimately balances opportunity with caution. AI will undoubtedly accelerate businesses and create new possibilities, but the long term winners will be those who use it to enhance human capability, rather than replace it.

Key Takeaways

• AI is dramatically increasing productivity, but may reduce independent thinking over time
• Costs of AI are likely to rise, which could create an uneven playing field
• Creativity and execution will become the key differentiators between businesses
• There is a growing risk of distraction and loss of focus due to endless new ideas
• Human interaction will remain critical, especially in industries like real estate

AI as a Productivity Multiplier

One of the biggest immediate benefits of AI is its ability to handle process driven work.
From development to marketing, tasks that previously took hours or days can now be completed in minutes. In some cases, productivity has increased fivefold.

This creates a huge opportunity for businesses to move faster, test more ideas, and scale output without scaling headcount.

However, there is a trade off.

As reliance on AI increases, there is a risk that people stop thinking critically about the output they are receiving.

Right now, the value still comes from knowing whether something is good or not. The concern is what happens when that ability starts to fade.

The Risk of Replacing Thinking

AI is incredibly powerful, but it can also create dependency.

There is a real concern that future generations may rely so heavily on AI that core problem solving skills begin to decline.

If people stop questioning outputs, stop validating decisions, and stop thinking deeply, then AI shifts from being a tool to being a crutch.

That is not a current problem, but it is a very real future risk.

A More Competitive, Level Playing Field

AI is lowering the barrier to entry across many industries.

What once took years of experience can now be accelerated through access to information and tools.

For new businesses, this creates opportunity.

For established businesses, it creates pressure.

The advantage no longer comes purely from knowledge. It comes from:

• Creativity and ideation
• speed of execution
• ability to adapt

The businesses that win will not be the ones with the most information. They will be the ones who use it best.

The Cost Factor: What Happens Next?

At the moment, many AI tools are heavily subsidised.

But this will not last forever.

As these platforms move towards profitability, costs are expected to rise.

When that happens, businesses that rely heavily on AI will need to reassess:

• how much they use it
• where they use it
• whether it remains commercially viable

This could create a divide between companies that can afford to invest heavily in AI and those that cannot.

The Creativity Advantage

AI has made it easier than ever to execute ideas.

What used to take months can now be executed in days.

This shifts the focus from:
“Can we do this?”
to
“Should we do this?”

Creativity is no longer just about having ideas. It is about choosing the right ones and executing them well.

In a world where everyone can build, the real advantage is building better.

The Danger of Distraction

With unlimited ideas comes a new challenge: focus.

AI encourages experimentation, but it also creates the risk of constantly chasing new opportunities while neglecting existing operations.

This “shiny object” problem can:

• divide attention
• dilute effort
• reduce performance in core areas

The businesses that succeed will be the ones that balance innovation with discipline.

Human Behaviour Is Already Changing

AI is not just changing business. It is changing how people behave.

There is a growing tendency to:

• seek instant answers
• avoid deep thinking
• prioritise speed over understanding

Even simple tasks, like reading an important document, are being replaced with AI summaries.

While this improves efficiency, it raises an important question:

What do we lose when everything becomes instant?

The Role of Human Interaction

Despite all the advancements in AI, one thing remains clear:

People still want to deal with people.

This is especially true in industries like real estate, where decisions are emotional, financial, and significant.

AI can support the process, but it cannot replace:

• trust
• relationships
• instinct

At least not yet.

Final Thoughts

AI is not something to resist. It is something to understand and use properly.

It offers:

• speed
• efficiency
• scale

But it also introduces:

• risk
• dependency
• uncertainty

The challenge for businesses is not just adopting AI, but using it in a way that enhances human capability rather than replacing it.

Because ultimately, the businesses that succeed will not be the most automated.

They will be the ones that strike the right balance between technology and human thinking.

The Full Convo!

Jamie:
Just to set the tone, this conversation is around AI and what our feelings are towards it, what we think it might become, and how it might change human behaviour and essentially what we all do day to day moving forward with this as part of our lives.

So, this is an open conversation between Matt Atkinson and Jamie Arthur.

I’m just going to start us off by asking the question: what are the most important things we need to consider with AI? That might be how we use it, what it could become, what’s actually happening day to day currently, and how people are using it within business and within their personal lives.
So, what would we say are the most important things to consider with AI?

Matt:
Yeah, I think it can go down two routes with this. The first one is that AI should be used to do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of process work and menial jobs that we don’t want to do.

I think there’s a big threat with it though, that it’s actually going to replace intelligence, and the next generation coming through are going to be that reliant on it that it replaces some of the intelligence that would normally be in the room. It’s going to replace a lot of brainpower. So I think that’s a big consideration.

The other one is the future of it. The companies that are currently running these software platforms and data centres can’t burn the sort of cash they are forever. So if we become too overly reliant on it, what implications are there in the future when costs start rising?

That’s not just for our business, that’s going to be for a lot of businesses to consider. It will be an industry-wide change when those costs start increasing.

Jamie:
So, obviously there’s an anticipation about cost increases. There are huge overheads currently for AI companies such as Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT and others. Investors in those platforms are going to want a return at some point, so there’s going to have to be a switch.

Matt:
Yeah, a switch to profit-making.

Jamie:
Within Property Webmasters, AI is becoming really quite integrated, not just into our daily operations and processes, but it is actually educated on our codebase as well. So it’s helping us steer our platforms and becoming quite integral to our operations.

Each software developer we have now is doing at least five times the amount of work they could previously. I do understand the concern that it is becoming something that’s replacing creativity, brainpower, and ownership of tasks.

Matt:
When I look at what we currently do as a business, in terms of developers and the marketing department, you’re prompting an LLM, whether that’s Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT, and you’re getting an output.

Right now, the intelligence is there to know whether that output is good or not.

I think the risk moving forward is that as we get more reliant on it, the intelligence is no longer there to judge whether the output is good. You’re not able to check whether the code is going to break something upstream or downstream.

You don’t know whether the marketing output is good in terms of what a good hook looks like or what a good call to action is to convert users.

I think that’s a future problem, not a problem in the here and now.

Jamie:
Yeah, I get that.

It’s a very level playing field now. Knowledge and experience are what businesses have always operated on, and AI is levelling that. We’ve been around for 20 years, so there’s a lot of experience behind us that AI wouldn’t fully know or currently replicate. But if a startup competitor comes in wanting to offer the same services, they have a strong head start compared to where we were 17 or 18 years ago because the knowledge is now accessible. So it does level the playing field.

It’s about finding the opportunities that push you beyond that. That’s where we as a business need to go, and where any business that wants to stand out needs to focus.

Creativity is going to be key moving forward. The most creative businesses will be the ones that succeed. We’re now in a world of ideation where we can generate as many ideas as we want and execute quickly.
Previously, I might have had an idea and thought it would take six months to implement. Now it could be done in one or two days.

So it’s about embracing creativity and execution. I still firmly believe that people want to deal with people. So businesses with strong customer service, customer success and account management teams are still going to excel.

That might change in 10 or 15 years as younger generations become more accustomed to not dealing with people.

I’m 46, so I still prefer dealing directly with people rather than chatbots or AI agents. We don’t really know what’s going to happen. Things are changing so quickly that by this time next year it could look completely different. It might have imploded or it might have taken over more of our lives than we expect. One thing we are heading towards is people not wanting to spend time on anything.
You can see it with things like YouTube Shorts. It’s instant gratification. People only want to watch five second videos now.

Matt:
TikTokification.

Jamie:
Yeah, exactly. And it’s not a good thing. There’s this constant need for the next hit, the next fix. I think that links to wider issues like attention spans and even mental health.

There’s a bit of that with AI as well. I had a moment recently where I was renewing an agreement. I was sent an eight page document and couldn’t be bothered reading it. I thought about uploading it to ChatGPT and asking it what to change. That was quite a worrying moment.

I did end up reading it, but the instinct was to shortcut it. That’s a concern, because some things require time and thought.

Matt:
When you mentioned earlier about generating lots of ideas, I think that creates another risk.
Some of the best businesses succeed by doing more of what they already do and doing it better.
With AI, there’s a tendency to chase new ideas constantly. That creates a “shiny object” problem. You risk neglecting existing operations in pursuit of something new. Focus becomes divided and you end up going in too many directions.

Jamie:
Yeah, absolutely. There are lots of chatbot and AI tools out there now. We could build a chatbot ourselves in a couple of hours by training it on our data and deploy it across our clients’ websites.

So what happens to companies that only do that? I think we’re entering a stage where anyone can do almost anything, but the ones who do it well will succeed.

Matt:
Exactly. It comes back to doing more of what you do and doing it better. Yes, we could build something quickly, but it won’t necessarily be as good as something that’s been refined over years, although that gap is closing fast. The challenge is deciding where to invest time, especially when there are so many ideas competing for attention. This is a risk across all businesses, not just ours. Attention is becoming more divided, both internally and externally.

Jamie:
We’ve relied on our brains for hundreds and thousands of years. We need to maintain that.
There’s also a wider concern around employment. Fewer people may be needed in businesses.
That could have knock-on effects, especially in industries like property.

If fewer people are earning at the same levels, does that reduce demand for property investment?

Does the market become more concentrated among wealthier individuals?

Matt:
That ties back to cost as well.

As AI becomes more expensive, the businesses with more resources will be able to invest more heavily.
That could widen the gap further.

Jamie:
And it’s not just cost, it’s also knowledge. Some people simply won’t know how to use it effectively.
In real estate, it’s still a people driven industry. If someone is spending a million pounds on a property, they want to speak to a human. AI can support that, but it won’t replace it.

At least not yet.

Matt:
So, how are you using AI in your personal life?

Jamie (continued):
For me, one of the big uses is health. If something feels off, you can input symptoms and get a quick perspective. It can be reassuring.

Obviously it doesn’t replace a doctor, but it can guide you on what to do next.

I also use it for personal finance decisions, parenting advice, and general problem solving. It’s consultative. It gives you another perspective.

Matt:
For me, it’s about context.

I’ve been using Gemini with a paid Google subscription and feeding it scenarios over time. It’s effectively become a leadership coach.

It gives a different perspective and challenges my thinking, which is exactly what you want.

Jamie:
Yeah, but instinct will never be replaced.

You still need human judgement, relationships, and communication. That’s the concern. We risk losing those skills over time.

Matt:
You can already see that in society. People are less inclined to communicate directly.
And that trend will likely continue.

Jamie:
To summarise, we’ve covered quite a lot.

We’ve looked at the business impact, personal use, future concerns, and how AI might change behaviour.
It’s clear there are opportunities, but also risks.

Thanks for the conversation.

Matt:
Thank you.