The new Trends in Artificial Intelligence report from BOND Capital — led by legendary analyst Mary Meeker — is widely viewed as one of the gold-standard analyses of where AI is taking the world.
The report makes one thing very clear: as AI scales across industries, groupthink and output homogenization are rising fast.
AI is:
- scaling faster than any previous technology
- compressing time-to-market
- saturating workflows with "AI-generated" content and decisions
At first glance, this looks like pure efficiency. But the second-order effect is critical: as AI systems generate safe, average, and pattern-based outputs, original human thinking risks getting drowned out.
The BOND report validates this with several key signals:
- "Sameness is the threat." The report explicitly calls out the risk of output homogenization at scale — where AI-generated content converges on the same predictable patterns.
- Flattening of business models. The report shows how AI is commoditizing many functional areas — from marketing to product ideation to customer experience — leading to competitive flattening. In this context, Originality becomes the premium business asset.
- Workforce transformation and cognitive risk. The report highlights how AI is reshaping workforce roles and skills — with an implicit warning: teams that over-rely on AI risk losing critical thinking and creative capacity.
Put simply: AI is making "good enough" cheap and fast — but leaving a gap where human originality and cognitive differentiation should live.
Why Original Intelligence Is Needed Now
In this environment, the ability to expand the idea space — to think beyond what’s already in the training data — becomes the differentiator.
We call this capability Original Intelligence (OI).
OI is the human capacity to generate novel, non-obvious ideas that expand what’s possible in leadership, innovation, and problem-solving.
Yet until now, organizations haven’t systematically measured or managed this:
- We measure productivity.
- We measure engagement.
- We even measure AI readiness.
- But we don’t measure originality — the one thing AI can’t replicate.
That’s why we believe it’s time for Original Intelligence to become a formal leadership and innovation category.
Why Now? Market Validation Is Clear.
The Trends in AI report — one of the most credible and comprehensive AI landscape analyses in the world — validates the urgency:
- AI is flattening the playing field.
- Creativity and originality are being directly linked to growth (see Deloitte and WEF references inside the report).
- Enterprises and governments need to prove and manage human value add — not just automate.
Organizations will soon need to:
- Track originality health and resilience across teams
- Embed originality metrics in leadership and innovation programs
- Ensure cognitive diversity is preserved in an AI-heavy workforce
The Path Forward
We believe that in the next 3–5 years, Original Intelligence metrics will be as common as engagement and productivity scores are today.
That’s why we’re building Hupside — to make Original Intelligence measurable, actionable, and scalable.
Because in an AI-saturated world, Originality is the edge.
Source: BOND Capital, Trends in Artificial Intelligence, May 2025. Report authored by Mary Meeker and team — widely regarded as one of the most authoritative analyses of global AI trends.
