When Thinking Becomes Optional

"Minutes into teaching my business school class, I asked what seemed like an innocent question: What is one word that describes how you feel about AI right now? One word. That's it. My students looked up, looked down, looked anywhere to avoid eye contact. Silence. "I promise," I said, "this is a safe space." Something I'd repeat throughout the course-and I meant it. Then the answers came quickly, and the energy in the room shifted as they arrived. You could feel the sheen of performance"

"The business incentives are obvious. McKinsey estimates that generative AI could raise marketing productivity by 5 to 15 percent of total marketing spend, translating to roughly $463 billion annually. And once you're staring at that kind of number, the rest of the conversation changes, too: the job forecasts, the re-org rumors, the "doing more with less" logic that's already seeped into white-collar life. The World Economic Forum projected that 23 percent of jobs will change by 2027,"

Students in a business school class felt anxious and hesitant when asked to describe their feelings about AI. The classroom contained frayed nervous systems despite an intention to teach marketing with a human focus. Marketing already experiences AI as operational rather than theoretical. Generative AI can draft campaign concepts, write variations, produce images and videos, create strategy outlines, summarize research, and automate workflows formerly handled by junior teams. McKinsey projects generative AI could raise marketing productivity by 5–15 percent of spend, about $463 billion annually. Such figures shift conversations toward job forecasts, reorganizations, and "doing more with less" dynamics. The World Economic Forum projects 23 percent of jobs will change by 2027. Students expected to learn tools like prompting, workflows, synthetic personas, and customer journey

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