Good morning.
There is an old story about a king who wanted to reward the inventor of chess. The inventor asked only for rice: one grain on the first square of the board, two on the second, four on the third, doubling each time. The king laughed at such a modest request. By the middle of the board his granaries were empty. By the last square, all the rice in the world would not have been enough.
That is the nature of exponential change. For a long time it looks small, almost harmless. Then, suddenly, it is everywhere.
With artificial intelligence, we have just entered the second half of the chessboard.
A few years ago, AI was a curiosity for researchers. Today it writes, translates, designs, codes, analyses contracts, produces videos, answers customers and speaks with a human voice. Every few months the tools become more capable, cheaper and easier to use. The change is no longer coming. It is already sitting next to us, every morning, on our phones and laptops.
The numbers don't lie
This is not a feeling. The world's most respected institutions are measuring it.
- The International Monetary Fund estimates that AI will affect almost 40% of jobs worldwide, and about 60% in advanced economies, where most of us in Europe live and work.
- The World Economic Forum, in its Future of Jobs Report 2025, expects 170 million new jobs to be created this decade and 92 million to disappear. That is a net gain of 78 million, but it means a huge reshuffle of who does what. By 2030, 39% of the key skills workers need today are expected to change.
- Stanford University's AI Index 2025 reports that 78% of organisations used AI in 2024, up from 55% only a year before. Over the same period, the cost of using a GPT-3.5-level model fell more than 280 times in about two years.
- Eurostat reports that 20% of EU enterprises used AI in 2025, up from 13.5% the year before: a jump of almost 50% in twelve months.
Read these numbers again slowly. The technology is becoming more powerful and cheaper at the same time. When that happens, history teaches us one thing: it spreads everywhere, into every sector and every job.
"I'm scared" and "My job is safe" are not plans
When I talk about this with friends, clients, and entrepreneurs, I hear two answers again and again.
The first is: "I'm scared." And then the conversation ends, as if closing our eyes could stop the wave.
The second is: "My job is safe." Maybe. But the people who said that about typesetting, travel agencies, photo labs, and switchboards said it with the same confidence.
Neither answer is a strategy. Fear paralyses. Denial delays. Both leave us unprepared for a future that will arrive anyway.
I have lived through this kind of change before, more than once. I started working in communication in Italy in 1984, when a campaign was made with typewriters, scissors, glue, and photographic film in a darkroom. Then came the fax, the personal computer, the internet, mobile phones, social media. Each wave destroyed some jobs and created many more, but only for those who chose to move.
I moved to Budapest in 2000, and I learned what it means to start again in a new country, with a new language and a new market. I built Eventonetwork, a European network of events, and the Budapest Business Party, where I have met hundreds of entrepreneurs who reinvented themselves. Today, as Chief AI & Innovation Officer at ITL Group, I work every day on bringing AI into real businesses, real processes and real decisions.
And I can tell you this honestly: none of the previous waves was as fast, as wide or as deep as this one.
The other side of the chessboard
Here is the part that the frightening headlines forget.
The same exponential force that puts jobs at risk has also put into our hands something no generation before us ever had. Today one person, with a laptop and the right AI tools, can have a strategist, a researcher, a copywriter, a designer, a video producer, a web developer and an assistant working beside them, day and night.
What once needed a company, capital, and employees now needs three things: a talent, a passion, and the courage to start.
This is the age of the solopreneur: people who build their own business as a team of one, on their own terms, with AI as their team. It is not about leaving your job tomorrow. It is about not depending on only one door. It is about having a Plan B.
So this morning, I invite you to take five minutes, a cup of coffee, and three honest questions:
- What do I do so well that people already ask me for help? That is your talent.
- What would I do even if nobody paid me? That is your passion.
- Who would be better off if I offered it to them? That is your market.
Where those three answers meet, your Plan B is waiting. AI won't find it for you. But once you find it, AI can help you build it faster than ever before.
The future will not ask our permission. The only real choice we have is whether we let it happen to us, or make it happen for us.
Let's build it together
Many of you have written to me in recent months with the same question: "Where do I start?"
That is why I have planned a practical seminar for those who want to learn, try and interact on this topic, not just read about it.
Your Plan B: Realize Yourself in the AI Era. Turn your talents and passion into your own business.
In one day, we will work on your idea: defining your product or service, studying your market and competitors, building a strategy, promoting it, getting paid, and measuring and improving the results. AI will be our team throughout the day: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, ElevenLabs, HeyGen, WordPress with Elementor, Stripe, and MailerLite.
- When: Saturday, 28 November 2026, 09:30–16:30
- Where: ITL Group, 1068 Budapest, Dózsa György út 84, Building B
- Language: English
- Seats: only 15, so everyone gets personal attention
Book your seat here: https://cooltix.hu/event/6ad61e453fc4f3d5d578cad0
The second half of the chessboard has begun. Let's not watch it from the sidelines.
Have a beautiful morning,
Luigino
Sources
- International Monetary Fund, AI will affect almost 40% of jobs worldwide (January 2024): report on the IMF analysis
- World Economic Forum: Future of Jobs Report 2025
- Stanford HAI: AI Index Report 2025
- Eurostat, use of AI in EU enterprises 2025: summary of the Eurostat data
First published in my newsletter Morning thoughts on LinkedIn.
IO – How to Win at the Game of Life is the map behind these reflections.