“Travel agencies are dead” — everyone, 2004. They set an all-time revenue record. In 2024.
“AI will replace everyone” — everyone, 2025.
Bold Predictions
The obvious prediction is often wildly wrong. Technology rarely kills whole industries. It kills the average and sends their customers to the best.
We’ve seen this pattern before. The consensus says an industry is doomed. Then it adapts, evolves, and sometimes hits record numbers.
What Actually Happens
Here’s the thing. The mediocre players get wiped out. But the exceptional ones? They absorb all that displaced demand. The pie doesn’t disappear. It just gets redistributed to whoever’s actually good at what they do.
The Takeaway
Don’t bet against entire industries just because new technology shows up. Bet against the average performers who can’t adapt.
The pattern repeats itself. Travel agencies were “dead” in 2004 and just posted record revenue twenty years later. AI won’t replace everyone. It’ll replace the people who refuse to get better.
Be the exception, not the average.