Dear friends,
This week, I found myself reflecting on a quiet but significant shift in conversational technology — a shift led by a small company called Hero, founded by former Meta AI engineers. Their new approach made me rethink not what AI can do, but how it may soon change how we think.
Instead of asking more questions or trying to “chat better,” Hero introduced something called AI Autocomplete — a predictive interface that pre-structures your next steps before you even articulate them.
If you type “book a flight,” you no longer wait through ten back-and-forths.
Everything appears instantly:
- dates
- times
- location
- baggage
- seat preference
It’s clean, efficient and friction-free.
And yet… there is something about this shift that made me pause.
When Chat Starts Predicting Instead of Asking
This new predictive style — sometimes called AI Autocomplete — removes the guessing game.
No more:
“Where are you flying?”
“When?”
“Morning or afternoon?”
It is genuinely helpful.
But it also changes something deeper:
how we form our thoughts.
When the system structures the choices for us,
we tend to limit our thinking to what is presented.
We stop shaping the question ourselves.
Over time, this can shift us from being active thinkers
to passive approvers.
That idea stayed with me this week.
The Hidden Cost of Convenience
Prediction is not the problem.
But relying on predictions without awareness can be.
When processes become too structured:
- people follow the steps (e.g. SOP)
- complete each step correctly
- execute the task perfectly
…but still struggle when something falls outside the template.
Not because they cannot do it
—but because the structure became their ceiling.
Predictive chat interfaces might have the same effect:
they make everything smoother, but can quietly shrink the space where our thinking normally expands.
The Bias We Don’t See
Here’s something even more subtle:
Predictive interfaces may soon include sponsored suggestions, just like Google Ads — but now embedded inside the list of “smart” AI options.
The risk?
We think the AI is being intelligent.
But sometimes it is being commercial.
And when the suggestion looks like logic instead of advertising,
it becomes harder to question.
This reminded me to always ask:
“Why am I seeing this first?”
A tiny pause, but an important one.
How Do We Stay Thoughtful in a Predictive World?
Here are a few practices I’m experimenting with:
1. Before accepting a suggestion, pause and ask:
- What assumption is this built on?
- What’s missing?
- Is there another way to see this?
2. Treat predictive chat like a junior colleague
Let it organise the options.
But you provide the judgement.
3. Don’t let prediction narrow your imagination
Ask intentionally:
“Show me three alternative ways to frame this.”
It keeps your thinking alive.
4. Convenience is wonderful — but thinking is still ours
The easier things become,
the more consciously we must stay engaged.
A Thought I’m Bringing Into Next Week
I genuinely love technology that saves time.
But I love clarity, curiosity and perspective even more.
Predictive chat will make our lives easier.
But it is up to us to keep our minds awake.
AI can autocomplete tasks —
but only humans can autocomplete meaning.
Until next time —
Lydia
Key Takeaways — “Predictions, Not Prompts”
1) Chat interfaces are shifting from responding to predicting.
2) Prediction saves time — but can quietly influence how we think.
3) Before accepting suggestions, ask what assumptions they’re built on.
4) Use AI like a junior partner: helpful, fast, but not the decision-maker.
5) The human advantage isn’t speed — it’s perspective, curiosity, and imagination.
Let AI reduce the noise — but keep the thinking yours.
P.S. If this letter found you at just the right moment, I’d love to hear about it. Join my weekly letter list and let’s figure it out together — one AI-shaped step at a time. Join the weekly letter list.
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