I used to think the biggest challenge with AI was understanding what the technology could do.

Now I think the bigger challenge is understanding what we should do with it. This thinking was reinforced during my conversation with Marcus Fontoura on this week’s episode of Thinking With Mitch Joel. Marcus has spent his career operating at the intersection of science, technology and innovation (he’s the CTO of Microsoft’s Azure Core, a Technical Fellow at Microsoft and author of the new book, Human Agency In A Digital World). He’s not an AI evangelist… he’s not an AI doomer. What makes his perspective interesting is that he seems far less concerned with the technology itself and much more concerned with how we choose to engage with it (and, he’s truly at the epicentre of developing these technologies and how they work).

How often do you actually hear from the people working inside the technology that claims to be changing the world?

Most conversations about AI still sound remarkably linear: AI will do this… AI will replace that… AI will transform industries… AI will disrupt work… AI will change society. Notice how AI is always the subject of the sentence… and humans are the object. It makes you wonder what is being acted upon: technology or humans? We expect people to understand the forces that shape their lives. We teach economics because markets affect us. We teach civics because governments affect us. We encourage people to understand finance, health and law because those systems influence our opportunities and outcomes. Technology now sits in that same category. It shapes what we see… how we communicate… what we buy… how we learn… who gets hired… how information spreads… how businesses compete. Still, far too many people still treat technology as something happening to them rather than something they should actively understand.

That feels increasingly risky.

Not because everyone needs to become an engineer. Not because everyone needs to learn how to code. But because the future is rarely shaped by the people who consume a technology. It’s shaped by the people who understand it well enough to influence where it goes. That’s where I think the real divide is happening. Not between humans and machines… but between participation and actively letting it wash over you. Some people are experimenting with AI every day. They’re learning its strengths, discovering its limitations, questioning its outputs and figuring out where it creates value. They’re building intuition. They’re developing judgment. They’re learning where the technology is useful… and where it still falls apart. Way too many other people are waiting to see what happens… or for someone else to explain it to them… or waiting until participation is no longer optional.

The gap between those groups may become far more important than the technology itself.

Now, yes, the tech has to deliver (and there’s plenty of debate on that)… and Marcus believes it will deliver. There are already enormous opportunities (and developments) sitting in front of us… scientific discovery… healthcare…education… energy… materials science. Problems that have resisted progress for decades because they were too complex, too expensive or too slow. In other words, we may be staring at one of the most powerful tools ever created while spending most of our time arguing about whether it will deliver on Wall Street.

As a reminder: The future isn’t a destination… it’s something we build through a series of decisions, incentives, investments and priorities.

I’m a technology optimist who also believes that policy, leadership and culture matter. Most of all, agency matters. Because the future won’t be decided by AI. It will be decided by the people who are curious enough to understand it… and engaged enough to shape where it goes.

Are we taking responsibility for helping shape what that future becomes?

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.