Lenny RachitskyHost of Lenny's Podcast | Author of Lenny's Newsletter

AI won't move as fast as you think

3 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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Lenny Rachitsky argues that while consumer AI like ChatGPT scales fast because it needs no hardware, enterprise adoption will be slow. Replacing legacy systems like SAP takes years, especially in regulated industries like healthcare and aerospace. Jobs will shift, not vanish, just as they have for two centuries.

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Every time we have a new technology, it automates away a bunch of jobs, and then that automation unlocks a bunch of new jobs. This is the process of the last 200 years. So is AI different? There's kind of a couple of answers to this. One theory is, well, this is going to be way quicker than previous technologies because you don't need to wait for everyone to buy a piece of expensive hardware. So of course ChatGPT can get 900 million weekly active users because there's already 900 million people on the internet. So yeah, this is faster, but the internet was faster too. I think the other answer to this is the enterprise sales cycle is shorter than the venture-backed startup funding cycle. It takes you longer to get an enterprise deal than it takes you to go between rounds. And this was always the problem with building, particularly for sectors like aerospace or healthcare or something. So I know people aren't going to tear out SAP and replace it with XYZ. Maybe in 3, 5, 10 years, yes, that whole estate will look radically different and all those jobs will have changed. But it will take 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 years, and it will take time sector by sector, and it will take time for people to work out, oh, you could do that thing with this.