It's Monday at 8:30 am, and Anna opens her work laptop. She received 55 emails over the weekend but won't see any of them. Her email software automatically accepts calendar invites from her coworkers, proposes new times for conflicting meetings, and removes spam. The emails that need follow-up from her get converted into short summaries in her messaging app, and she responds to each with one click. 

She joins her morning meeting, where her teammates greet her and discuss a new productivity app they want to build. One of her teammates, Kai, doesn’t speak English, but his computer translates his voice into English as he’s talking, so they communicate seamlessly. At the end of the meeting, Anna’s computer transcribes the meeting notes, lists the features they want to include in their new productivity app, and automatically opens all the files and applications that Anna will need to build the new app.  

Anna's code editor reads the list of app features and starts building the new app for her line by line. She watches as it tries to execute the code, gets errors, and fixes itself until it runs smoothly. Then, her computer opens the new app and tells her it's ready for review. She explores the app, feature by feature, clicks a microphone icon, and says, "Make the background slightly lighter to improve contrast." Her code editor lightens the app's background color while keeping it consistent with the existing color palette. She accepts the changes, and her code editor automatically documents the new app: it writes a complete user guide and comprehensive technical documentation explaining how the code is architected. It creates a video tutorial that teaches beginners how to use the app. Within seconds, the app documentation is published to the company's internal wiki, the video tutorial is uploaded to the company's training platform, the app codebase is pushed to the company's code repository, and the app is deployed to the cloud for her coworkers to start using. 

While she eats lunch, Anna listens to an audio narration of what the other teams in her company are currently working on. The narration is automatically generated daily from transcripts of internal team meetings so that everyone in the company can stay up to speed, even when they don’t have time to talk. Her computer tells her that she hasn't moved much today, so she takes a quick walk around the block while listening. On her walk, Anna remembers requesting time off for her upcoming vacation. She opens her messaging app and says, "Submit PTO request for September 1-6". Then she asks, "How much PTO do I have left?" The app tells her that she has five days of PTO remaining in the year. 

Back at her desk, Anna joins a meeting with one of her clients. When the client asks about the status of a specific report, Anna's computer automatically opens the report and scrolls to the section of interest, so that Anna can quickly answer the client's question. The client mentions that one of their colleagues might also be interested in procuring services from Anna’s company. Anna’s computer identifies this lead in the meeting transcripts, performs a web search to learn more about the prospect, creates a custom pitch for the prospect based on their business and Anna’s expertise, builds a pitch deck with talking points, and emails it to the prospect with a customized email note. When the meeting is over, Anna's computer opens her customer relationship management system and logs the meeting notes, action items, and next steps based on transcriptions from the meeting, including the planned meeting with her new prospect. 

At 4 pm, Anna closes her laptop and gets in her car to pick up her kids from summer camp. On the drive, she listens to an audio narration of her team’s progress during the day, the upcoming events she has scheduled for tomorrow, and a congratulations on her new prospect. One of her teammates heard about the new prospect from his auto-generated daily report and offered to help her close the deal because he has a good reputation with this prospect. She smiles, feeling supported by her team, and knows she’s ready for tomorrow. 

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This story probably sounds futuristic. But why? The technology it describes is already here. You probably use bits and pieces of it. Like software that automatically transcribes notes from your virtual meetings or tools that suggest which words to use while you’re drafting emails. So why hasn’t your organization tied all the pieces together and truly modernized itself? 

Maybe you’re waiting for someone else to do it for you, like Microsoft or Google. But what they offer you is a one-size-fits-all product that only partially fits your organization’s needs. Every organization that buys Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini gets the same solution, including your competitors. 

Maybe you have other priorities, and you’re procrastinating. But efficiency gains compound. A day without modernization speedups now compounds into a week by the end of the quarter and a month by the end of the year. As technological development accelerates, inaction goes from being undesirable to unacceptable. 

Maybe you don’t have the right expertise. But there are companies out there that can help. If you don’t take advantage of them, your competitors will.  

The futuristic story about Anna’s company is happening right now. Even if technology stops progressing today, nothing is preventing us from building the next generation of tools and services that feel truly transformative. The technology is here. Now it’s up to us to use it.