Connections IRL: The Questions People Actually Ask About AI
Connections IRL is the part of our work that does not look like work. It is the conversations we have in person — at events, over coffee, in the parking lot after a meeting — with people who are not clients and may never be.
We started paying closer attention to those conversations because of a pattern. The questions people ask in a room are not the questions they ask on a form. They are more specific, more honest, and usually more useful.
The questions we hear most
These come up again and again, across industries and job titles:
"Is this going to take my job?" Usually asked quietly, and often by someone who is very good at their job.
"Where would I even start?" From owners who have read enough to feel behind and not enough to feel confident.
"How do I know if it is telling me the truth?" Almost always from people who have already been burned by a confident wrong answer.
"Is it safe to put our information in there?" Rarely asked before the information has already gone in.
"My team is not going to use this." Not a question, but often the most honest thing anyone says all evening.
"What should I tell my kid to study?" Asked by parents who are not thinking about their business at all.
Why a room beats a survey
A survey gets you the answer someone is willing to put in writing. A conversation gets you the pause before the answer, the example they did not plan to share, and the follow-up question that reveals what they were really asking.
It also gets you the thing no form asks for: context. "We tried that" means something very different once you learn it was tried by two people over a weekend with no budget.
What we do with what we hear
We write about it. If several people in a month ask the same question, it becomes an article. That is how most of what you read in Insights gets chosen.
We change how we explain things. If a term keeps needing translation, we stop using it.
We adjust what we recommend. Advice that ignores what people are actually worried about does not get followed, however correct it is.
This is not a lead-generation tactic
It would be easy to describe Connections IRL as networking with a nicer name. It is not. Most of these conversations go nowhere commercially, and that is fine. They make us better at the part of the job that matters most, which is understanding a situation before recommending anything. That is the first step in the ETS Path and the reason our promise starts with people rather than technology.
If you have a question
The questions above are not rare or naive. They are the right questions, and most people are asking them privately because the public conversation about AI leaves very little room for uncertainty.
If you have one, we would rather hear it than not. It might turn into the next article.
Not sure where AI or technology could help your business?
Tell us what is taking too much time, what is not working, or what you would like to improve.
