Never Normal: Why Uncertainty Is the Only Constant in the Age of AI

If there is one thing that defines the moment we are living in, it is this: the world is no longer moving from one “normal” to the next. Instead, we are entering a state of permanent transition. That idea sits at the heart of The Uncertainty Principle, the latest book by entrepreneur and keynote speaker Peter Hinssen, and it formed the backbone of our conversation with him on Virtual.

For years, organizations tried to make sense of change by labeling it. First came the “New Normal,” a way to describe how digital technology had embedded itself into everyday life. But that framing no longer works. The real shift, Hinssen argues, is that there is no stable endpoint anymore. AI, cloud, mobile, robotics, geopolitics, and societal change are not happening sequentially. They are stacking on top of each other. The result is what he calls Never Normal.

This permanent state of uncertainty can feel unsettling. Volatility is higher, cycles are shorter, and assumptions expire faster than ever. Yet Hinssen does not see this as a reason for pessimism. On the contrary, he believes uncertainty can be a powerful source of momentum. If leaders learn how to work with it rather than against it.

One of the clearest signals of this new reality is the pace at which artificial intelligence is being adopted. According to Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, AI is evolving ten times faster than the Industrial Revolution. That statement might sound dramatic, but the numbers back it up. Tools like ChatGPT reached roughly 800 million weekly users in just three years. That’s a level of adoption no previous general-purpose technology has achieved in such a short time.

This speed fundamentally breaks many of the management models organizations still rely on. Annual budgets, long-term roadmaps, and detailed forecasts assume a relatively stable environment. In a world where technologies, markets, and power dynamics can shift within months, those tools quickly become outdated. As Hinssen puts it bluntly, many budgets are little more than “fake news in Excel” by the time spring arrives.

The problem is not that organizations should stop thinking about the future. The problem is that they are trying to predict a single future in a world that produces many plausible ones. Instead of forecasting, Hinssen argues for scenario thinking: a discipline that focuses on understanding signals, patterns, and uncertainties rather than fixed outcomes. The key insight is a paradox: the longer leaders wait for certainty, the fewer strategic options they have left. Acting earlier, even with imperfect information, preserves flexibility.

AI perfectly illustrates both the promise and the pitfalls of this moment. While expectations are sky-high, reality is more nuanced. Recent research suggests that a large majority of companies experimenting with generative AI see little to no immediate productivity gains. This gap between hype and impact is not a failure of the technology itself, but of how it is being deployed. AI is not magic. Like any IT system, its value depends on data quality, processes, skills, and organizational readiness. Without those foundations, AI simply amplifies existing inefficiencies.

This mismatch is why Hinssen believes “disappointment” may become a defining word for the near future. Not because AI will disappoint in the long run, but because many organizations underestimate the work required to integrate it meaningfully. Buying licenses is easy; transforming how work gets done is not.

Beyond individual companies, the conversation also highlights a growing geopolitical imbalance. AI power is increasingly concentrated in a small number of players, primarily in the United States, with China investing aggressively to close the gap. Europe, despite its deep pool of talent, risks falling behind due to fragmentation, slower decision-making, and a lack of large-scale investment. The danger is not irrelevance, but dependence—becoming a consumer of technologies shaped elsewhere rather than an active participant in defining them.

Yet even here, Hinssen resists fatalism. He remains an optimist, but not a naïve one. His optimism is grounded in agency: the belief that choices still matter. Organizations and leaders who accept that uncertainty is permanent can redesign how they operate. That means investing time not only in execution, but in exploration. It means cultivating curiosity, adaptability, and learning as core capabilities rather than side activities.

In a Never Normal world, success no longer belongs to those who plan best for a single future. It belongs to those who are prepared to adjust continuously. Uncertainty is not a phase to get through, it is the environment itself. And once that reality is accepted, it can become not a source of fear, but a competitive advantage.