Living through what feels like an AI Renaissance

My Human Perspective.

Hello Guys,

As I write to you, it is a Saturday, and I am sitting on the bed with my two beautiful boxer dogs as the wind blows a cool breeze through the room.

I am feeling incredibly thankful right now, as I get to fully experience life, through all of my biological senses.

From the coolness of the air, as it lands on my skin, to the smell of the gorgeous sandalwood incense wafting through.

This is in part, what it truly means & feels to be a human being.

To be privileged to experience life on this level, with such a mortal awareness, and in a one-of-a-kind way, that no other living creature can.

Even our AI’s cannot, as it may drive our cars, though it does not actually know it is driving the car, since it lacks human consciousness.

Before we get into my thoughts around this, let’s remember to take this gorgeous moment just for us.

Only if you want to, let’s sigh out a human breath of “Aaaaaah” together, and drop our mortal shoulders, as we exhale everything that needs our attention right now.

Just for the next few minutes, let’s hang out and see through my eyes how an AI Renaissance could quite definitely be taking place.

The AI Renaissance: Rebirth in Real Time

Following my last piece in Feb: I wanted to discuss how I feel that AI is renewing my sense of the renaissance period, a time we all know was of great significant cultural, artistic, scientific, and philosophical transformation.

A time that first took place 250 years ago, and even though I was not there, I honestly, feel it is happening again now on earth.

Like the original renaissance, we too now go through a time of manual transformation as we agentically head towards all things automation.

So, what is My understanding of a Renaissance?

With the help of Perplexity, an AI Search tool, that allows you to search for information online in a conversational way rather than just keywords, I came across this definition:

“There was a renewed interest in humanism, which emphasized human potential and achievements in education, arts, literature, and science.”

That is exactly what I feel is happening now.

As one human collective, we are experiencing this re-birth together.

Now that machines possess what is perceived as human intelligence, thinking, and reasoning, it begs a question, that I have not stopped asking myself since ChatGPT exploded into our lives three years ago:

“What does it mean to be a Homo sapien?”

Without leaning too much into obsolescence here, it’s worth spending a few moments pondering.

As we enter a time where Agentic AI makes headlines daily, this is not a time to compete with machines but to consider how we can augment our humanity as we co-create this new world.

More on that in another letter.

I just wanted you to think about that for a wee bit :)

AI First Mindset: It Begins With Willingness

I first heard this phrase from Allie K. Miller, though I had already sensed this, as personally this time of GenAI, is more psychological than it is technical.

I am telling you this story, as it’s crazy to note that I’ve come full circle here.

Once upon a time, I was what they called a “Luddite.”

Yes, it’s true, I used to get my knickers in a knot when Outlook changed its interface. 🫨

So how did I go from an Amish-style resistance (just for the record, I love how the Amish live) to where I am today?

I started with being willing to be curious, and so I followed that gut instinct.

Curiosity & Choice: The Turning Point

The more I resisted, the louder the question became: “But why, Nix?”

Why does this trigger you so much?

I kept asking myself this until it annoyed me so much, that I began doing the hard work, furiously researching and experimenting with AI tools.

I started with a bias, and I mention this because it highlights why AI has bias too.

After all, humans coded those biases into it, just as we bring our own perspectives into everything we create.

What I am trying to say is that I was looking for reasons not to adopt AI.

Months and months later, Paradoxically, I began to see how it could support my work and help me manage my endless to-do list.

How it could free up 45 minutes for me, by handling tasks that felt mindless & bored me to tears.

That’s when I realized I had been asleep to parts of my work that no longer stimulated me.

I also realized that I had not invested in continuous learning at work for over a decade.

Yes, you heard me.

Instead, I had spent that time reading sacred scriptures, from the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita to Buddhism.( no regerts here, just telling my story)

My focus had been on healing and being human and graduating from Yogic school at the Wellness Connection :)

If I had been employed, I would have been fired for clock-watching and prioritizing my personal life before work. 🙄

As my true passions for teaching hiring and wellness workshops kept me day dreaming at my desk.

Well, guess what?

Thanks to GenAI, that’s exactly what I am doing now.

Facing Fear and Rising Above It (FEAR re-defined)

I did not have an AI-first mindset to begin with, and that’s when I realized I might be afraid.

If I could no longer earn a living in Tech Sourcing, Hiring, or Recruitment, what could I get paid to do?

In a weird way being afraid is the best place to start.

So that’s what I did, I made a start.

Software Literacy: Bridging the 10 year Gap

Another truth holding me back was that I wasn’t digitally literate.

Yes, I worked with MS Suite, search engines, and CRMs, but when the SaaS explosion hit, I never really played with any of these tools.

So, experimenting with AI tools was a HUGE psychological learning curve for me.

I still made the choice: “Let’s at least try!”

That way, I can see what all the fuss is about! 👀

The Power of Interactive playful Learning

My first real introduction was an AI-intensive Bootcamp with Learn AI.

My teacher, Brad, was thorough.

He showed us what was under the hood of AI and explained how it was trained.

We were given real-life, practical uses of GenAI.

As I experimented with different AI tools, I became way more willing and a little more at ease.

Using Excalidraw (see image below), I’ve tried to visually represent the past three years:

Link to check it out (optional)

The AI Renaissance: Why Now?

Back then, manual work was transitioning to automation.

Fast forward to 2025 and we see the same thing now taking place.

We are indeed in real time, witnessing another gigantic shift.

We're transitioning from one-way search (Google) to conversational, iterative discovery (examples of AI search engines include: Perplexity, Exa AI).

Even AI itself is maturing from static to dynamic, as it becomes more agentic, integrating with tools, and acting on our behalf at work, autonomously.

The way we learn as humans today reflects what our ancestors experienced when they moved from oral storytelling to the written word.

That’s why AI and data literacy are such big topics right now.

When you use an AI search engine, you go back and forth, iterating, refining, and personalizing your queries.

You start to intensify your questions, as you engage your critical thinking & analytical skills

One inquiry leads to another.

And that is why I encourage you to explore, as you are learning in real time, and that is very cool.

Knowledge retrieval is changing, and we must learn how to responsibly find accurate, and fair info online.

If this interest you, I recommend Becki Saltzman’s course on Linkedin.

My Dare to You

Be scared if you must, but go ahead and do it anyway.

Try just one AI tool.

Watch one YouTube Video (This one by Andrej Karpathy ( How he uses LLM’'s) is incredible

Start with fun AI’s that can create music, like Suno.ai or orchestrate your own opera as you learn what machine learning looks like, with Google’s Blob Opera.

Play.

It’s how we teach our kids.

Go easy on yourself.

Be Kind when you do something that feels silly.

As like a child, you will stumble.

This is all so new.

I’d love to hear how you get on.

I could continue, but that’s more than enough for today.

Until next time, stay wonderfully alive and human.

Blessings always,
Nix G
Cape Town

P.S. This September 2025, we are hosting a Yogic Wellbeing Retreat in the stunning Cederberg, a delicious weekend of movement, meditation, real conversations, and nourishing food.

Pop your name down for updates: retreatwithus.co.za