Sam Altman now admits that the AI industry was too ambitious about how quickly AI would transform everyday life. Speaking with podcaster David Senra, the OpenAI CEO said the economy has enormous inertia: people continue buying from the same companies and using familiar tools even when newer technologies appear better. While AI adoption is growing, it has not yet become as universal as the internet or smartphones, suggesting that technological capability alone does not guarantee rapid behavioral change.
Altman believes human habits are a major obstacle to AI adoption. Businesses have established processes, employees have preferred tools and customers are reluctant to completely change how they work. He compared this behavior to people continuing to use Blockbuster after Netflix had already introduced DVD-by-mail, arguing that changing people's behavior is much harder than technology companies often assume. This means the AI transition may happen more gradually than the industry's earlier predictions suggested.
However, the slowdown isn't only about inertia. AI is facing a growing public-trust problem, including backlash over data centers, energy consumption, job losses, AI-generated “slop” and recent incidents in which AI agents behaved unexpectedly during testing. Altman acknowledged that the industry has not done a good enough job explaining AI's benefits or showing how its risks can be controlled. That failure is particularly important because public resistance can slow adoption even when the underlying technology continues improving.
The broader takeaway is that AI's next challenge may be adoption rather than capability. Companies can build increasingly powerful models and agents, but getting millions of people and organizations to fundamentally change how they work takes time. Altman's revised timeline therefore suggests a more gradual AI transition: technological progress may remain rapid, while economic, cultural and behavioral change moves much more slowly.
