In this episode, Brian and Andrew sit down with Mike Courtney, founder and principal of Aperio Insights and a practicing futurist. Mike brings a rare perspective to the Signal and Noise table, equal parts market researcher and strategic foresight practitioner.

Mike kicks things off with his "Land Man oil analogy," framing AI not as something happening to us but as a new drilling tool for human knowledge and intelligence. Just as early oil pioneers could not have imagined the thousands of uses petroleum would eventually unlock, we are likely only scratching the surface of what AI makes possible.

From there, the conversation goes deep on what futurists actually do, why exponential growth is so hard for humans to comprehend, and what the five to ten-year picture actually looks like.

Key Takeaways:

• Why the right frame for AI is not what it will do to us, but what we will be able to do with it

• How futurists think about possibility and change management rather than prediction

• The barbell effect coming for knowledge workers and why AI fluency is not optional

• Why lowering the floor does not automatically raise the ceiling

• What will be genuinely scarce and therefore valuable in an AI-abundant world

• Why the Michelangelo of market research will be the person who asks the right question, not the one who executes the fastest

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