PPPPromise Premise (Four Ps #260)

How to Deliver and Actually Keep the Promises You Make.

May 07, 2025

We make a lot of promises.

To our partners. To colleagues. To strangers in campaign ads and corporate keynotes. To ourselves.

Some are sincere. Some strategic. Some get kept. Some get conveniently memory-holed like your high school AIM screen name.

But here’s the thing about promises... they’re currency. In business. In politics. In health. In life. And right now, we’re all watching a few of those promises come due.

So in this week's Four Ps, we’re checking in on:

The professional promise that AI would make our jobs better, not eliminate them.
The practical shift as AI eats search, one prompt at a time.
The political gaslighting of “this isn’t what I voted for” (Spoiler: it is).
The personal vows we whisper to ourselves in quiet moments… and what happens when we actually honor them.

Because if this year has taught us anything, it’s this:

The loudest promises are rarely the most honest. The smallest ones? Sometimes they save you.

THE PROFESSIONAL: Get Smarter, or Get Replaced.

The Promise: "AI will make your job better, not take it."
The Reality: Yeah, well... about that. That memo must’ve gotten auto-archived.

We were told AI would handle the busywork so we could focus on the fun stuff. That it would “augment” us. Not replace us.

That promise? Starting to feel less like a vision of the future and more like a line from a severance letter.

Microsoft’s new 2025 Work Trend Index paints a crystal-clear picture of where things are headed. And fast.

They surveyed 31,000 employees in 31 countries. Poured over trillions of data signals. And the big takeaway?

“Every employee will need to manage a team of agents.”
– Alexia Cambon, Microsoft

Workers today are overwhelmed:

275 interruptions per day = meetings, pings, emails, rinse, repeat.
58 off-hours messages daily = so much for boundaries.
More time sorting through tasks than actually doing the work.

AI was supposed to help. Instead, it’s reshaping roles entirely.

We're moving into an era where:

Even junior employees will be “agent bosses,” managing swarms of AI assistants like mini middle managers.
The best-performing companies are already delegating entire workflows to AI and LLMs.
North Korea has infiltrated the workforce.
These so-called “frontier firms” are 2X more likely to say they’re thriving.

Meanwhile, for the rest of us? It’s adapt or fade.

And let’s talk social dynamics.

AI isn’t just changing how we work. It’s changing how we relate to each other. According to Quartz, a not-insignificant number of workers are using AI tools to avoid... other people.

17% use AI to avoid being judged by colleagues.
16% use it to sidestep conflict or skip the messiness of collaboration.

So yeah. AI might be solving problems. But it’s also eroding the soft stuff: the relationships, friction, and humanity that made work… work.

So what can you actually do about it?

Level up your AI literacy: If you’re not learning how to prompt, partner, and produce with AI tools, you’re already behind.
Get good at the human stuff: Empathy, storytelling, synthesis, leadership... these aren’t just soft skills. They’re survival skills.
Don’t just use AI. Manage it: Treat your tools like teammates. Train them. Test them. Guide them. That’s your new job.
Redefine collaboration: Make space for real connection. Don’t let tech become a buffer from being human at work.

The promise of AI wasn’t all wrong. But it’s up to us to renegotiate the terms.

Actually, that promise wasn’t just about productivity. It was about partnership. But we’re not getting upgraded... we’re getting outsourced to ourselves.

Because if the future of work is built on agents, the future of leadership will be built on agency.

THE PRACTICAL: Search Being Overtaken by AI.

The Promise: Search would be the backbone of the internet.
The Reality: It's getting AI-jacked in real time.

A few years ago, I made a quiet little prediction:

“AI will change search first and foremost... everything else will happen more slowly.”

Ok, not super bold. and the only one to make it… But now here we are. Search isn’t just changing... it’s being dismantled and reassembled in front of our eyes.

And it’s not Google doing the remodeling.

Last week at Possible in Miami, I joked on multiple occasions with friends at Google and Microsoft that they’re now challenger brands in the search game… behind ChatGPT.

Neither found it particularly funny. (I thought it killed.)

So here’s why they’re sweating:

ChatGPT’s new shopping tools let you prompt your way to personalized product recs — with images, reviews, and direct purchase links.
No blue links. No SEO games. No sponsored clutter.
It’s like a personal shopper, but with infinite patience and no commission pressure.

Just imagine: You don’t Google “best espresso machine under $200” and click through 12 affiliate-laden sites. You ask and receive. A clean list. Verified. Cited. Clickable.

OpenAI is already preparing to monetize this attention shift with "free user monetization” (a.k.a. = ads._ Soon, even your AI-generated espresso picks will come with a sponsored surprise.

So yes, the promise of utility remains… You may use AI in Google or Microsoft applications, but search as we know it is dying. The battleground has shifted from search engine optimization to prompt optimization. And make no mistake:

Google is adapting...
Their “10 blue links” are being replaced with 10 curated responses.
SEO pros are scrambling to feed the algorithm gods in new, unholy ways.
And Microsoft, despite owning Bing and cozying up to OpenAI, is still kind of… Bing-ing it.

This isn’t about ChatGPT vs. Google. It’s about what we trust to guide our decisions.

Once upon a time, that was PageRank. Then it was influencers. Now? It’s the algorithm that sounds the most helpful.

So what you can actually do about it:

Rethink your content strategy: Write for people and prompts. Assume your content will be summarized, not clicked.
Make discovery easier: Use structured data, FAQs, reviews, and bullet points—stuff that makes you indexable by LLMs, not just crawlers.
Play offense: Build your own AI-powered interfaces. Don’t wait for Big Search to serve you traffic on a platter—it’s not coming.
Prepare for AI ads: Because when the sponsored answers start showing up mid-convo, you’ll want to know how to compete—or how to avoid being buried beneath the scroll.

Search isn’t dead. It’s just no longer ours.

So the next time someone says, "Google it,” feel free to whisper back: “I already asked ChatGPT.”

THE POLITICAL: Actually, This IS What You Voted For.

The Promise: “He’ll fix it.”
The Reality: He’s breaking it exactly as promised.

We’re just over 100 days into Trump’s return to power, and already, the damage isn’t subtle—it’s seismic.

Unemployment fears? Worst since COVID.
Prices? Spiking fast, as tariffs boomerang into our wallets.
Global markets? Chaos. Uncertainty. Executive recruiters swarming conferences like vultures at a buffet.

But the most jarring part? None of this is actually surprise.

This isn’t “Trump failing to deliver.” This is Trump doing exactly what he said he would: Raise tariffs. Punish trade partners. Dismantle regulatory systems. Centralize power. Stoke fear. Prioritize the rich. Destroy the economy.

If you're shocked by what's happening, you weren’t listening.

And yet, I keep hearing it:

“This isn’t what I voted for.”

Actually, it is. You just didn’t think the consequences would apply to you.

There are two types of Trump voters now:

The selfish: Usually wealthy. Well-insulated. They heard “lower taxes” and “more power” and thought: Sounds good. I had a recent meeting with one, a business contact openly saying they’d flee the country if Kamala won. Not because of policy. Because their own privilege might face a mild speed bump.
The naive: The ones who believed the pitch. That he'd help them. That he was on their side.

And now they’re getting crushed under the weight of their own vote. - Because cheap goods aren’t cheap anymore. - Because the “economic miracle” is actually a recession in disguise. - Because the system wasn’t designed to support them—it was designed to exploit them.

Meanwhile, middle management is evaporating. Execs and junior staff will survive, but the millennial middle layer... the “glue” in so many orgs... is being quietly squeezed out. Fewer roles. Less support. More churn.

If you feel like you’re being left behind, you are. And the person you voted for is doing the leaving.

So what can you actually do about it?

Stay informed and inform others: Don’t assume everyone sees what you see. Use your voice, especially in rooms where silence used to rule.
Vote again, but smarter this time: Not for “vibes.” Not for revenge. For values.
Support the most vulnerable: Donate. Speak up. Protect the people bearing the brunt of selfish policy dressed up as patriotism.
Be loud in the boardroom: This moment will define company values too. Speak out internally. Ask hard questions. Push leadership to lead.

The optimist in me is clinging to the math: Only 3.5 years left. The pessimist sees something else: Trump 2028 hats are already on sale. And democracy isn’t a renewable resource.

THE PODCAST: Beach Non-Vacation with Stagwell’s Robyn Freye.

THE PERSONAL: Healthy, Happy, Helpful.

The Promise: "Take care of yourself."
The Revision: Take care of all of you.

A year ago, I had a health scare. Fortunately, it turned out to be minor, but enough to shake something loose.

I made a quiet promise to myself. Nothing extreme. No full-body transformation. Just… better habits. Less mindless eating. More movement. A moderation pledge, not a midlife crisis.

I already don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I was already active-ish. But now I’m active with intention. And I’ve been in better shape physically ever since.

Still, sometimes luck (or genetics) wins out.

Last week, I got a call from a professional contact turned friend—someone I actually make time for IRL every few months (a rarity). He shared news of a serious diagnosis. Scary. Real. Life-interrupting.

He’s already begun treatment. He’s on the path, and he’s going to make it. And when he does, we’ll celebrate over overpriced green juices later this summer. (Left hand knocking firmly on wood as I type this.)

But before we hung up, I made a promise. To show up. To sit with him during treatment. (Though let’s be honest—my presence may not help the nausea.)

That conversation reminded me: Some things we can control. Others we can’t. But the promises we make to ourselves sit squarely in the “can” column.

And those? They’re often the easiest to break. But also, when we choose, the easiest to keep. So I’m revising my original promise.

Still eating better. Still staying active.
But now: → Less stress. → More joy. → Less overthinking. → More being.

Spring is here. The allergies are trying to kill me. But once the pollen settles, I plan to be outside. To move more. See friends more. Say yes to the trip. The dinner. The long walk. To protect my energy from things that don’t deserve it. And pour it into people who do.

Because you never know when the call is coming. But in those in-between moments? Let’s promise each other this:

Be good. Do good. Feel good.

Everything else can wait!