Being Smart Isn't Enough, You Need to Be Conscious: Beyond the Noise: An Artificial Intelligence Guide for Entrepreneurs
- Halil İbrahim Ordulu
- Oct 26
- 12 min read
Introduction: The Entrepreneur Amidst the Noise - A Guide to Artificial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs
Millions of articles are being produced, and will continue to be, about what Artificial Intelligence is and what it could be. This demonstrates the breadth and power of the topic, and it has become a phenomenon that is fundamentally changing not only digital markets but also media and content production. It's only natural that it's being discussed so much.
But there's a side effect to all this content: noise.
This concept is constantly confronting us as a negative impact of the information flow accelerated by social media and the internet. In the past, accessing information was more challenging but also simpler; now, online, you can access a virtually limitless range of information, from "My washing machine is broken. How can I fix it?" to "There's an algorithmic error in the backend of my digital product." The sheer volume of research on artificial intelligence makes it a field with a high noise level.
Amidst this noise, one-sided, unobjective perspectives are rapidly spreading. On one side, there are those who see artificial intelligence as a "god," and on the other, those who paint a doomsday scenario that will bring everything crashing down on us.
As an entrepreneur or someone building their career, you're standing amidst this noise. As humans, we tend to take intellectual shortcuts. Objectively examining a topic, researching it, and determining a strategic direction is a challenging task. That's why we quickly choose a side and move on.
Until we encounter a situation that shatters our thoughts about that side.
Perhaps you've always been skeptical of AI, but one day you used an AI service in a routine task and said, "This actually helps a lot." Or perhaps you're an AI enthusiast and presented a document you created with AI to a client. The response you received was, "This isn't focused on my problems. I realized it was created with AI, and I didn't like it at all."
While you praise artificial intelligence so much, receiving such a comment from your customer... It sounds awful, doesn't it? It subtly conveys the message, "You haven't been interested in this business at all, you haven't bothered."
We're talking about a structure that embodies both good and bad. This phenomenon, also known as the "oxymoron effect," is also present in artificial intelligence. It's effective when understood and used strategically, but when used imitatively and without understanding, it becomes a nuisance.
This is where the objective position begins.
Knowing that artificial intelligence, like other significant developments, is a human product; accepting that it is a breakthrough as significant as the invention of the printing press and that it brings great opportunities; but also being aware that it has algorithmic biases, does not fully incorporate ethical and empathic approaches, and does not "think" itself, but rather "imitates thinking"... It is this dualist perspective that will put us in the right position to understand and process artificial intelligence.
In this article, we will break away from the noise and discuss how an entrepreneur should perceive AI, digital opportunities and strategic thinking with statistics and facts.
"We've Heard This Before." (Why Is It Different This Time?)
It's important to understand the skeptics. The history of AI is marked by grand promises followed by harsh disappointments. There were periods of stagnant investment and waning interest, dubbed "AI Winters" by the industry. The 1980s perception of "expert systems" collapsed when it became clear that these systems were fragile, expensive, and unscalable.
So what makes today's storm different? Why does this "development" seem permanent?
The answer lies in the perfect simultaneous combination of three forces:
1. Data (Big Data): The rise of the internet has provided the unimaginable amount of data (“Big Data”) needed to train algorithms.
2. Computing Power: The exponential increase in processing power (especially GPUs), explained by Moore's Law, has given us the "muscle power" to process this massive data.
3. The Transformer: And in 2017, a paper from Google changed everything: the "Transformer" architecture. This revolutionized how AI understands and produces language, and ushered in today's Generative AI boom.
That's the difference: Before, we had narrow, rule-based "expert systems" that only did specific tasks. Now, we have versatile and (most importantly) accessible technology that can _generate_ text, code, images, and strategies.
Entrepreneur's Compass: The "Barbell Effect" and Real Opportunities
How should you, as an entrepreneur, navigate this new landscape? Reports indicate a dual structure emerging in the market, dubbed the "barbell effect."
One End of the Barbell (Strength Concentration):
Developing the most complex "foundational models" requires massive amounts of data, processing power, and an elite talent pool. This risks concentrating power and capital in the hands of a handful of tech giants (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, etc.). Among these giants, a global "talent war" is unfolding for top-tier AI engineers, whose resources are already shallow.
The Other End of the Barbell (Democratization):
At the same time, AI is "democratizing" complex tools that were previously the preserve of large corporations. With cloud-based AI services (APIs), even a single entrepreneur or small team can gain advanced analytics, automation, and content creation capabilities.
Where Is the Real Opportunity Hidden?
The real opportunity for an entrepreneur isn't usually at the first end of the barbell (developing a multi-billion dollar basic model). The real opportunity is at the second end:
>Taking these strong foundational models and “applying” them to a specific industry or niche problem.
But the story doesn't end there. The real opportunity lies in the "human guidance" and touch you'll add when implementing this app.
Why? Because we are facing a new and very serious problem: Algorithmic Monotony.
We're entering an era where more than half of the internet is created by AI content. In content creation, users will inevitably prefer to consume articles and content that embody "human" qualities, a soul, a perspective. Because the products we sell, the stories we tell, and the services we offer—all exist, ultimately, to solve a human problem.
Of course, artificial intelligence can become very good at imitating humans. However, differentiation will still crave that "human touch."
Consider current products, services, and content: Many are "augmented" with artificial intelligence. These AIs, used from training to production, are ultimately algorithms. And we're already seeing these algorithmic outputs produce extremely similar results.
Because every service provider is trying to deliver the "best" outcome. When everyone is looking for the same "best" solution, algorithms inevitably produce similar outputs: similar content, similar code structures, similar business strategies.
As an entrepreneur, you're still responsible for solving a problem. But what's the difference when the AI tool you're using offers a solution that's very similar to the one your competitors are using?
Answer: Strategic Human Intervention.
Given that most products and services in the world are already similar, we can't expect an AI trained on these similarities to produce radical differences, can we? That's where the real opportunity lies: viewing AI not as an "outcome producer," but as an "instrument" guided by your expertise.
This means that we absolutely must equip ourselves as entrepreneurs. This equipment:
- Not only can you write a good prompt,
- Being able to direct artificial intelligence with your own unique approach,
- Capturing cultural nuances, emotional gaps and market dynamics that artificial intelligence cannot capture ,
- And being able to take the output of AI as a "raw material" in the subjects you are knowledgeable about and increase it as a developer.
What will make the difference is not the intelligence of the AI, but your awareness of directing that intelligence.
The Power of Awareness: Knowledge and Its Use
Knowledge and understanding remain paramount. Using AI on a topic where you have limited or limited knowledge will only leave you superficial. For example, if you have no design knowledge, using AI for digital design will only complicate matters or leave you with a common, universally accepted design approach.
This applies to all other topics as well. When asking AI what your own illness is, we need to demonstrate the civility to say, "I'm not qualified to evaluate this, so I need to be careful here."
Artificial intelligence is powerful when combined with knowledge ; when combined with ignorance , it only makes you "pretend to be informed."
My biggest advice here is **use it wisely**. Before pursuing anything in a related field, spend a few minutes learning about it so you can develop your filtering and evaluation skills. Using knowledge is still crucial and will continue to gain traction. This is my most sincere warning about what not to do.
The Rules of Economics Are Being Rewritten: The "Lean Unicorn"
The most disruptive impact of AI is that it breaks the rules of business scaling. The traditional rule was: Growth = More capital + More headcount.
AI has severed this bond.
We are now introduced to the concept of the “Lean Unicorn” : companies that are “extremely capital efficient” and can reach a $1 billion valuation with a very small team (perhaps 5-10 people).
How is this possible? AI can automate core business functions that used to require large teams:
- Marketing and Sales (Customer discovery, personalized campaigns).
- Software Development (Coding, debugging).
- Customer Support (24/7 autonomous agents).
Furthermore, it's important to recognize that entrepreneurship itself is evolving. It's not just artificial intelligence; structures with significant social impacts like capitalism and democracy are also changing. Approaches like "bootstrapping" (growth with equity), "social entrepreneurship," and "stay small" are gaining prominence in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The focus on growth is being replaced by "smart growth," "understandable growth," and "meaningful growth."
The combination of this new understanding of entrepreneurship with artificial intelligence has already begun to fundamentally change the ways of doing business and problem-solving approaches of the future.
Breaking the Resistance (Stories from the Real World)
The best way to understand that AI is not a “toy” is to look at the most traditional industries that are most resistant to change.
Scene 1: Law (LegalTech)
For years, the legal industry relied on a single model: the "Billable Hour." Efficiency was the enemy of this business model—until AI came knocking.
- eDiscovery: In one case, AI-powered tools were documented to reduce the number of relevant documents by 85% by reviewing 1.8 million documents. The result? Savings of 19,000 hours of attorney review time and over $750,000 in costs.
Contract Analysis: In the case of Shoosmiths law firm, it took an experienced lawyer 4 hours to review a complex contract (86% accuracy), while the AI platform analyzed the same document in 3 minutes (90% accuracy).
- Market Approval: Seeing this potential, Thomson Reuters acquired the AI legal assistant startup Casetext for $650 million in 2023.
Scene 2: HealthTech
AI in healthcare is becoming a lifeline, not a productivity tool35353535.
- Drug Development: Pfizer used AI modeling in its development of an oral treatment for COVID-19 (PAXLOVID). It shortened the process of identifying the most impactful molecular changes, which would normally take years, to just four months .
- Rapid Diagnosis: Viz.AI, a startup, analyzes medical scans with its FDA-approved algorithms, speeding up the process of diagnosis and initiating treatment by 42% .
- Increased Accuracy: An AI diagnostic tool developed by Microsoft increased diagnostic accuracy from 20% for human doctors alone to 80% and reduced costs by 20%.
Investment or Bubble? (The Strategic Value of Responsibility)
The numbers don't lie: This is a major technological leap forward and a real advancement. But it would be remiss not to mention that there's also a "foam" on top of it.
It's common for every new development to be overhyped, turning into a "trend" that compels both entrepreneurs and investors to follow. Many similar events have occurred, but the best example is the dot-com bubble. This structure, which accelerated in the late 1990s and ended with the closure of most internet companies in the 2000s, was created by overhyping the situation by sectors and players, and naturally, by investors.
A "dot-com"-like situation seems likely to emerge here as well. Because every new product is either a copy of another or doesn't solve a real problem; it moves entirely based on trends.
The Entrepreneurship Trap: Technology or the Problem?
The foundation of any enterprise should be problem-solving. This principle remains constant, no matter how much technology advances.
Today, hundreds of startups are closing down after major companies like OpenAI roll out updates. This isn't because the entrepreneurs are fundamentally struggling, but because they're focusing on the technology itself.
For example, you could use models like ChatGPT or Gemini to write a blog post. However, if a startup focused solely on writing has a much better product, you might choose that one. However, if that startup is based on a fragile structure and problems, there's no reason to use that niche product once ChatGPT improves its writing quality in the next update.
In summary: When establishing a business that differentiates itself, differentiates its solutions, and differentiates its value, entrepreneurs should aim to consider AI not as a "goal" in this process, but as a "tool" that contributes to this differentiation.**
Getting back to the topic: Yes, 40% of all venture capital funding in 2024 went to AI and Big Data startups, up from just 26% in 2021. This is a wave of investment, but this enthusiasm also brings with it business risks that cannot be ignored:
1. Algorithmic Bias: This is the most insidious danger. AI systems don't just replicate existing societal biases (gender, race, etc.) in the data they're trained on; they **reinforce** them. An AI you develop for hiring or credit evaluation could systematically discriminate without you even realizing it, exposing you to legal liability.
2. The "Black Box" Problem (Lack of Transparency): It's often very difficult to explain _how_ the most powerful AI models (like deep neural networks) reached a decision. Not being able to explain to your customer or a regulatory body why your model made a decision erodes trust and makes accountability impossible.
3. Regulation: The days of the "Wild West" are ending. The world's first comprehensive AI regulation The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) classifies artificial intelligence according to risk levels.
That's why "Responsible AI" or "Explainable AI" is a major driver of industry standards. These approaches will eventually become a legal and commercial requirement for all products and services.
The good news for entrepreneurs is this: Regulations like the EU AI Law offer SMEs and entrepreneurs the potential to differentiate themselves from the competition and advance in key areas such as building trust by demonstrating the necessary sensitivity in these areas. This requires monitoring relevant resources and integrating responsibility into the business model from day one.
Human + AI = New Partnership (Rise of the Human)
What about us? What will happen to our team? Will machines take all our jobs?
The analysis of the reports on this issue is very clear: This is not a period of replacement, but of augmentation and "human-AI symbiosis" .
It's anticipated that this will continue to function for at least the next 5-10 years. I'm not praising AI here; some tasks are likely to be phased out. However, it will certainly bring with it a whole new set of tasks. As with previous technological advancements, every development brings both advantages and innovations, as well as disadvantages and disruptions.
But we can't deny that technology, when used consciously, brings tremendous opportunities. Years ago, "content creation" was a very limited field, but now anyone with a phone can take on this responsibility. While books were written by hand, now every home has its own library, and our computers have become vast libraries.
Throughout this development, new tasks for people emerge. In fact, all professions evolved from a core, time-honored profession, only to branch out and become distinct professions over time. To give a simple example, transportation has always been a necessity, and as we transitioned from horses to cars, professions also branched out.
Or, on the legal side, lawyers used to display a more general professionalism, handling every case, but now they're specializing in much more specific areas like "Regulatory Lawyer" or "Startup Lawyer." This is largely what AI will achieve. The only difference is that its impact will be far greater and, even if only slightly, it will "transform" some professions, transforming them into something completely different.
The biggest advantage of the Artificial Intelligence era is this:
> The more we automate routine cognitive tasks (data collection, summarizing, writing first drafts), the greater the exponential value of uniquely human skills that machines can't (yet) do.
What are these skills?
- Critical Thinking and Interpretation
- Creativity and Innovation (Combining different ideas)
- Complex Problem Solving (Coping with uncertainty)
- Emotional Intelligence and Collaboration (Empathy, leadership)
One analysis in the legal industry calls this the “80/20 inversion” :
- In the past: 80% of a professional's time was spent on information gathering and research, 20% on strategy and analysis.
- Now: As AI takes over information gathering, this ratio is reversing. Professionals can now spend 80% of their time developing strategies, finding creative solutions, and building relationships with clients, all with the data AI brings.
Artificial intelligence is taking boring jobs away from us and forcing us to be more “strategic.”
Conclusion: Being Smart Is Not Enough, You Have to Be Conscious
This is where the journey becomes clear for the entrepreneur amidst the noise. AI isn't magic, but it is a powerful tool whose impact is broad and far-reaching.
In this age, it is necessary to be "smart" and "conscious", that is, to understand and use AI tools in this way.
As we go through a revolution as great as the invention of the printing press, we must simultaneously see both the tremendous opportunities of this technology and its fundamental flaws, such as prejudice and imitation.
The strategic advantage will not lie with the side that most praises or fears AI, but with the side that can integrate it into its business model and life in the most objective, most responsible and most conscious way.
Links:
🚀 12-Week Strategic Clarity & Transformation Program (For Founders) Break the founder lock-in, establish systems, and become ready to scale. → Program Details
🧠 LegalTech Mastermind Community (For Founders and Entrepreneurs) Share experiences with founders who are walking the same path as you and grow together.
⚖️ LegalTech Turkey (For Lawyers and Entrepreneurs) Join current discussions at the intersection of law and technology. Learn about digitalization and access materials.
💡 EasyBusy (For Everyone) Explore entrepreneurship and digital transformation with startup stories, practical materials, and system building tips.
🔗 ALL OUR USEFUL RESOURCES specific to the ecosystem (Single Link) To access the above mentioned communities, our newsletter and more, visit this single link : Ecosystem Link
(You can only access the ecosystem fully through this link.)
☕ Let's Clarify Your Strategy Together Schedule a 1:1 meeting and we'll create a personalized roadmap for you.
Comments