An Uninvited Guest

As we head into the holiday season, a short update from Rootcause…It’s a very exciting time, with plans now coming to fruition and a real prospect of much greater impact in 2026.

I’ve written a short festive vignette to below but if you’re keeping an eye on our work you may enjoy:

• An overview of our new ‘Drumbeat Machine’ being piloted in early 2026

• Presentation on the Information Environment in 2026 - In the Mind’s Eye of the AI

Picture the scene.

It’s Christmas day and AI is an uninvited guest. 

Your Mum’s been using Alexa in the kitchen all morning - she’s asked it more questions since breakfast than she’s asked your Dad all week. The Christmas songs it’s now playing don’t sound familiar but nobody’s realised they are AI generated because 97% of people can’t tell the difference.

Your brother's girlfriend isn't speaking to him after he shared footage from her sister's hen do that he'd secretly filmed on his Ray-Ban Metas. He's one of 3.5 million people who bought a pair this year - and one of the growing number finding out that 'always-on AI' comes with consequences.

Your cousin is using the TV to watch one of the 1 billion hours of YouTube streamed daily but over the course of 45 minutes she’s gone from a bake off compilation to BriTAin Is BrokEn.  

Your Nan asks who everyone's voting for next year. Your other cousin says she'll 'just ask ChatGPT’ - he doesn't know that in a recent study, 1 in 10 Canadian voters switched their vote after a single conversation with a chatbot. 

Your Aunts are guffawing over a glass of Bailey’s at a deepfake of Santa doing something rather unspeakable that one of them just received on WhatsApp. 

Which is why it’s a good job your Uncle is asleep in the armchair listening to an AI-generated podcast on the history of Boeing and what it can tell us about the future of US power. It’s made by a company racking up millions of downloads a week across 3000 different podcasts. 

Your accountant Dad has treated your Mum to that expensive LED facemask because he sold his 3 shares in Palantir at the right time in November but little does he know how much better Claude for Excel is at spreadsheet magic than him. 

He’ll find out at his performance review in January. 

Your next-door neighbour pops round, nattering about her new partner but you can’t help wondering if she’s one of the 43% of millennials who say they could imagine themselves falling in love with a chatbot. 

And you?

You’re curled on the sofa scrolling social media wondering if this is another one of the posts written with the help of AI. 

Happy Holidays!