Ben Thompson Writes Stratechery, a subscription newsletter analyzing the business strategy behind tech and media companies, and has built a reputation for framing how platfo...

“If you love advertising, you're optimistic about AI… Because good advertising helps the customer realize they have a problem in their life and then it gives them the solution to it.”

Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · November 2026

Context

Ben Thompson says he can't stand how most of big tech talks about AI, and offers a line he says he'll keep repeating. His point is that AI companies fail to show consumers which problems in their own lives AI solves.

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Transcript

Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson Around 11:31 into the episode

Ben Thompson

Yes. Yeah. And why not, given the version of the future that's been sold? And this is where you go back to globalization. People didn't have a vote. Right. The factories just closed. In this case, once people had a vote, they're not too happy about it.

Andrew Sharp

…to the spring, I said then I still feel now it's an understandable human response given what AI portends, the way it's been marketed, and the ongoing centralization of wealth among a handful of big tech companies. People just want a chance to stick their finger in the eyes. And why not? I mean,

Ben Thompson

I can't stand most of big tech in the way they talk about AI. Like we, the, you know, I'm very proud of this one. I'm going to have to repeat this one every podcast for the next several. If you love advertising, you're optimistic about AI. Okay. Because why do I like advertising? Because advertising, good advertising helps the customer realize they have a problem in their life and then it gives them the solution to it. Now, sometimes that's very cynical. You're like creating a problem that doesn't exist and then saying you'll answer it. We've seen lots of political ads the last few months. We know exactly how that works, right? But sometimes it's true. It's like, I actually, yes, I could actually use that thing. There's a problem I did. didn't have, and that's going to help solve it. This is very analogous to the AI question in two ways.

Andrew Sharp

Okay.

Ben Thompson

Number one, everyone trying to create AI for consumers fails to do this. The issue isn't that you're not showing people, you're not showing people like what are problems you have in your life and how AI solves it. Like, that's why the AI show and tell thing we do. Like, we got tons of responses. I…

Andrew Sharp

Well, and I will also add that they're building a technology that is exceptionally expensive to build and doesn't have a clear application beyond saying, Well, this can actually just replace wide swaths of the workforce. No, exactly,

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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