Preconfigured Futures
What happens when the language of large enterprises swallows AI.
Commencement 2026 reminded us that we’re trapped in an endless enterprise AI sales pitch, and people want out.
In enterprise sales the buyer and the user are different people. Someone in the company decides it’s time for a new HR or CRM system. Everyone else complies with that decision. This summer, commencement speeches shifted from inspiring personal narratives to enterprise sales pitches:
We’re adopting this new AI operating system, time to get on board.
AI-is-coming commencement speeches read more like company emails announcing a new travel and expense system than inspiring visions of the future.
Compare them to Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech:
“Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.” And, further on: “You’ve got to find what you love—and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”
Jobs designed and sold consumer products. With consumer products the buyer and user are usually the same person. If you owned an iPod, you likely bought it yourself to have ‘1,000 songs in your pocket.’ You preferred the version of you with the iPod to the version without.
Whatever software you use on your work machine, someone preconfigured it for you. And no one wants to graduate into a preconfigured future. But that’s what AI filtered through the language of enterprise sales offers. It swaps the possibilities of consumer tech for the compliance of workplace tech.
Rolling back the story won’t be enough. We need a different starting point, away from how institutions adopt technology and back to why people do. A story where everyday people prefer the version of themselves with AI to the version without.