You Can't Paddle Into A 100-Foot Wave. You Can't Incrementally Adopt AI, Either.

InnovationAIYou Can't Paddle Into A 100-Foot Wave. You Can't Incrementally Adopt AI, Either.ByJohn Sviokla,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. John Sviokla covers GenAI/AI's impact on commerce and society.Follow AuthorApr 24, 2026, 10:00am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.AI Adoption Is More Like Surfing Than Traditional Organization ChangegettyEnterprise AI adoption doesn’t fail from lack of effort. It fails from using the wrong method. Here’s why the companies winning with AI threw out the old playbook, and what "tow-in" looks like for your organization.From 480 AD to 1996, big wave surfers rarely rode anything over 20 feet. In less than three decades thousands of big wave surfers are riding waves of 60 feet or more regularly. The current record is 86 feet and heading to 100. A 4x leap after fifteen centuries of stagnation.Steven Kotler documented this in The Rise of Superman and the insight that matters isn’t about courage. It’s about method. You literally cannot paddle into a 100-foot wave. The physics doesn’t work. Your arms can't generate the speed required to catch something that massive. Laird Hamilton and Buzzy Kerbox figured this out in 1992 when they invented tow-in surfing, using jet skis to sling surfers into waves that were physically impossible to catch the old way. Different equipment. Different technique. Different discipline entirely. And a non-negotiable requirement: at 100 feet, if you're not in a flow state, you don't just wipe out. You can die.That's exactly where we are with AI. And most companies are still trying to paddle.The 100-Foot Wave Just ArrivedOpenAI released GPT-5.5 today. Six weeks after GPT-5.4. During the press briefing, Greg Brockman admitted "there are enough model releases that it’s probably getting hard to distinguish one from another." Th...