The ability to pivot. Quickly.

Let’s start with some statistics: the telephone took an incredible 50 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took seven years. ChatGPT reached about twice that many in just two months (Jeff Desjardins, 2018). In fact, the recent “Tech Trends 2026” report by Deloitte (published December 2025) tells us that ChatGPT users now account for 10% of the whole of Planet Earth, a staggering rate of adoption. The report goes on to tell us that the “half-life in AI has shrunk to months from years”.

Future shock is… a product of the greatly accelerated rate of change in society.*

What this means is that we are now operating in a business environment where the speed of change is outpacing our ability to process it. The societal shift brought about, for example, by the internet is arguably more profound than the transformation triggered by Gutenberg’s printing press and the transition from the illuminated manuscript to the printed word. Individually, we are lost, but collectively we still stand a chance of processing the overwhelming changes in our world.

We are moving swiftly into the era of the temporary product, made by temporary methods, to serve temporary needs.*

The professional services ecosystem is now less rigid and more amorphous than ever before. The expiration date on long-term business development strategies has been greatly shortened; therefore, the ability to course-correct is a vital skill. The ability to constantly and continually review, re-work, and realign strategy is now essential. Providers of professional services need to think in terms of months, not only years. 

If you don’t have a strategy, you’re part of someone else’s strategy.* 

Social media has made our news cycles much shorter. The turnover of information is now lightning fast. Companies can use this to their advantage. “Fastvertising” is a great example of this. It is the ability to leverage real-world events in real time for marketing. Stay connected to your client. React to changes within the business world not in weeks, but in minutes. This is the strategy. 

“To survive, to avert what we have termed future shock, the individual must become infinitely more adaptable and capable than ever before. We must search out totally new ways to anchor ourselves, for all the old roots - religion, nation, community, family, or profession - are now shaking under the hurricane impact of the accelerative thrust. It is no longer resources that limit decisions, it is the decision that makes the resources.”*

* Taken from “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler

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Raf Uzar heads marketing, communication and development at law firm Penteris and is a member of the UK's Chartered Institute of Marketing.