How to Make AI Useful: Moving beyond the hype ?to real progress in business, society and life

We’ve heard it all before: AI will upend industries, kill jobs and remake everything from healthcare to art. But between the hype and the hand-wringing lies a simpler, more pressing question: Is AI actually useful? And if so, useful for what, and for whom?   In How to Make AI Useful, MIT researcher Dr Bryan Reimer and Swedish futurologist Magnus Lindkvist cut through the noise. Blending decades of research, trendspotting and hands-on experience, they chart AI’s journey from dazzling gimmick to disruptive force – and now to indispensable tool.   This isn’t another book about robot overlords or utopian tech dreams. Instead, it’s a rough guide to AI’s messy middle – the phase where machines meet human complexity. From automating the tedious to amplifying creativity, Reimer and Lindkvist show how to harness AI’s potential for real progress, long after today’s bubble bursts

About the Author :
DR BRYAN REIMER is a Research Scientist at MIT and a global expert on the intersection of AI, technology, human behaviour, mobility and public policy. With over 300 publications and advisory roles spanning government and industry, he’s spent over two decades at the intersection of complex technology and human-centred solutions.   MAGNUS LINDKVIST is a Swedish futurologist and trendspotter known for blending insights from business, science and the arts to challenge how we think about the future. A sought-after global speaker and author of multiple books, he brings a fox’s curiosity to a world of hedgehog predictions.

Review :
A must-read for anyone looking to unlock the true value of AI—in business, policy, or everyday life. This book tells a compelling story about human-centric AI through the unique perspectives of a pragmatic possibilitist and a futurist. Drawing on real-world case studies, it explores how accelerated AI innovation and the technologies it enables are reshaping the systems we live in and depend on. At its core is a quietly provocative question: “Will we let AI change us?”—a challenge that is as underappreciated as it is urgent. In a time when we must focus on humanizing technology before it dehumanizes us, this book offers a thoughtful, grounded, and timely guide for navigating what comes next. In an era where automation and intelligence are fundamentally reshaping how businesses operate and compete, success hinges on a deeper understanding where AI creates real value and the discipline to apply it at scale within complex systems. This book offers a grounded perspective on how AI can transform decision-making, accelerate insights, and empower leaders to build resilient, adaptable organizations that can lead in a world where AI, business, and people are evolving together. This is a delightful book on AI whose primary purpose is neither “selling” nor “denouncing” AI. By using an abundance of real-world examples, both historical and personal, the authors explore the space where we humans meet AI. While this is about AI, the book is about us, as we often find the promise of AI both thrilling and unsettling. This is a practical guide to how industries, societies, and consumers can choose to use AI, instead of being mesmerized or intimidated by AI’s technological advances. AI's true revolution isn't in its algorithms, but in how we apply them. Reimer and Lindkvist illuminate the path from technological wow to practical progress—making this essential reading for anyone seeking to transform tomorrow's promise into today's reality. As a researcher with over a decade of experience staying close to the leading edge of AI’s development, I found this book to be a refreshing departure from the familiar polarized view on optimist vs. pessimist AI futures. Rather than speculating on final outcomes, it focuses on a more immediate and pressing challenge: how to make it work for us in a practical sense, today. The ample and thoroughly entertaining metaphors and historical parallels drawn in the book frame AI not merely as a technical artifact but as part of a broader sociotechnical system. These narrative elements—rare in academic discourse—provide a compelling counterbalance to the abstraction and reductionism often found in research literature. How to Make AI Useful isn’t about the next breakthrough model or benchmark. It’s about the systems-level thinking, human factors, and institutional realities we too often overlook in the pursuit of state-of-the-art performance. A timely, articulate reflection on where AI is—and where it needs to go. Accidental writing duo Bryan Reimer and Magnus Lindkvist dodge the danger of writing a quickly outdated book on AI by making an apt comparison with the rise of electricity a century ago. They make clear with many examples how the bubble of the balloon can be distinguished in the different stages of innovations. And they reassure the reader with logic that creativity remains human: ‘embracing imperfection and transforming life's uncertainty into something meaningful.’ Martijn Lofvers, serial entrepreneur and author who developed a knowledge base with machine learning and AI at Supply Chain Media and applies a GenAI tool for strategic scenario building as co-founder of Supply Chain Companions. How to Make AI Useful offers an engaging look at how artificial intelligence may change the way we live and work. Reimer's seminal work on human-machine teamwork, especially in self-driving cars, seems to offer profound lessons for how to work alongside increasingly powerful AI systems most effectively. With Lindkvist's blending of real-world examples to challenge how we think about the future, the book offers a refreshingly clear picture of where AI is taking us, and how we should adapt