The "Daguerreotype Moment": Why AI Will Liberate, Not Replace, the Executive

"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart, and head." – Henri Cartier-Bresson

In 1839, the French painter Paul Delaroche saw the first Daguerreotype—the precursor to the modern photograph. The story goes that he stared, agape, at the metal plate, which had captured reality with striking precision, and proclaimed: "From today, painting is dead!"

It is a great story about panic in the face of disruption. But in reality, Delaroche wasn't terrified; he was fascinated. In his official report to the French government, he didn't predict the death of art. He predicted its liberation. He described photography as an invention that would "render an immense service to the arts."

He realized that the machine could handle the labor of capturing details—the "boring, tedious" work—allowing the artist to focus on the higher aspects of

artistic creation.

Boulevard du Temple (1838); widely considered the first 'photograph' to capture a person, and one of the earliest surviving daguerreotype plates. The camera captured the 'static data' of the buildings with mechanical precision, but the exposure was so long that the moving crowds disappeared. The machine could capture the structure, but it couldn't capture the flow. That remained the artist's job.

Delaroche was right. The camera didn't kill painting; it forced it to evolve into its golden age.

Because the camera commoditized "realism," artists moved from capturing what a scene looked like to capturing what a scene felt like. The result? Impressionism. Cubism. Abstract Expressionism.

The camera didn't replace the artist. It liberated them from the drudgery of realism and pushed them toward the higher value of interpretation.

The "Realistic Portrait" of 2025. Why AI Will Not Replace the Executive

Today, Canadian industrial leaders are facing their own 'Daguerreotype Moment.' Many are quietly wrestling with a deeper anxiety: not just whether AI will change their operations, but whether it will render their hard-won experience obsolete, turning them from decision-makers into mere spectators of an automated system

AI is the camera. And the "Realistic Portrait"—the tedious, repetitive work—is the bulk of the labour your teams do every day. Tasks such as:

• Visually inspecting parts for standard surface defects.

• Reconciling thousands of supplier invoices against purchase orders.

• Manually logging sensor readings into legacy ERP systems.

• Scheduling maintenance based on calendar dates rather than actual equipment condition.

These tasks are "rendering reality." They are valuable, but if your company’s value proposition is "we track inventory accurately" or "we spot defects with our eyes," you are competing with the "camera". Which in today's quickly transforming landscape is a losing game.

Stop Being Copiers. Start Being Impressionists.

The winning executive isn't the one who bans the camera. It is the one who—like Paul Delaroche—sees the immense service the machine offers. It is the executive, the manager, the engineer, who must first have a vision and then the ability to implement the vision into practice, in order to use AI to their advantage.

You need to move your workforce from Production (The Copier) to Insight (The Impressionist).

• The Copier reports on last month's downtime. The Impressionist predicts next week's failure so production never stops.

• The Copier monitors the sensors. The Impressionist optimizes the yield.

• The Copier responds to the supply chain rupture. The Impressionist reroutes the logistics network before the disruption even hits.

  
  

How to Make the Shift (Without Years of Art School)

The transition from "Realism" to "Impressionism" in the art world took decades. In the business world, you don't have that kind of time. The copier is already here.

In fact, it is already evolving. We have moved beyond simple generation to 'Agentic AI'—autonomous systems that don't just report on supply chain ruptures, but actively re-route logistics and negotiate vendor contracts in real-time.

This is why we built Bold New Edge.

We see too many leaders paralyzed by the technology, or trying to compete with it by working harder, avoiding or resenting it. Our AI for Decision Makers program is designed to guide the evolution your business needs.

In just 8 weeks, we take you from panic to prototype:

1. Strategy: We teach you how to govern AI so it handles the drudgery while you handle the vision.

2. Mentorship: You get 10 hours of 1-on-1 guidance from top AI researchers to refine your approach.

3. Execution: You don't just learn theory. You build a working prototype that solves a specific business problem.

   
   

Paul Delaroche didn't waste time mourning the old ways; he looked at the future and saw opportunity. Your business shouldn't mourn the old ways either.

Don't be the painter who gave up. Be the one who invented Impressionism.

[Apply to the Bold New Edge Program]