One Talk, Two Competing Stories
On Friday I'll fly to Las Vegas for my 36th Cisco Live and 25th time as host of the event's global streaming broadcast. Of course, the big story will be AI, dominating most every conversation at this 25K-person conference. But there's an equally fast-growing corporate story pushing hard from the other side, a compelling backlash questioning the why and how of AI, and in equal measures.
Presenting two sides of any story is challenging but almost always appropriate. After all, nothing is truly black and white. Offering balanced assessment of both pros and cons respects an audience, and lays all cards on the table. However, two directly competing stories—smart versus stupid, good versus evil, positive versus negative—pits the topic of a talk against itself, leaving the audience to decipher value and morality that may become muddied or questionable.
When stories compete, is the consumer served or stressed?
The psychology of both sides
Cognitive processing through competing stories forces the human brain to create meaning by evaluating rival narratives. This runs counter to the typical speaker presentation with goals to reduce uncertainty, clarify conflicting accounts, build strong emotional attachments to a product or brand, and overcome cognitive bias.
Take AI. Artificial intelligence offers many benefits: increased efficiency and automation, 24/7 availability, improved accuracy and error reduction, highly tailored support experiences, and enhanced safety for the 78% of global organizations leaning into AI and 4 billion citizens tapping AI at some level. These constitute the value story we'll tell and sell next week at the Mandalay Bay.
The other side of this same story will come from analysts, press, and counter-AI voices focused on the undeniable and considerable downsides of AI: extreme job displacement, growing privacy and security risks, strong algorithmic bias, lack of human judgment, emotional intelligence, or empathy, and rapid skills decline hindering critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and foundational learning.
Two opposing sides to one very present, pressing narrative. Equally compelling, leaving organizations and their teams to decide the right path forward.
What a speaker owes an audience
As communicators for our companies and teams, we have to choose what pros and cons our audience does or doesn't need to hear. And whether they're better served by the benefits rather than by the detriments. Or vice versa. Or by both. Not always easy.
Bosses and executives aren't usually keen to have employees or sales leaders willingly share their brand's net negatives in public talks or customer meetings.
Regardless, when stories compete, the stronger narrative wins. Not necessarily by being true, but by being simpler, more emotionally resonant, or more tailored to the listener's biases. Facts alone are rarely enough to overpower a dynamic, emotionally charged narrative. So even when we do present both sides to an audience, they're likely to know exactly which we really stand on.
This is particularly accurate in media, especially when presented as "news." Most outlets and publications only offer their preferred side of the story. Some audiences appreciate that since it serves their cognitive bias. But genuine lack of bias is extremely rare, in news and in marketing. Each organization decides what type of messaging their audience deserves, how comprehensive, and how honest it ought to be. Willingness to share competing stories remains the exception, not the rule.
Bottom Line
As host of next week's three-day live stream, I'll celebrate where Cisco and AI's potential are leading us, and the future powers and payoffs awaiting those who embrace and invest in Artificial Intelligence. Cisco makes my job very easy; the brand continues to beat Wall Street expectations quarter after quarter, with record valuation and booming demand for AI infrastructure. Cisco has transformed from traditional enterprise networking into a major "pick-and-shovel" player on AI data center buildout, and demand for their high performance networking systems and custom silicon is extraordinary.
At the same time, Cisco just announced further workforce reductions of 4,000 (~5% of employees) to cut costs and sharpen focus on high-growth AI and cybersecurity sectors. Gallup reports that seven in 10 Americans oppose the construction of data centers for AI in their local area, and pushback against the 4,000 current US data centers overtaxing power grids and water supplies across the nation is impossible to ignore. That's not the story we'll tell, but others will.
These competing realities are both fully accurate, up to the audience to parse as they make their purchase and practice decisions. One talk can indeed offer two stories and still hold value. Each speaker decides if their best presentation model incorporates one or both sides to any topic. I have my marching orders, and hope you’ll join the broadcast — all perspectives welcome.
