The Limitations of AI in Understanding Cultural Trends

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Adventures in Cultural Strategy with Amy Daroukakis

Follow the Rabbit

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CHAPTER

The Limitations of AI in Understanding Cultural Trends

This chapter explores the role of AI in shaping cultural strategies, stressing the significance of human storytelling amidst AI's limitations. It highlights issues such as data traceability, biased outputs, and the essential insights that only humans can provide in interpreting societal trends.

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What happens when 90% of our cultural insights come from just 10 cities?

In this episode of Follow the Rabbit, Igor and Johannes welcome cultural strategist Amy Daroukakis, who shares her provocative thesis that 90% of trend reports come from just 10 cities in the world—creating a homogenized view of culture that fails to capture global diversity. With 20 years of experience working across 60+ countries, Amy offers insight into how this narrow lens affects everything from business decisions to physical spaces.

The conversation explores how true curiosity has become the essential skill in an age of AI and algorithm-driven content. Through stories spanning Korean kimchi robots to secret trend rooms for major retailers, they unpack how human storytelling and cultural context provide what AI cannot: meaningful connections between seemingly disparate elements.

Key themes include:

The problem with current trend reporting and its bias toward Western/Global North perspectives
Amy's project to gather 52 diverse global voices for 2025 cultural insights
How curiosity becomes both a personal practice and a professional advantage
The challenges of translating cultural trends into actionable business strategies
Why the ability to make connections across contexts becomes increasingly valuable as AI handles the mundane

This thoughtful discussion reveals how to move beyond "trends for trends' sake" toward deeper cultural understanding—and why your ability to get lost in rabbit holes might be your most valuable asset in the coming era.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction & Amy's Background

05:17 - The Problem with Global Trend Reports

08:53 - Building the Trend Folder & Democratizing Information

12:00 - Curiosity vs Professional Interest in Trends

14:34 - The Challenge of Being Curious in Organizations

16:16 - Human Storytelling vs AI in Cultural Insights

21:44 - The Disconnect Between Research and Application

23:23 - Target's Secret Trend Rooms: A Personal Story

25:32 - From Ta-Da Presentations to Co-Curiosity Building

28:00 - AI Tools and the Value of Human Curiosity

30:12 - From Technology Trends to Cultural Phenomena