James Holmberg on AI Fluency, “Don’t Blink”

James Holmberg ’92 is urging organizations to rethink how they approach artificial intelligence in a new guest commentary for Twin Cities Business, titled AI is Moving Fast. Don’t Blink.

Holmberg, co-founder of Vilas AI, a Minneapolis-based studio that designs AI fluency and large language model programs, writes that organizations often treat AI like a standard software rollout. But AI, he contends, behaves less like a tool and more like a creative medium.

“Most AI education still looks like a syllabus,” Holmberg notes, focused on prompts and features. That approach may help users get started, he writes, but it does not create fluency. True fluency requires what he calls a “judgment layer”—the ability to steer output, critique it, revise it, and maintain one’s own voice.

Holmberg’s takeaway is direct: treat AI like an instrument you learn by playing. Because in a landscape shifting as quickly as this one, hoping to “air-guitar” your way through it is not a strategy.

Learn More

• Guest Commentary: AI is Moving Fast. Don’t Blink.
  (tcbmag.com—February 23, 2026)