A few weeks ago, I sat in a college classroom at Tulane University for a lecture titled “Technology, Information, and Society.” I went in expecting it to be a fairly standard talk—some buzzwords, maybe a graph or two—but I left thinking about data in a completely new way.
The term “Big Data” gets thrown around so often that it gradually loses meaning, but in that room, surrounded by four other incoming students and a knowledgeable professor tossing out examples of how data is shaping everything from politics to playlists, I started to realize just how quietly powerful it really is.
Think about it: every time you stream a song, order food, like a post, Google something, or let an app track your location, you’re feeding a system that knows you better than a majority of your friends do. And now, with AI evolving faster than anyone can keep up with, that data isn’t just being stored—it’s being used to predict, decide, and influence. It’s exciting, definitely creepy, and absolutely worth paying attention to.
Data and the AI that processes it don’t just change our digital habits, they reshape our financial behavior in ways most of us don’t even notice. It’s subtle at first: a budgeting app that categorizes your purchases, a notification from your bank warning of possible fraud, a credit score that updates based on nontraditional factors. But underneath those small conveniences is a growing reliance on algorithmic decision-making. Whether you’re applying for a loan, scrolling through Instagram, not using your phone, shopping with a buy-now-pay-later service, or setting up automatic savings transfers, AI is shaping the terms of your financial life. These aren’t abstract, distant changes. They’re deeply personal.
The kind of tools that once belonged to wealth managers or analysts are now in everyone’s pockets, learning from us and nudging us toward specific outcomes. That’s why understanding how AI affects the choices we make (as individuals, as consumers, and as small business owners) is so crucial. This isn’t just about convenience or innovation. It’s about power, access, and the quiet rewiring of our economic relationships.
Near the end of the lecture, the professor played a video that visualized just how much data is being collected every day. It was a blur of statistics: millions of Google searches per second, billions of location pings, social media posts, voice recordings, transaction logs, and more—scrolling faster than anyone could fully absorb. The scale was overwhelming. But the real gut punch came afterwards, when he casually mentioned the video was created in 2015. Ten years ago! The entire room went quiet for a moment. If that much data was being gathered and analyzed back then, what does it look like now?
The algorithms shaping our economy aren’t slowing down—they’re accelerating.
It was a chilling reminder that while we talk about AI and Big Data as new developments, they’ve been evolving—and watching us—for a long time. The systems are smarter. The data is richer. And the influence on our lives, particularly on how we spend, save, and access money, is deeper than most of us realize. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In many cases, it leads to more personalized, efficient, and accessible financial tools. But it also means the stakes are higher. The algorithms shaping our economy aren’t slowing down—they’re accelerating.
If we, as a school community, want to be active participants in this new landscape—rather than passive data points in someone else’s model—we have to pay attention. We have to ask questions. And most of all, we have to keep watching the watchers.
