THE PROMETHEAN: WHERE HUMAN EXPERIENCE MEETS MACHINE INTELLIGENCE

As artificial intelligence reshapes every facet of life, The Promethean launches to explore whether it is humanity's next great catalyst or its most consequential creation

Today, we begin a new chapter. Born from a legacy of reporting how technology transforms retail, The Promethean marks our evolution into a broader conversation: one that seeks to understand, explain, and interrogate the technological forces reshaping human experience itself.

Retail Technology magazine has long chronicled the digital revolution on the physical and virtual High Street. However, global investment in AI exceeded $330 billion in 2024, which is a tenfold increase in less than a decade.

So, The Promethean is our natural next step: a publication for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where artificial intelligence (AI) now threads through every sector, every decision, and every human interaction. This is our mission: to explore how AI is reshaping the fabric of human experience — from the individual to the enterprise, and from systems to society.

Our promise is simple yet profound: to be the definitive interlocutor between those who develop AI and those who live with it. We will translate complexity, challenge assumptions and, where needed, critique the systems and incentives shaping this transformation. AI is no longer a technology story. It is a human one.

So, at launch, we ask: Is AI an evolutionary catalyst, an existential threat, or an unintended consequence?

The Greek myth of Prometheus tells of the Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humankind — a symbol of knowledge, innovation, and defiance in pursuit of progress. To be Promethean today is to embody that same spirit: harnessing transformative power, such as AI, with courage, creativity, and moral responsibility.

WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

We are living through the fastest technological deployment in human history. ChatGPT reached 100 million users in just two months, the most rapid adoption curve ever recorded. From large language models (LLMs) and generative agents to computer vision, digital avatars, conversational AI, and robotics, technology is rewiring the world we inhabit in real time.

AI training compute grew by roughly 300,000× between 2012 and 2023, an exponential increase unprecedented in any prior technological era. Yet the accompanying hype raises serious questions about policy, privacy, equity, sustainability, and truth.

That's why independent, expert, and empathetic journalism at the intersection of human and machine intelligence is essential. Retail will remain our proving ground — a mirror of consumer choice and technological change — but The Promethean widens the aperture. We'll test the applications and implications of AI across society, industry, ethics, and policy, finding value for both those who build it and everyone who lives with it.

So, The Promethean is here to serve both the creators and consumers of AI.

THE QUESTIONS WE'LL ASK

• Does AI erode or enhance our powers to choose?

• How does AI change who holds power — companies, governments, citizens?

• When does technological possibility translate into human benefit — and when does it erode agency?

• What metrics should define AI’s success beyond accuracy — fairness, sustainability, and well-being?

• Which governance models work at scale, and which simply rebrand risk?

• How can lessons from commerce, health, sport, and education shape responsible best practice?

WHO WE'RE WRITING FOR

Our primary audience is those whose ambition is to build AI that serves humanity — developers, product leaders, data scientists, and enterprise decision-makers who specify, procure, and deploy intelligent systems.

Our secondary audience comprises those shaping its guardrails — governments, regulators, NGOs, and investors — who are designing the funding, frameworks, and governance that will determine AI’s trajectory.

Our tertiary audience is our largest; it is made up of citizens and consumers who increasingly live with AI every day, often without realising it, yet deserve to understand it.

Our role is to convene these voices. To communicate, not to preach.

WHAT'S CHANGING AND WHAT ISN'T

For over 30 years, Retail Technology magazine has offered rigorous, practical coverage of retail IT systems, vendor ecosystems, and digital transformation. That won't change. Retail remains the laboratory of human behaviour — a place where innovation meets real-world impact at scale.

But The Promethean steps beyond the retail counter and moves closer to the bleeding edge of technology innovation. We bring the same empirical rigour to a wider lens: multi-industry, multidisciplinary, and explicitly human-centred. We'll speak not only to boardrooms, offices and factories, but also to legislatures, classrooms and living rooms because tomorrow's AI consumers, innovators and policymakers are today's students.

"We will interrogate AI by asking: who benefits, who pays, and who decides?”

OUR EDITORIAL PROMISE

We are committed to independent, authoritative, and empathetic journalism. We will pair best-practice and technical explainers, including how models, data, and systems work, with human stories of AI's impact on every aspect of the individual and across industry. Our editorial values are accuracy, transparency, and constructive scepticism.

Our guiding principle is simple: to exercise the powerful, explain the complex, and elevate the practices that ensure AI works for people, not just around them.

Or as we like to say: developer and consumer nirvana.

Catalyst vs Consequence

Catalyst: AI as an active driver of human capability — accelerating discovery, personalising services, and enabling new forms of creativity and productivity.

Consequence: AI as an emergent byproduct of robust systems created without adequate oversight, deepening bias, inequality, or environmental cost.

Our promise: We will examine both frames, using evidence, not ideology.

THE EXPERTS AND VOICES WE'LL CONVENE

• Industry & Commerce: CIOs, product leaders, and digital pioneers.

• Finance & Investment: venture and capital leaders steering responsible growth.

• Healthcare & Education: clinicians, researchers, educators, and data ethicists.

• Government & Policy: regulators, economists, and compliance specialists.

• Ethics & Sustainability: philosophers, climate scientists, and civic technologists.

• Culture & Society: artists, musicians, comedians, and athletes exploring AI's creative edge.

"We will hold power to account and lift understanding to new heights, so AI can truly serve people and planet for the greater good."

HOW WE'LL DELIVER

• News and opinion on breaking developments to keep our audience up-to-date and informed.

• Longform investigations, explainers, and essays that uncover both the promise and peril of intelligent systems.

• Co-authored whitepapers and interactive data features that turn evidence into insight.

• The Promethean Podcast brings the world's foremost AI thinkers, builders, and users into direct conversation.

• Live convenings, policy roundtables, and practitioner masterclasses that translate ideas into action.

• We'll also experiment boldly, with an interactive avatar newsreader, reproducible datasets, and subscriber-only deep dives for our most engaged readers.

THE CALL TO ACTION

At The Promethean, we will hold power to account and lift understanding to new heights, so AI can truly serve people for the greater good. However, we could never hope to achieve such lofty ambitions without the support of truly visionary and talented people.

So, I'd like to thank The Promethean team, and in particular, the intellect and research skills of Michael R A Prest (Mikey), the business development and social media expertise of DeVante Andrew, the multimedia maestro Dean Arnett, the IT genius Catherine Bestel, and the graphic design prowess of Rory Seaford.

We invite readers — from coders to citizens — to join us: to submit tips, share case studies, subscribe, and shape the conversations that will define our shared future.

If Retail Technology taught us how innovation changes behaviour at scale, The Promethean will show what that innovation means for society and beyond.

That's because there's so much more out there.