Paul, to be honest, you are not giving an explanation of exactly why AI deniers are wrong, beyond a “lack of vision” disqualification. What is exactly what they are not seeing? You have to answer that.
Some months ago I published my explanation in my Medium post “How Generative AI will Disrupt Everything During the Current Decade”, and my argument is that the availability of LLMs will spawn a myriad of AI applications developed by small startups, and some as extensions of existing products. This is an actual explanation, I think.