That doesn't seem unexpected. Any technological leap seem to happen in sigmoid-like steps. When a fruitful approach is discovered we run to it until diminishing returns sets in. Often enough a new approach opens doors to other approaches that builds on it. It takes time to discover the next step in the chain but when we do we get a new sigmoid-like leap. Etc...
Personally my bet for the next fruitful step is something in line with what Victor Taelin [1] is trying to achieve.
I.e. combining new approaches around old school "AI" with GenAI. That's probably not exactly what he's trying to do but maybe somewhere in the ball park.
That doesn't seem unexpected. Any technological leap seem to happen in sigmoid-like steps. When a fruitful approach is discovered we run to it until diminishing returns sets in. Often enough a new approach opens doors to other approaches that builds on it. It takes time to discover the next step in the chain but when we do we get a new sigmoid-like leap. Etc...