What advice would you give to professionals outside Silicon Valley who feel intimidated by the pace of AI?

Do not view AI as something that is happening to you from the outside; recognize it as power placed directly into your hands. Building a company or learning a new skill is dramatically more accessible now than at any point in history. The barrier is largely psychological. If you feel intimidated, approach it like jumping into a pool. The water only looks freezing before you dive in. Find someone who knows slightly more than you, ask for a thirty-minute tutorial, use free tutorials online, and start prompting. Once you are in the water, you quickly realize how warm it is, and the only rule is to never get out.