“AI” Is Not a Selling Point
Back from a busy week with web summit (plus long-weekend camping). The overarching theme: Just about everything is about AI. Walk the exhibition floor and look at the startups, we have AI-empowered tools for everyone from architects to zoologists.
That's great. We haven't even scratched the surface of what's possible with AI. But in all that exuberance, it's easy to forget that shoving AI into a product is not a goal in itself. Remember, customers have problems that they want solved. If the AI in your product is little more than a parlour trick, any customer who got lured in by the promises of magical AI will churn faster than you can say ARR.
See if your AI feature supports this simple narrative structure:
You know how currently it's really hard/annoying/impossible to do X?
Well, we've developed a solution, based on AI, that does Y,
So you can do Z and get on with your life.
Note that only the middle step talks about AI. It is sandwiched between statements in the realm of your users (who couldn't care less about the particular technology that enables the solution).
The failure mode I've seen in some of the product pitches at the exhibition floor: Talking only about the middle step.
If you skip step 1, you haven't established why anyone should care. What's the job the user is trying to accomplish?
If you skip step 3, you haven't painted a vision of how the user's life is transformed for the better thanks to your solution.
Try this structure out on AI features you love and see how well it fits. Try it out on AI features you hate and see that something is missing (probably in steps 1 or 3). Most importantly, use it to evaluate your own product ideas involving AI.
