Field note · Customer growth
I Was Asking the Wrong Question About AI
The useful starting point is not which process AI can make cheaper. It is which customer experience was previously impossible.
Efficiency is a narrow doorway
Most AI conversations begin with efficiency: where can we remove time, cost or labor? Those are legitimate questions, but they anchor the organization to today’s process.
A stronger question is what valuable customer experience abundant intelligence now makes possible. The answer may require a different journey, different information at the point of action and different authority for the people serving the customer.
Work backward from the relationship
Start with the relationship the company wants to earn. What would make the customer feel recognized, better equipped or more confident? What must the enterprise know, decide and remember to create that experience repeatedly?
Only then choose the technology. The decision is not to ignore efficiency. It is to prevent efficiency from defining the ambition.
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Essays and field notes for leaders building through the machine age.