I was sitting in a roadmap presentation meeting last week, and a bunch of teams were actively figuring out ways to apply AI to solve their problems better and more efficiently. Typically, it’s inertial business as usual at most places. Switching tools is especially abnormal. People are busy, they don’t have the time to explore new things. And there’s risk. The current thing works; the new thing may not and backfire. Plus, there’s organizational complexity to herd.
But AI has caused large ripples, waves rather, due to both capability and hype. It has infected board rooms with the main fuel of capitalism: greed and fear. “My golf buddies at Davos said AI is going to replace workers and upend incumbents, what’s your plan for that?”, they ask management teams, who cascade the question downward. Everyone across the corporate layer cake have also read the same articles and have had their aha! moments with ChatGPT, so there’s more shared belief with the pointy-haired bosses. Now there’s cover, incentive, and organizational activation energy to take the risk and invest the time. They are actually reading those cold sales emails, attending the webinars, and are open to calls and demos. The iron’s hot.
The best time to sell is when the market is actively and desperately seeking what you’re selling. It’s hard to convince people about a new solution, and even harder to get them to care about a new problem or threat. Many collective breakthroughs and forces, usually beyond any individual’s influence, have to transpire to cause such big inflections at scale. But when that happens, the seas part and create a passage. If you’re early, able, and prepared, you can simply walk across.
A very practical outlook.