The AI Temptation
Every founder I talk to wants to add AI to their product. It's understandable — AI is transforming industries and the pressure to keep up is real. But here's the thing: not every problem needs AI, and jumping in without the right foundation can waste time and money.
When AI Makes Sense
AI is worth the investment when you have:
1. Repetitive, High-Volume Tasks
If your team is doing the same thing thousands of times with minor variations, AI can help. Customer support, document processing, data entry — these are prime candidates.
2. Pattern Recognition at Scale
Humans are great at spotting patterns, but we get tired. AI doesn't. Fraud detection, anomaly detection, recommendation systems — these work because AI can process more data than any human team.
3. Personalization Requirements
When you need to deliver customized experiences to thousands or millions of users, AI becomes essential. One-size-fits-all doesn't cut it anymore.
4. Clear Success Metrics
You need to be able to measure whether AI is working. "Make our product smarter" isn't a goal — "reduce support ticket response time by 50%" is.
When AI Doesn't Make Sense
Skip AI (for now) if:
1. You Don't Have Data
AI needs data to learn. If you're just starting out and don't have historical data to train on, you're better off building that foundation first.
2. The Problem is Simple
If a few if-then rules can solve your problem, don't overcomplicate it. AI adds complexity and maintenance burden.
3. You Can't Define Success
If you don't know what "better" looks like, you can't train a system to achieve it. Start with clear objectives.
4. It's a Solution Looking for a Problem
"We should use AI" is not a strategy. Start with the problem, then evaluate solutions.
The Framework
Before investing in AI, ask yourself:
1. **Volume**: Are we dealing with enough volume to justify automation?
2. **Patterns**: Are there learnable patterns in the data?
3. **Data**: Do we have (or can we get) enough quality data?
4. **Metrics**: Can we measure success clearly?
5. **Alternatives**: Have we exhausted simpler solutions?
If you answered "yes" to all five, AI probably makes sense. If not, you might want to start with simpler approaches and revisit AI later.
Next Steps
Want to evaluate whether AI makes sense for your specific situation? Book a free Discovery Call and we'll work through the framework together.