Founders Are Blaming AI for a Problem That Isn’t AI

Read time: 2.5 minutes

Is AI a Culpable Excuse or a Diagnostic Condition — How to Tell?

1. When your customers leave you for your competition because AI is the reason why they were driven to them, they’ll have taken their business with them.

Real disruption occurs by substitution not addition.
Solution: Monitor the destination of your departing clients, not simply the reason they are departing.

2. AI will kill your product first if it is a non-mandatory tool.

When budgetary cuts occur and workflows change, non-mandatory tools cease to exist.
Solution: Integrate into your systems of record (if your product can be found on a tab, it is likely going to fail).

3. When your product must explain the ROI of AI to your clients, your product never had a long life expectancy.

AI may eliminate strong value but it will not eliminate unclear value.
Solution: Reduce your overall value proposition to a single measurable difference: Cost ($); Revenue (+$); Risk (-$).

4. If your organization’s differentiation is “features,” then you were always exposed to loss of competitive advantage.

AI will quickly eliminate your advantage in features.
Solution: Establish your competitive advantage by owning the workflow, distributing the workflow/results, and leveraging it within the decision-making process.

5. If you had actual Product/Market Fit, the behaviour of your customers would be very "sticky".

Actual Product/Market Fit does not simply disappear.
Solution: Evaluate retention of your customer base by department (job title) and by workflow frequency (how often does your customer return to use your product), rather than "users".

💡Key Takeaway: 

AI isn’t the reason most startups lose traction. It’s just the first excuse that sounds smart enough to avoid the real diagnosis.