The Customer Doesn’t Care About Your Buzzwords

As has been the case since technoly has existed, businesses will always flaunt they have the latest and greatest tech at their disposal in order to gain attention. Nowadays, that technology is artificial intelligence. Yet, the organizations that have adopted AI are still rare.

Let’s face it, you don’t have to read a report to know that companies are late to adopt artificial intelligence. First, history has shown us that humans are notoriously bad at adopting new stuff before they’re proven to be useful; technology being one of them. Second, developing the capability requires competence and resources. Large organizations have the means to acquire or develop competence and resources to build, but lack the will to experiment; small and mid-size businesses have a harder path towards adoption.

I recently had a chat with the CEO of a logistics company about a system they invested in. He claimed that said system uses artificial intelligence, but I soon found out this wasn’t the case when I probed for details. He said his competitors had invested in a similar system and are telling their clients / prospects to be using artificial intelligence.

This CEO was flabbergasted when I showed him that the developer’s claims are untrue. Yes, the system makes use of data but it’s mostly analytics.

And this is the way it goes. Just like innovation and disruption became buzzwords that businesses used to describe themselves, the truth is most of it is a bunch of bullshit. They talk about it but don’t walk the talk. Same goes with artificial intelligence.


Bottom line: Customers aren’t dumb. The customer doesn’t give a shit if you’re innovative or not. They only care that what you say you will deliver actually happens. That’s how they’ll judge you.

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