How to Kill Your Business Using AI
Me, camera in hand, trying to objectify the world
aka, my happy place.
I’m what some people might describe as chronically online - have been since I was able to get ON the internet. Typing over talking? My absolute favorite. Even my preferred artistic format of choice - photography - offers the same kind of physical separation from the real world that using AIM did - I get to interact with people THROUGH a tool as opposed to being fully present face to face.
I was an early adopter to social media, uploading my drawings and paintings via FTP to art sites, getting on Facebook as soon as I had a college email address, and intuitively flowing through each new channel that came my way (with some weird exception being Twitter, but I assume that’s because it’s not really a visuals-based platform).
By all counts, and my Millennial birthright, I should be an avid and early adopter of AI tools as well. But I’m not.
Maybe it’s the Fine Art degree in me, but I find the constant drive toward productivity to be, well, uninspiring and draining. Most of the conversation I see around AI is about staying separate, optimizing, freeing up time through increased efficiency, better output, less need to engage with other people, more instant gratification of just getting answers instantaneously.
The new assumption that a synthesis of all the information out there by a program designed to please you will give you the RIGHT response, and that that should be all we need to proceed is deeply flawed. That the data processing, how fast you can get answers, and the resulting time savings are the only critical factors in company success. The new rule seems to be that unless AI is involved, it can’t be quality.
A lot of people in business will always fight to say that the quantitative always supersedes the qualitative. They believe there is a RIGHT answer to their challenges, and that the only way to find it and stay competitive is with AI.
They’re wrong.
The biggest myth in business is that there is a right answer out there, a smarter person, a stronger best practice. By and large, this isn’t true at all. What gets businesses to succeed is practice making decisions the right way, excellent critical thinking skills, strong EQ and communication, and well integrated Mission, Vision, and Values. When there’s an overreliance on ANY tool, entrepreneurs open themselves up to risk of eliminating their ability to function without it, and when something as important as critical thinking is outsourced, the risks skyrocket - not just because the entrepreneur loses critical thinking skills, but because they’ve been outsourced to essentially, what amounts to a group-think machine. Where’s the competitive edge in that?
Now don’t get me wrong - good data, market research, analysis, and operational efficiency are also critical to success, and AI can help automate so many of those things. However, like making sure you have the right hire in the right role, AI shouldn’t be considered a solve for all elements in your business.
Here are the biggest three places where using AI could cost you your bottom line:
Interviewing, Hiring, and Employee Engagement: No one likes being treated like “human capital,” or faceless and replaceable “talent.” Business serves people - employees, founders, clients, and investors - not technology. Creating unnecessary separation from our humanity through using AI in moments that are supposed to increase our human connection and help us find the value in each other leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. There is incredible value in our shared humanity, especially when we’re all signing on to make a vision come to life. Remove the humanity from these processes, and what do we have left? Why bother at all? Why bother to ask for the support of a community or team if your priority is to keep the humanity out of it for the sake of “efficiency?”
Coaching: Using AI as a business coach will make sure you lose your competitive edge and fall victim to bias. When you only ask the hive mind what it thinks, you’ll get what everyone else thinks. Hiring the right-fit coach will help make sure that you keep your critical thinking skills sharp, make sure you stay grounded through tough moments through real, empathetic connection and support, learn how to make decisions the RIGHT WAY as opposed to the “right decision,” and support incredible breakthroughs through empathy and intuition.
Content and Communication: AI driven content creation is everywhere these days, and platforms are just content machines that need to be fed. But if you’re using the same resources as everyone else, getting the same information, and posting the same kind of content - are you really using these platforms to the best of your advantage? Keep yourself sharp and make sure that the things you share on the internet, with your clients, with your team, come from a real place or risk being skipped over in everyone’s feed. When we treat our own words as disposible, something to just “get out there,” we also treat everyone’s attention as replaceable, as unimportant, and if that was the case, what’s the point in posting at all?
Well, Liora, that’s all well and good. But what is AI good for then? Where will it make me money? Stop being a curmudgeon!
AI definitely has its places where it can do amazing things for your business! Here are some general guidelines for how to tell when you’re using AI as a tool as opposed to a stop gap for every question and problem that comes your way:
Data: Does the challenge you face concern data analysis? Pattern recognition? Probably a great spot to consider an AI tool to help you notice things that you wouldn’t otherwise see.
Market Research and Customer Insights: Do you need to find out what your customers are searching for? What else they look for? How they use google? Amazing. There’s an AI tool for that.
Operational Efficiency: Repeatable administrative tasks got you down? AI can help organize and keep you on track and focused, set reminders, or manage your calendar.
Basically, look for places ruled by data and repetition, not places that require and benefit from engagement, innovation, listening, caring, and building relationships. Emphasize their use in the quantitative so that there’s energy available for the humans to focus on the qualitative.
No one would start a business if they truly believed that their unique perspective didn’t matter or couldn’t create incredible impact in their world - and that’s on the qualitative, baybee. Stay inspired, stay original, keep growing, and don’t outsource your thinking to the void.
Want to sharpen your qualitative skill sets? That’s my favorite thing. Let’s chat.
