CEO & Founder @ Ziflow | Leading Innovation in Online Proofing | Former CTO at ProofHQ, Successfully Exited to Adobe Workfront
Everywhere you look: AI in the H1. .ai in the domain. "AI-first." "AI success." It feels like we’re tiptoeing the line between innovation and obsession. But here’s the risk: Being purely AI-driven could become a liability. In the 1980s and 90s, we admired market-driven giants: → Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Dell → Masters at listening to customers, refining products, and delivering consistent value Then came the market-driving disruptors: → IKEA in the 90s: self-service, flat-pack innovation → Apple in the 2000s: creating demand for products we didn’t know we needed → Tesla in the 2010s: reshaping how we think about cars In both cases, two things were always true: → The customer was the focal point (i.e. someone actually spoke to them) → The product helped them achieve new goals Now? We’re in the AI-driven(obsessed) era. And it gets risky when you over-index on the tech. → Builder.ai raised $250M+ in 2023 to fuel their AI growth → Promised app-building “as easy as ordering pizza” → Filed for bankruptcy last week → Inflection AI raised $1.5B with minimal revenue → Gone. → Olive AI. Artifact. Ghost Autonomy. → All gone. And here’s the stat that should sober up every founder: 90% of AI startups fail. Not because AI is broken - but because the product didn’t solve a real problem. No market pull. Just tech for tech’s sake in a lot of cases. We're constantly hearing about the 5-person team that hit $10M ARR. But we rarely hear about the hundreds that burned millions and never made it past a pilot. AI is an incredible enabler. It can help you ship better products, faster. But let’s be clear: If your product doesn’t deliver long-term value, it won’t matter how much AI is inside. This isn’t just about how you build. It’s about what you build and who it helps.
true. feels like ai’s becoming a feature, not a business. do you see any space where it actually holds up as the core product?
Such posts would get more eyeballs. Whoever thinks long term should focus on solving real pain problem not just for a sake of AI thing.
I can agree with this on that AI can’t be the sole driving factor to facilitate your whole model in driving conversion and consumers to use your product or platforms. So it’s important to have different branches that allow you to use the AI as a helper not the whole package!!! Having different areas in which you can drive consumers to continue to use your product is super important and is needed for the longevity of your company.
AI for AI's sake is pretty stupid. AI because it can provide real business value to something else? Not as stupid now, but still potentially stupid lol.
Anthony Welgemoed You're circling the real issue that most haven’t named yet: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁. The new AI boom is defaulting to speed without structure — 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗼 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰. That’s why even “AI success” stories stall out downstream. Thinking OS™ was built for this exact moment. Not to compete with tools, but to govern them — with compressed clarity, constraint-aware sequencing, and layered discernment. Speed is only leverage if it’s pointed at the right target. Otherwise, it's just an accelerator for entropy.
Well said. A lot of things will shake out soon and the market will clarify. I didn't say it would be pretty.
Don’t worry. People will soon knee jerk to the next over hyped tech when it comes along. I’m sure we will shortly be seeing - Quantum recruitment - Quantum security - Low / no code Quantum solutions - Quantum advertising - Quantum governance - Quantum analytics You name it, and the latest tech de jour will be placed in front of every existing industry/sector/use case. Remember blockchain?
Startup Whisperer & GTM Executive | Commercial Leader | Executive Advisor | Connector | Career Coach | Agentic Advertising | Generative Engine Optimization | PLG | Marketing Strategy | ex Sage, ex Google
19hI was at the Dublin Tech Summit last week, going from booth to booth. Almost all startups had AI in their name. I tried to poke and see what that really means. However, some CTOs couldn’t differentiate what they do vs what other competitors in the category do. So if you can’t make one buyer value sentence about your product without mentioning AI or product, I am afraid you are in trouble!