I wonder if business would run better if more leaders were trained in operations - if they actually learned the difference between good and bad process maybe they would stop being so gullible about the latest trends?
At this point I don’t think they care very much about learning. Some do but the majority don’t care. This is specficially in tech. It’s all about the $$$
This is so true, and something that I can see going terribly wrong (or continuing to go terribly wrong). Companies assuming the AI can do no wrong and removing human oversight
Removing human oversight is a fatal error on their part, but unless there is a shift in their thinking. How they perceive AI. Nothing will change. I appreciate you, Kim.
Spot on, Neela. Without fundamentals, AI can only magnify the problems. And even with them, we need oversight. But once enough people get on the train, it's unstoppable until there's a crash.
This took me back to a mental health company I worked for…when things went sideways and didn’t work out ‘the way they wanted it to,’ they blamed the customers.
Instead of taking accountability for their mishaps, it was easier to blame others.
You can take the human side out of customer experiences. It’s a must-have.
I am glad you wrote about this because all too often, I see customers being blamed for the problems people create and want an easy way out instead of taking accountability.
The data on AI failures is both astounding and not shocking. I read it, wondering what it will be like when (and if) those numbers move toward more successful implementations. If past behaviors are future predictors, we needn't worry much, but I still feel a little concern. Like, will that be an improvement on our lives when the AI projects don't fail at an impressive rate?
Anyway, I take your main point to be that every shiny new object isn't gold. Don't fall for foolish sparkly things and especially those that would profit from selling that crap.
Yeah, those AI failure stats are wild but honestly, I’m a bit relieved they’re still failing sometimes. Means there’s room to learn before we hand over too much control! We are still working without legislation and rules. In industries like hiring, bias is baked into the system much like before. Sharing with geek friends sounds like a great plan, Damon.
And it's always the 💩 in, 💩 out rhetoric that these people are ignoring. Shocking that they won't own up to it nonetheless... As if they became a founder in order to be right all the time instead of understanding it's just a new route to being wrong but with a bigger audience.
At least Siemiatkowski pivoted. Many companies with cut workforce down until it makes back the money for a bad software decision and and we admit defeat when even that doesn't cut costs enough.
Noone puts Neela in a corner. Unless it's the corner office... Glad he defended you!
And no, I hadn't seen it. I do like that they're being transparent. We do say try to de-market to some people right? Put them off so they don't waste our time to later found out we're a bad fit...
He is the best which is why I did not completely abandon tech just yet.
I appreciate the transparency too and it gives candidates a starting point. Zapier is also one of the better organized companies but they won’t get candidates for their jobs because it is rare for potential candidates to have this type of experience. From what I understand this is also very new for them. It will be interesting to see where this goes. I have an article sitting on draft about them. I need to take a look at it again.
The one thin string continuing to attach you to tech!
I agree that they won't get candidates who meet all of that, it's like a wishlist... People were already asking for 5 years experience in TIkTok when it had been launched 6 months ago though so I've seen worse ;)
"Four Deadly Sins" - spot-on, this explains exactly why so many of us are stuck yelling at a chatbot instead of talking to Mrs. Henderson.
There is alot of absurdity on how businesses roll out tech without truly understanding their own processes (or their customers!) But like you mentioned, who wants to admit that billion of dollars was wasted on tech shitcase? Nope.
Exactly sis! We’re automating chaos and calling it transformation.Mrs. Henderson would've never stood for it. She would offer tea and a working feedback loop.Have a brilliant weekend yourself, sis. 😊
I see this in so many places. It's like building a house with no blueprints. And, you are absolutely right - no one gets a promotion for mapping processes. Yet, you need that data to truly evaluate the problems and opportunities. We are often so quick to solve problems that we fail to employ critical thinking skills. As always, a great read, Neela!
Outstanding article! I think we live in a times where even the smartest have lost their heads. I follow some name AI consulting gurus on LinkedIn who don’t get you need to have great business processes first the change to work. They merely say of course when I point it out but they don’t get it.
This morning i read from one of the AI researchers I really like - Arvind Narayanan - that it is OK to screw about with low stakes processes like customer service. He is obviously a CompSci guy with absolutely no business understanding at all
You had so much in your article that it could have been a series. Individuals are just as bad as businesses, using GenAI as a hammer for everything when there are simpler, better things. Oddly, I see what I think of as non-computer literate people being the worst as the UI makes it so easy to use.
I am going to change my TechTonic publication to biweekly with an opinion piece and case studies of business implementing AI. It fits with my consulting initiative better and gives more time for it & the fiction
I smiled as twice you used a Britishism “whilst”. To Americans it makes you look smarter 😉
Thanks so much, David, I’m nodding along with everything you said here.
Arvind’s take made me pause too. Low-stakes or not, customer service is often the first impression someone has of a brand. Right now, I am dealing with a new team of doctors, and the doctors themselves are AMAZING, but their customer service is woeful. That's a dealbreaker for me.
PS Love the idea of you moving to a biweekly model with case studies.
That’s going to be pure gold for readers and clients alike.
I growing into the idea to have a theme like customer support or vibe coding and give lots of examples plus my thoughts.
One Silly Valley dufus responded to my comment on Arvind’s post with mumbo jumbo about zero customer acquisition cost, blah blah. I said what about real businesses like banks, airline companies , car rental firms not just $10 per month SaaS widgets that no one really needs
I keep eliminating more and more connections from my feed. I nay just write down the 20 people I want to see and go directly to them. And I use the most recent sort which eliminates most algorithm issues
When I was more active there I would avoid the feed and work from an excel sheet. The problem is some of the people from that sheet gave up. Rightfully so. In my article today, I discuss why lol
The organizations most taken in by this stuff are usually the ones least equipped to implement it well.
Customer Service is deeply nuanced, and anyone who thinks you can just plug in a chatbot and walk away clearly hasn’t spent any time on the front lines.
What you end up with is failure. And worse, blame pushed onto the wrong people.
You have aced it! So many corners stood out to me. Brilliant piece per usual!
Recently contacting institutions we need for everyday life e.g., banks in India have become a pain in the rear because there is no human rep, everything is AI and it bloody does not work.
Also the bit about Josh - there are no magic fixes, not with AI, not without it.
Josh is an idiot lol. Oh they did the same with the banks here. I think we have one CSR at the counter mostly for business. Cuttting corners don’t work long term. They will learn the hard way Priyanka. Thank you so much for taking the time….
I remember a while ago you asked me what kind of work I am looking for - well, here it is: customer service. I want to be the real human. I totally loved that job. In a perfect world, I would answer customer emails. Beautifully. With grace and care, and with data and knowledge. I love untangling people’s problems and requests and getting the best result for everyone. Good customer service can turn one sale into a lifetime of sales.
Great post that made me homesick for my favourite gig!
I appreciate good customer service because I rarely find it these days.
There are still some companies resisting the tech change, like In-N-Out Burgers.
She has several touchpoints of human connection before you collect your burger. She keeps her costs down by resisting technology, and she pays he workers very well.
I see this everywhere - luckily, the place I'm at has NOT done this - but a bunch of our partners are throwing around the word AI and expecting magic. I always think that instead of optimizing (which they're not), they need to conduct a Root Cause Analysis - not on the company or its processes, but on themselves, because they're not thinking clearly.
This is brilliant advice. You can’t optimize what you haven’t figured out how to do well manually 🤯🤯 This should be a mandatory course in high school or at least a bumper sticker
I didn’t expect to get a dose of therapy in the middle of reading about companies haphazardly deploying AI.
As a self-help book/app addict, it has taken me a few years to figure out if you haven’t gotten to the root cause of your shit, no book/app/program/robot is going to help. And as you so cleverly stated, same mantra applies to businesses.
Sometimes reading your work is like hearing myself just in your voice... the voice of commonsense is the rarest of all when business is afoot
David, you always get to the marrow of it.
Common sense should be a leadership KPI. But alas, it’s often the first thing sacrificed at the altar of scale. This is the highest compliment ever.
Thank you for taking the time...
I wonder if business would run better if more leaders were trained in operations - if they actually learned the difference between good and bad process maybe they would stop being so gullible about the latest trends?
Short answer is yes.
At this point I don’t think they care very much about learning. Some do but the majority don’t care. This is specficially in tech. It’s all about the $$$
This is so true, and something that I can see going terribly wrong (or continuing to go terribly wrong). Companies assuming the AI can do no wrong and removing human oversight
Removing human oversight is a fatal error on their part, but unless there is a shift in their thinking. How they perceive AI. Nothing will change. I appreciate you, Kim.
Yup. It’s sad
Spot on, Neela. Without fundamentals, AI can only magnify the problems. And even with them, we need oversight. But once enough people get on the train, it's unstoppable until there's a crash.
So true, Lisa. Oversight is about course correction before the whole train goes off the rails. Thanks for adding to the conversation.
I hope you are having a good week.
This took me back to a mental health company I worked for…when things went sideways and didn’t work out ‘the way they wanted it to,’ they blamed the customers.
Instead of taking accountability for their mishaps, it was easier to blame others.
You can take the human side out of customer experiences. It’s a must-have.
Always insightful articles as usual, sis!
Yes! Blaming the very people you exist to serve is peak dysfunction.
I’m so glad you brought this up.
It’s the part of the conversation we often shy away from but desperately need sis.
I appreciate you :)
I am glad you wrote about this because all too often, I see customers being blamed for the problems people create and want an easy way out instead of taking accountability.
I appreciate you more! :)
The data on AI failures is both astounding and not shocking. I read it, wondering what it will be like when (and if) those numbers move toward more successful implementations. If past behaviors are future predictors, we needn't worry much, but I still feel a little concern. Like, will that be an improvement on our lives when the AI projects don't fail at an impressive rate?
Anyway, I take your main point to be that every shiny new object isn't gold. Don't fall for foolish sparkly things and especially those that would profit from selling that crap.
Sharing this with my geekier friends.
Yeah, those AI failure stats are wild but honestly, I’m a bit relieved they’re still failing sometimes. Means there’s room to learn before we hand over too much control! We are still working without legislation and rules. In industries like hiring, bias is baked into the system much like before. Sharing with geek friends sounds like a great plan, Damon.
Thank you so much for the support here.
Enjoy your evening.
I want you in my business meetings. If for nothing else, so we can have a second person in the room rolling our eyes.
I would love that, Nick.
I am the ONLY one rolling my eyes at meetings.
I have this permanent condition because of it LOL
Thank you for the chuckle....
I have been in many a meeting where I cringe at the business speak. And how meetings never end as there is always one more person with a thought.
People LOVE hearing themselves say so much yet so very little.
Very rampant in tech ….
I love that you put it to the test 😈
And it's always the 💩 in, 💩 out rhetoric that these people are ignoring. Shocking that they won't own up to it nonetheless... As if they became a founder in order to be right all the time instead of understanding it's just a new route to being wrong but with a bigger audience.
At least Siemiatkowski pivoted. Many companies with cut workforce down until it makes back the money for a bad software decision and and we admit defeat when even that doesn't cut costs enough.
I always call bullshit Nadine.
That's why they want to start omitting me from meetings.
My client. The one who pays me was like, "not so fast."
Most of these visionaries don't have a clue.
I don't know if you saw this post on LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7336454428515889153/
I wonder what you think about their take on Marketing....
As always, thank you for taking the time Nadine...
Noone puts Neela in a corner. Unless it's the corner office... Glad he defended you!
And no, I hadn't seen it. I do like that they're being transparent. We do say try to de-market to some people right? Put them off so they don't waste our time to later found out we're a bad fit...
What are your thoughts?
Oh man Nadine.
He is the best which is why I did not completely abandon tech just yet.
I appreciate the transparency too and it gives candidates a starting point. Zapier is also one of the better organized companies but they won’t get candidates for their jobs because it is rare for potential candidates to have this type of experience. From what I understand this is also very new for them. It will be interesting to see where this goes. I have an article sitting on draft about them. I need to take a look at it again.
Happy Friday Nadine.
Thank you always…
The one thin string continuing to attach you to tech!
I agree that they won't get candidates who meet all of that, it's like a wishlist... People were already asking for 5 years experience in TIkTok when it had been launched 6 months ago though so I've seen worse ;)
Looking forward to that article!
"Four Deadly Sins" - spot-on, this explains exactly why so many of us are stuck yelling at a chatbot instead of talking to Mrs. Henderson.
There is alot of absurdity on how businesses roll out tech without truly understanding their own processes (or their customers!) But like you mentioned, who wants to admit that billion of dollars was wasted on tech shitcase? Nope.
Have a beautiful weekend Neela love.
Exactly sis! We’re automating chaos and calling it transformation.Mrs. Henderson would've never stood for it. She would offer tea and a working feedback loop.Have a brilliant weekend yourself, sis. 😊
Thank you for always taking the time…………..
Always sister ❤️
I see this in so many places. It's like building a house with no blueprints. And, you are absolutely right - no one gets a promotion for mapping processes. Yet, you need that data to truly evaluate the problems and opportunities. We are often so quick to solve problems that we fail to employ critical thinking skills. As always, a great read, Neela!
So true Karen.
We all want quick fixes, but without that foundational data, we’re basically guessing in the dark. Appreciate you taking the time to read and engage!
Outstanding article! I think we live in a times where even the smartest have lost their heads. I follow some name AI consulting gurus on LinkedIn who don’t get you need to have great business processes first the change to work. They merely say of course when I point it out but they don’t get it.
This morning i read from one of the AI researchers I really like - Arvind Narayanan - that it is OK to screw about with low stakes processes like customer service. He is obviously a CompSci guy with absolutely no business understanding at all
You had so much in your article that it could have been a series. Individuals are just as bad as businesses, using GenAI as a hammer for everything when there are simpler, better things. Oddly, I see what I think of as non-computer literate people being the worst as the UI makes it so easy to use.
I am going to change my TechTonic publication to biweekly with an opinion piece and case studies of business implementing AI. It fits with my consulting initiative better and gives more time for it & the fiction
I smiled as twice you used a Britishism “whilst”. To Americans it makes you look smarter 😉
Thanks so much, David, I’m nodding along with everything you said here.
Arvind’s take made me pause too. Low-stakes or not, customer service is often the first impression someone has of a brand. Right now, I am dealing with a new team of doctors, and the doctors themselves are AMAZING, but their customer service is woeful. That's a dealbreaker for me.
PS Love the idea of you moving to a biweekly model with case studies.
That’s going to be pure gold for readers and clients alike.
Thank you for always taking the time David..
I growing into the idea to have a theme like customer support or vibe coding and give lots of examples plus my thoughts.
One Silly Valley dufus responded to my comment on Arvind’s post with mumbo jumbo about zero customer acquisition cost, blah blah. I said what about real businesses like banks, airline companies , car rental firms not just $10 per month SaaS widgets that no one really needs
Oh yes, the mythical $0 CAC and infinite scale, right up there with unicorn tears and Series A fairy dust. I bet you get a dumb reply.
Haven’t looked yet. Only check LinkedIn once per day
I lasted 5 minutes on there today 😂
I had a post but I keep rescheduling 🤣
I keep eliminating more and more connections from my feed. I nay just write down the 20 people I want to see and go directly to them. And I use the most recent sort which eliminates most algorithm issues
When I was more active there I would avoid the feed and work from an excel sheet. The problem is some of the people from that sheet gave up. Rightfully so. In my article today, I discuss why lol
Happy Thursday David.
100% agree!
The organizations most taken in by this stuff are usually the ones least equipped to implement it well.
Customer Service is deeply nuanced, and anyone who thinks you can just plug in a chatbot and walk away clearly hasn’t spent any time on the front lines.
What you end up with is failure. And worse, blame pushed onto the wrong people.
Yesssss Bette! And the blame game that follows is the worst.
It’s always the people on the ground who get left cleaning up the mess.
Happy Wednesday to you.
I hope you are having a good week….
You have aced it! So many corners stood out to me. Brilliant piece per usual!
Recently contacting institutions we need for everyday life e.g., banks in India have become a pain in the rear because there is no human rep, everything is AI and it bloody does not work.
Also the bit about Josh - there are no magic fixes, not with AI, not without it.
Josh is an idiot lol. Oh they did the same with the banks here. I think we have one CSR at the counter mostly for business. Cuttting corners don’t work long term. They will learn the hard way Priyanka. Thank you so much for taking the time….
I remember a while ago you asked me what kind of work I am looking for - well, here it is: customer service. I want to be the real human. I totally loved that job. In a perfect world, I would answer customer emails. Beautifully. With grace and care, and with data and knowledge. I love untangling people’s problems and requests and getting the best result for everyone. Good customer service can turn one sale into a lifetime of sales.
Great post that made me homesick for my favourite gig!
You are that kind of human, Cecilia.
I appreciate good customer service because I rarely find it these days.
There are still some companies resisting the tech change, like In-N-Out Burgers.
She has several touchpoints of human connection before you collect your burger. She keeps her costs down by resisting technology, and she pays he workers very well.
Thank you for taking the time :)
Is that the really old burger chain? There is one in Visalia that I visit with my son. He loves them.
It is. The daughter inherited the business and she does an amazing job. I use her in case studies all the time...
Well we love it! How wonderful that it is still in the family.
It is… :)
I see this everywhere - luckily, the place I'm at has NOT done this - but a bunch of our partners are throwing around the word AI and expecting magic. I always think that instead of optimizing (which they're not), they need to conduct a Root Cause Analysis - not on the company or its processes, but on themselves, because they're not thinking clearly.
Root Cause Analysis on themselves" might just be the most honest suggestion in every strategy meeting no one dares to say out loud.
Love that your org is resisting the AI glitter bomb.
I see this happening in the Caribbean, too.
They couldn't be bothered until some random corporate office decides to make AI mandatory.
May your clarity continue to spread, Parves.
Thank you so much for taking the time...
This is brilliant advice. You can’t optimize what you haven’t figured out how to do well manually 🤯🤯 This should be a mandatory course in high school or at least a bumper sticker
Yes Shlee!
Let’s get that bumper sticker made: ‘Automate nothing until you can survive without WiFi.’
Thank you so much for taking the time.
Happy Tuesday!
I love it! 😂
I didn’t expect to get a dose of therapy in the middle of reading about companies haphazardly deploying AI.
As a self-help book/app addict, it has taken me a few years to figure out if you haven’t gotten to the root cause of your shit, no book/app/program/robot is going to help. And as you so cleverly stated, same mantra applies to businesses.
Great read.
Therapy mid-essay = best unintended side effect! 😂
Seriously, though, you’re right.
The apps and algorithms are just glitter until we face what’s underneath.
Grateful for your insight & your support, Karen.
Enjoy the rest of your day!