Can AI enshittify your business?
A few questions a seasoned businessman couldn't answer
Yesterday I met Zorica, a friend I hadn’t seen for almost a year.
We talked about everything: her job, mine, and of course, we ended up talking about what we see AI is changing in the world.
She told me a story that means a lot. She participated in a conference where experienced business owners talked about best practices and AI. Here it goes…
I think my friend caught the participants unprepared with her questions. Her pivot to the narrative blew me away!
This is the picture:
A seasoned businessman explaining to the audience how he is using AI to change the strategic approach of his company. He used all the words showing he knows what he was talking about.
His focus, unsurprisingly, was on decreasing costs and increasing margins. He even anticipated fewer employees.
Then my friend could not resist the temptation of interrupting his enthusiasm with a few questions:
I assume that the success of your company, achieved in decades, is the result of years of adaptations, strategy, experience, and rational thinking. Am I right?
He responded:
Oh yes! Lots of rational thinking, trying, testing, refining. That’s exactly...
She interrupted him:
And all that experience, rational thinking, trial and error is what you want to remove with AI?
How did you rationally come up with that decision?
What is the source of almost unconditional trust you get from chatting with AI?
He was so into AI that he could not even understand the questions my friend made.
Are we able to see the real potential of AI for business use just by chatting with ur favorite LLM?
It seemed to me like the AI narrative is so powerful that many of us jumped too fast and assumed, imagined, its outcome, its potential, before we even understood where the AI tech is in its lifecycle.
My friend told me that one of the risks of using too much AI for a business is to lose their touch, the skills and relationships they built over time.
That made me remember what I said to a consulting customer a few days ago:
Knowledge belongs to the company, and now it is cheap to get, but personal skills are so much more valuable and belong to the people.
Have you heard the word Enshittification? As far as I understand, it describes a decline in the quality of digital platforms and services. Do you think AI can play a role in the Enshittification of business practices?
I wish you a peaceful rest of the week,
Jose from Automato
