'A Bleeping Nightmare'
Top-down transformation nightmares and 2 other takeaways about integrating AI into enterprises from members and guests
Editor’s Note: It was the last Friday in September and so we assembled all our members, experts and guests for our end of the month virtual event. These events are shaped by the group dynamic; we start with a plan, but the group dictates the discourse.
We came into this session with a plan: provoke Peter Pawlick, head of experience design at Proto. Pawlick published a 5 part series on our platform about AI simulations and his perspective deserved attention. If you haven’t read it yet, here it is in a nutshell: design thinking is dying and many brands and agencies don’t know it yet.
Design thinking is the engine that drives digital transformation. It is an endless iterative and agile process that is designed to ‘move fast and break shit.’ It is more than a method, it is a culture. And that culture is about to be replaced.
Synthetic data and other generative AI systems make it possible to preview ideas before they are designed or built. This means that an enterprise that wants to chase a north star vision can stress test 10,000 pathways to get there before deploying any capital on design or development.
In other words, move fast and break synthetic shit so the first public launch is a guaranteed success (or so the theory goes).
As I was saying, we came into the session with, dare I say, a good plan. But like all good plans, it fizzled on first contact; the group took over the discourse. I love when that happens.
The group was full of agency leaders, enterprise representatives, and founders in AI startups. In other words, all sides of the digital transformation spectrum were covered.
Here are 2 other takeaways from the group - anonymized in the way we always do:
Matt Chmiel
Head of Discourse
Discover more discourse directly in your inbox.
Sign up for the ON_Discourse Newsletter.
1. The AI Firewall
We heard perspective from members who have been struggling to sell AI builds and services into corporate clients.
The only groups willing to consider these services are the marketing and customer service departments. The use-case is pretty clear: the content and services can live freely outside of the company firewall; mistakes in this instance are a minor issue rather than a compliance nightmare.
The rest of the organization is dragging its feet, for good reason. As we’ve heard in other events, AI is great at rapid prototyping but not running a product or ensuring compliance. As one insider put it, AI might work for "marketing procurement, but AI within the rest of the organization is going to be pretty slow.”
Top-down AI transformation is a fucking nightmare.
2. Realistic AI
Now let’s drill deeper: what is the conversation like for the few corporations that are willing to integrate AI deeper into the org-chart? We heard a few perspectives that might influence the way you collaborate with partners.
“AI is not a magic button” and “LLMs are not always the answer to the problem.” The real problem is that expectations for how this technology can help is not fully understood. This creates a communication issue that blows up if not addressed the right way.
One of our members put it bluntly: “Top-down AI transformation is a fucking nightmare.” In other words, employees reject it and compliance pushes back. One blocker comes in after another.
Real change is coming from the bottom-up, where employees (or agencies) are hacking together solutions, often without waiting for permission. One group is speeding up brand assets and media buying. Another group uncovered a way to track and deal with disinformation in social media using AI tools. This is opening up new service-offerings that were never before considered.
This perspective is important because it represents an agency offering for recalcitrant enterprises: do not look for the silver bullet; instead, build tools that solve specific problems. Keep adding new tools, solving new problems, eventually developing a suite of services.
We run a Group Chat every week. If you want to participate, inquire about membership here. If you want to keep up with the perspectives that we hear, you can subscribe to our weekly newsletter.