If you're a software provider, here's some handy hints about how to sell your AI solution.
(Full disclosure - I'm an IT Sales and Marketing consultant. hello@davefrancisconsulting.com )
The world seems, at the moment, to be full of small IT providers trying to capitalise on the AI revolution.
Riding on a wave of popularity, large numbers of software companies sprang up over the last few years, all developing novel solutions for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning which would obviously revolutionise the world of work and commerce.
And it doesn't seem to have happened.
Even with luminaries such as Elon Musk lecturing Rishi Sunak on AI this week - if either said it was daytime, I'd look out of the window - none of the predictions about AI replacing vast amounts of jobs or being used for nefarious purposes seem to have come true.
A recent survey by the University of Manchester revealed that out of 1500 companies in Manchester, ranging from SMEs to large Corporates, only 1% had an intention to consider "AI" in the next 12 months. (The main thrust of interest was towards Digital Transformation, incidentally.)
Looking at Linkedin, the internet in general and the press, there seems to be absolutely no correlation between all the noise about AI and reality.
So was it all just hype ?
Smoke and mirrors
After you've been in IT for some time - in my case, 30 years, you start realising that the vast majority of IT predictions and prognostications belong in the world of smoke and mirrors. Catchphrases, such as "Digital Transformation" spring up with depressing regularity - the latest buzz word.
Anyone talking about the Metaverse any more ?
Public perception of AI
The general public have no real idea of what AI is.... neither does the world of commerce. Rather than being a positive selling point - the processing of vast data sets at high speed - AI has become, really, a joke and a buzz word which no one really understands. The hype has overtaken the usefulness - and everyone is trying to push "AI" - and disappearing into the crowd.
"AI" is basically something which is regarded as being cryptic, overhyped and .... suspicious.
AI isn't new
Believe it or not, "Artificial intelligence" isn't new. Really, the only thing new about Artificial Intelligence is the popularisation of the term itself - originally coined in 1952 to describe a chess programme, "AI" has been applied throughout the years in an attempt to describe Turing machines - ones which could potentially fool an observer into believing they were conversing with a human, rather than a machine. This all tenuously links back to the idea of the "computer as brain" - if you've ever tried a conversation with an AI chatbot recently, you'll realise we're a long way off that.
Back in 2009, I was selling "predictive analytic" solutions which attempted to detect potential buying patterns amongst shoppers. Theoretically, this could have been described as AI, but if you've seen your suggested purchases on any shopping site or "you may like" suggestions on Facebook, you may have also concluded that AI has a long way to go in that area as well.
All AI is is, really, a selection of weighted decisions which come to a conclusion based on interrogating a number of data sources. This is just, really, a fundamental of computing, there's nothing particularly fancy about it - it's just that the speed and interconnectivity of computers now mean that more data sources can be processed and the underlying code executed in a human acceptable time.
AI has a commercial use. So. How do you sell it ?
Stop trying to sell "AI".... sell a solution.
And here we come to the meat of the article.
Briefly: if you position your company as selling "An AI application", then you're on a loser. You will disappear into a mass of potential providers who are all offering an overhyped and misunderstood term.
It's far better to sell a solution instead.
By way of example, let's take a recruitment agency who deal with thousands of incoming CVs a day, and then match them to a list of thousands of vacancies. Obviously a software solution is needed, and "an intelligent one" as well. (Dangerous term, "intelligence". It's not "intelligent" in human terms, it's just more selective according to a set of programmed rules and decisions.)
Now, that's a useful solution. Theoretically, it should be marketable and useful to any large recruitment agency out there.
Until you slap a big "AI" label on it. Then it becomes something suspicious, difficult to understand and incomprehensible to most people - and - indistinguishable from all your other "AI" competitors.
If, however, you sell it as "having massive processing power, with a selective engine which allows you to seamlessly and easily match candidates to jobs in seconds" then you're displaying commercial use.
Rather than presenting something which "looks like a load of old hype", you've sold the benefits of the solution. Which is what you're trying to do.
Take a consultative approach
One other thing that's never somehow mentioned with AI is that it's never a "one size fits all" approach. Any AI / ML engine has to be trained with the correct data and decision weighting..... this costs time and money.
If you're trying to sell a solution using a "Bonzo the Wonder Dog of AI" approach, you are going to run into an issue when it transpires that it's not an immediate plug in which solves all their woes overnight.
Unless you want to attract potential customers only to disappoint them later, that is. Set out your store, "our client list includes" and "case study, we save <Company X> £1m over three months."
Why not include a savings calculator as well ?
In conclusion
No two doubts, AI can greatly benefit a company by offering them efficiencies in automation and intelligent data processing.
However.
Sell the solution, not "AI" per se. AI has a dubious reputation caused by massive hype. Sell the benefits in terms of money and time saved, show how their competitors have benefitted, be up front and say that the solution is bespoked to them which will take time and investment, but will afford them a competitive edge when it's completed.
You sell a car by showing it's a desirable and useful investment.... not by talking about the special carburettors which everyone else is trying to (suspiciously) shift for some reason.
Stand out from the crowd by showing what your solution can do - no one is interested in how it does it.
