"AI-powered" has become a red flag
Since the launch of ChatGPT back in 2022 AI has explod — just kidding. Those lead-ins are getting tiring, right?
But what has become even more irritating is how everything is "AI-powered" all of a sudden.
Let me make it clear up-front that I am not opposed to using AI, whatever that means anymore, for a product. I've done it myself and it's a good way to add value to the product, if it really needs it.
But what truly irks me are the common-day apps which have been just fine without such AI plug-ins and, all of a sudden, they become "AI-powered". Here are a few things that go through my head when "AI-powered" is advertised up-front:
- How reliable are the outputs / are hallucinations present?
- Where does my data go? (Probably OpenAI, but not 100% sure)
- Is the AI-powered going to be a mark-up?
- What value does the AI-powered actually bring?
Because I've become so hung up on your messaging about finally baking in an API call to OpenAI, I've stopped giving a shit about what your actual product does and how it can help me. (Side note: the visuals are also so overdone — if I see one more gradient-colored button with ✨ or ⚡️ emojis for the "AI-enhancement" or whatever, I'll just make a plugin to block that CSS altogether)
Of course, this isn't a surprise to anyone. AI is hot shit and people want to cash-in on the wave. But that's what your "AI-powered" marketing signals to me now: "We added AI to cash-in on the wave and stopped giving a shit to what users actually wanted".
"Sounds like a lot of complaining. What do you suggest instead?", I can hear you screaming at me.
Well, for starters, AI is a tool like everything else. Do we advertise using a Postgres database or that super-duper new JS framework? No, not really. Because someone looking at your page wants their problem solved. Here's a good quote from Seth Godin's This is Marketing to drive it home:
Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
The lesson is that the drill bit is merely a feature, a means to an end, but what people truly want is the hole it makes.
But that doesn’t go nearly far enough. No one wants a hole.
What people want is the shelf that will go on the wall once they drill the hole.
Actually, what they want is how they’ll feel once they see how uncluttered everything is, when they put their stuff on the shelf that went on the wall, now that there’s a quarter-inch hole.
But wait . . .
They also want the satisfaction of knowing they did it themselves.
Or perhaps the increase in status they’ll get when their spouse admires the work.
Or the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the bedroom isn’t a mess, and that it feels safe and clean.
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want to feel safe and respected.”
Bingo.