AI and Startups

Newsflash: AI is Here!

I may not be the first person to notice that AI is a common topic of conversation in startup circles. Speaking personally, it is the most impactful technology to have arisen in my lifetime. I use various AI tools regularly; people I work with are getting great at leveraging the tools; the companies I work with have launched AI features (like Raygun’s AI Error Solutions); companies I work with have launched AI products (like Montoux’s Model Copilot) and I have invested in AI companies, too (like LawCyborg).

Like I said, AI is here.

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Useful Mental Models

The dominant objection I hear about why AI is not being embraced more broadly is that it is overwhelming. The technology choices are endless; the announcements are frequent and confusing. It is hard to know where to start or where to focus your and your company’s attention. This is all true.

I have found that there are a couple of mental models that calm the mind, and give clarity and purpose to your AI adventures.

The first one relates to interns. Imagine if you had 100 interns available to you for free. What would you do with them? How would you organise them? Approach and instruct AI tools with the same intent as you would all of your interns, and you can accomplish some miraculous things.

The other compelling mental model is ‘AI as a cape’. You can put it on when you have to do something difficult or time-consuming and employ your superpowers in this context. Need to do a job description for a new role? Done in three minutes (including edits!). And for the rest of the time, you can put your cape down – you can still have leadership conversations or lunch like a mammal.

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Why? Oh Why?

Back to your startup, though… There are some compelling reasons you should jump ‘all in’ on the AI bandwagon. I offer you:

• Operational efficiency; do more with less. This is the most obvious starting point. With today’s technology, you can likely already automate most of your organisational processes. Want to automate and scale customer support? You can. Less cost means longer runways and higher margins.
• Innovate faster and wow your customers more often. AI truly unlocks innovation – you can use AI to make breakthroughs in your brand promise, your digital user experience, how you onboard customers, or how you personalise everything. Making wow moments happen is getting easier, if only for a year or two (once many AI gimmicks become standard and fatigued).
• Understand with more clarity. Some parts of your business will be hard to dissect. This is especially true of data-centric problems – understanding your users, evaluating go-to-market channels, or simply reinterpreting your financial forecasts. AI is great at almost anything to do with data – there really is no excuse for not understanding something.
• Increase your investability. In its own right, so far this year, AI has attracted over 20 percent of all venture investments (and a lot more indirect AI-heavy companies). Simply put, having AI at your company’s core increases your chances of having the capital you need to take on the world.
• Be more present. This is a simpler idea. If you leverage AI to take care of the dross in your job as a founder or leader or make-shit-happen-person, you have more time to think about the hard stuff and be present for your team and your customers (and your friends and family).

I could go on…

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Yawn

Yes, there are reasons to pause and think about the consequences. No, I don’t worry about losing your data (that’s easy to address, plus AI can help us reduce risks). No, I don’t worry about big tech very much (they provide the infrastructure upon which we can innovate – yay). No, I don’t stress about the labour market chaos that is coming (it’s coming anyhow – we might as well influence our collective future).

Yes, I am yawning. The opportunities are endless. I’m bored of saying it.

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Let’s Win ‍

Everyone knows New Zealand’s productivity is poor and getting worse (I won’t depress you with the endless evidence for this). Our economy depends entirely on grass and the cows who like eating it (I won’t depress you with why this cannot last much longer). Our only way out are today’s startups, who invent the future and will become tomorrow’s scaleups, who might become the global champions we so sorely need.

From here on in, those productivity gains, disruptive ideas, and capital-efficient executions will likely have AI at their core. AI can be our superpower. Get amongst it!