An AI-first approach starts by looking for AI uses before checking whether customers actually need them. It can lead to teams, products, or funding built around the technology rather than the problem. section 4.2
A cautionary example is a self-driving car push that began with stronger image categorization and large investor bets, but often lacked a clear customer problem or commercial path. section 4.2
The same pattern appears when organizations create AI-only teams or hire many people for undefined AI work, assuming promising technology will eventually produce a use case. section 4.2
What this approach usually involves:
- Starting from what AI can do, then searching for applications. section 4.2
- Treating technical promise as enough reason to fund or launch work. section 4.2
- Skipping the earlier question of what customers actually want. section 4.2
The main problem is that it reverses a customer-centric process: instead of finding a real need and then choosing a tool, it risks building something impressive but unnecessary. section 4.2
