Too often, AI conversations focus on flashy demos and broad possibilities instead of the real challenges teams face every day. By rethinking AI in business and starting with work-focused questions, organizations can uncover practical use cases, drive meaningful transformation, and apply technology where it delivers the greatest impact.
A Rock on the Beach: A Different Way to Frame AI
Before we dive into AI, bear with me as we go on a journey about rethinking AI in business…
Imagine you are standing on a remote beach, a rocky beach. There are stones and pebbles of various sizes and colors as far as the eye can see. You have a friend who is a rock collector and you promised that you would bring back a rock for their collection. But you forgot to ask whether they have a rock preference. Big rock, little rock? Tan rock, white rock? Smooth rock, rough rock?
You could call them and hold up one rock after another, asking if that is the one they would like, but that would be a futile task. You might get lucky, or you could be sampling rocks for hours. Alternatively, you could ask a few pointed questions about what they want. Suddenly you know they need a smooth white pebble, one inch in diameter, speckled with black. It might still take effort to find that rock, and maybe you won’t find it today, but at least now you know what they need. Once you find it, everyone is happy.
What This Has to Do with AI
For the past year, the majority of my conversations with organizations around AI have been akin to the rock hunting experience above.
“Kai, tell me what AI can do.”
“Tell me about use cases for AI.”
“What problems have you solved for other organizations?”
These questions are fine to learn about AI, but they are too general to be actionable. It’s like me picking up rock after rock on a beach (each rock representing an AI capability or use case) and hoping you like one. While fun at first, this exercise quickly becomes tiring, especially if I keep talking about HR agents when what you really need is an AI-powered customer care bot. You’ll learn about AI capabilities, but you may not see how to apply them to your own way of working.
Why Rethinking AI in Business Matters
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of benefits to exploring the “art of the possible.” Learning about AI can spark imagination, but expecting everyone to translate a technical demo to their own needs is an unfair expectation, mainly because it requires one of the scarcest resources: time.
An AI demo or workshop may already drain hours from your day, and when you return to your desk, few have the time to apply what they learned. The mountain of emails and tasks quickly crushes any desire to innovate. (🔗 McKinsey: The State of AI)
Asking the Right Questions First
Work-Focused Prompts to Spark Change
What if we changed the questions we ask ourselves to include the following:
- “What do I wish I could change about how my work is being done?”
- “What task(s) is/are taking me the longest and are the most tedious?”
- “Where are we spending too much money?”
- “Where do we need to scale our operations without incurring too much cost?”
- “What is the one thing that I wish I could change in my day-to-day routine?”
These questions uncover opportunity. They highlight change. They force us to “think different,” as Steve Jobs once said– and the answers come quickly, because everyone has ideas about how work could be improved.
Now we have our use cases. Now we know what we want to solve. For organizations ready to explore these opportunities, our Automation Readiness Assessment is a great place to start.
Why It’s Not Always About AI
There’s no assumption that AI will always be the answer. Sometimes all we need is automation, a simple app, or even just data cleanup or process redesign.
Regardless, the goal is the same: improving the work experience. (🔗 Forrester: Automation Isn’t Just About AI)
The Real Magic of Rethinking AI in Business
AI has its place in these transformations, but the only way we can figure out how to best integrate it is by asking work-focused questions first. Then we apply AI.
Let’s start changing our conversations and the way we think about AI. Need help with this different approach? Reach out and we can help you start (or restart) your business transformation journey, with AI at your side.
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