Why AI's Biggest Winners Will Evolve Workflows, Not Replace Them
The most successful AI-first companies of the next decade won't be stitching together flashy demos. They will be the ones making existing user workflows x% faster, y% better, and z% more cost-efficient.
When new tech emerges, we instinctively try to force-fit it into our existing mental models. Steve Jobs had talked about this pattern before (in his infinite wisdom xd): when PCs first appeared, we treated them as mini mainframes. When TV arrived, producers filmed radio shows. It takes time for a new medium to evolve into its optimal form. AI is following this same trajectory. The flashiest demos get attention, but the winning applications will be those that solve real problems while respecting deep psychological principles about how humans adopt tech. (cue – if anyone is interested, do read about MAYA, Most Advanced Yet Acceptable)
We constantly calculate the cognitive load of adopting new tools against their promised benefits. The equation rarely favours starting from scratch, which is why we cling to Excel despite the existence of "better" alternatives. Users don't want to abandon their hard-earned muscle memory for just the latest shiny solution.
This is precisely why Jeff Bezos remarked that "AI is the new electricity." It simply meant that just as electricity is invisible, you enjoy the lightbulb (read disco balls), AI needs to be thought of in the same way. The "electricity-powered" label quickly disappeared because it was assumed (much in the same vein, there’s a study that talks about “AI-powered” fast becoming the positioning that evokes the least trust for a product amongst users)
Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of AI integrations is how they affect users. It's human nature that we prefer attributing outcomes to our skills rather than technology. What we are talking about is Lindy.
Story time: In the 1950s, General Mills launched Betty Crocker instant cake mix. You just added cake powder and water, and it was ready. Still, the sales tanked. Digging into why revealed something counterintuitive: homemakers felt guilty using mixes that required too little effort. The magical solution? Remove powdered eggs and require customers to add fresh eggs themselves. It made users feel more invested in the outcome, and sales skyrocketed. Of course, the product was technically less convenient, but it felt so rewarding.
Users don't want to feel replaced, they want to feel enhanced.
So, maybe the core question to spend mental cycles on is to remember the question Jeff Bezos had asked: “What is not going to change in the next 10 years?”.
Can AI make the user expand their sense of agency in that direction?
Let’s talk – shashank@gembacapital.in