Maybe you’ve seen skis about it, complaints in comments on social media, complaints in YouTube videos, but people are pretty aware of this; a lot of businesses are using AI in the most random, completely backwards ways. Like, someone on the team says, “Hey, other companies are using AI, maybe we should too,” and then there’s a chatbot slapped onto the website that can’t even answer the simplest question. Oh, it gets worse, then there’s some awkward automated email thing that sounds robotic enough to scare customers away. It’s that whole “AI for the sake of AI” mindset, and yeah, it shows.
Now, the wild part is that most of these businesses aren’t incompetent. They just think AI is this magic fix, and all they have to do is throw a tool onto something and watch everything improve. Now, sure, there’s this whole idea that AI is going to change the world, it’s going to take jobs, it’s going to cut costs, it’s going to do absolutely anything and everything possible, and even small businesses can run just like the big dogs with this. But is that all actually realistic, or just a whole bunch of hyped up marketing?
Well, it’s at least at the moment, it’s not as amazing as people hype it up to be. It ends up confusing customers, annoying staff, and honestly making the business look a tiny bit out of touch.
Using AI Just Because Everyone Else is Doesn’t Work
So, it’s best to start right here, because there’s this funny pressure in the business world right now. Like, everywhere you look, someone’s talking about AI like it’s oxygen. Basically, there’s this unspoken rule that if a business isn’t using AI, then it must be behind or outdated or whatever. That pressure creates the perfect environment for messy decisions.
You’ll see businesses installing chatbots that can’t help anyone, AI “assistants” that can’t actually assist, and automated processes that make simple tasks take twice as long. Again, there’s plenty of skits, rants, complaints, comments, there’s attention on this online at least.
AI Works Way Better when it Has a Job
Alright, so this is where most businesses go wrong. They treat AI like decor. Like something to put on display so customers go, “Wow, look, they’re modern.” That’s the whole push most businesses out there are doing. Well, except that customers don’t care about AI. Just keep in mind that they care about being understood, helped, guided, and not stuck in an endless loop with a bot that refuses to connect them to a human.
Well, the whole message here is to give AI a real job, an actual role. For example, it can be something like supporting customer service during peak times or helping staff skip repetitive tasks that drain their energy; everything feels smoother. AI isn’t the star of the show. But if you literally don’t know what about be a good fit, it could help to turn to top AI consulting firms to get a sense of direction on what would be a good idea or not, on what should be done for your business.
You seriously don’t want to waste time and money on features that don’t work, so this is a smart decision.
The Real Fix Here is Strategy
Sometimes, AI just makes things more complicated, like it or not, but that’s the truth here, sometimes it has the issue of creating workslop, which honestly just makes things harder for employees. So, you need an actual strategy here, rather than shoving AI into everything.
