One of my favorite US presidents is the late John F. Kennedy. Many around the world loved him for his charisma and commitment to freedom and security. But what I believe brought him closest to people were his powerful speeches and the messages he was able to convey in them, like this one from his inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
That question has stayed with me. And I think a slightly tweaked question applies to AI.
“Ask not what AI can do for you, but what you can do with it.”
Asking the right questions is everything.
I have seen quite some disruptions pass by, but maybe none as profound as AI can be. During the initial waves of digital transformation towards Cloud and SaaS, I had many customers struggling with change management. One remark came up repeatedly: “I clearly have a more complete and mature product than some of these newcomers, but they still beat me just because they move faster with new stuff than I can.”
That’s true of every disruption. New kids on the block move faster. But having a deeper dive into this, I feel the difference is more profound than just speed. It’s actually about the way a disruption is approached. The questions you ask yourself.
My existing customers would ask: “How can I add this new stuff to my existing way of working?” The new kids asked: “What can I do to generate maximum value from this new technology for the benefit of my customer?” They took the new technology as the starting point and became the disruptors by turning the threat into something valuable.
Which brings me back to Kennedy and to AI.
Adding AI to your Work vs Working with AI
I see many successful commercial software vendors (ISVs) asking how AI can complement their existing platform. Their competitors are asking how they can build a similar platform using AI capabilities as a starting point. I see software architects and creative problem-solvers asking what AI can add to their capabilities, when they should be asking what AI solution generation looks like today, and how they could complement or improve it.
That is how we approach it at CaseFabric, our dynamic case management platform. We ask ourselves, “How can we strengthen and evolve it to perfectly fit in with, and add to, the possibilities AI is bringing?”
Will AI Tools Takeover Software Development?
Do I think AI solution generation is going to take over everything? Not yet. The code generated by AI is only as strong as the underlying language it generates in. The strength of a computer language or low-code model will still decide the strength of the outcomes.
But asking the right questions? That’s essential for moving in the right direction, especially when several answers are overwhelmingly everywhere around us.
If you’re curious about how we’re doing that at CaseFabric, I’d love to connect or have a conversation.