Hot Take: Bad AI is worse than no AI at all
If I had to give 2025 a nickname, it would honestly be “6–7.” Partly because I’m trying to keep up with the slang my 12-year-old son uses, but mostly because the last 12 months across the industry just felt… meh. There was no real lift or closure. It felt like everyone was waiting for something big to happen, and nothing really got out of first gear.
What did overwhelm me was the nonstop conversation about AI. Two years ago, AI was new and exciting. Today, every vendor claims to have it… even the ones who don’t.
So now there are two conversations to have:
AI is a feature, not a product. No one cares that your product “has AI” if it doesn’t work. AI is not a magic blanket that makes a mediocre product valuable. It’s not even interesting anymore because everyone claims to have it.
Doing AI poorly is worse than not doing it at all. It’s fitting that the word fail literally has AI in it, because that’s what happens when you slap the label on something that doesn’t deliver.
You have to be crystal clear about what role AI actually plays in your roadmap and your messaging. Is it an LLM? Is it real AI? Is it just a fast spreadsheet? And, most importantly: Do your clients even care?
Most of them don’t.
When I flip the light switch in my house, I just want the light on. I’m sure the power grid and the power plant mechanisms are fascinating if I took a deep dive to understand it. But I don’t really care. I just want the light to turn on. That’s it. And that’s exactly how most clients feel about AI. If you’re a proptech founder, stop trying to impress people with how your product works. Most of them just care what it does!
Most clients only care about three things:
Is it quicker?
Is it cheaper?
Is it more accurate?
True tech people love to nerd out on architecture and models, but unless you’re pitching another tech nerd, your customer’s eyes glaze over.
They just want the lights to come on.