faster horse

Many creatives believe that, due to AI, design tasks are shifting from manual work to cognitive work. And this shift is in a specific direction: from less reflective to more predictive.

This development could be quite useful. Most companies using AI struggle to create authenticity and a strong identity. They speed up the process but often fail to establish distinction: much of what AI produces is interchangeable. To prevent this, someone needs to guide AI, define the company’s core essence, and explain how this essence will influence various touchpoints. Someone must manage the design process and ensure that AI doesn’t run unchecked. Like automation and digitalization before it, the strategic use of AI to generate touchpoints can save substantial resources and, most importantly, time. But what’s the point of a faster horse if you’re not delivering anything valuable? Banal, uninspiring content will reach customers faster and more aggressively, but it won’t impress them. The issue will only worsen.

For a company to reap the benefits of efficient, effective AI in creating design specifications, it must pursue a differentiated strategy and employ specialists who know how to leverage AI to yield authenticity and relevance. A flood of interchangeable AI-generated images, campaigns, and products is currently shaking up the market. But only those who break out of the mold and generate actual customer relevance will be able to convince the increasingly dwindling customer base. Those who use AI only to optimize their bottom line by saving time and resources are just doing what everyone else is doing – and they won’t gain impact. However, those who use AI to optimize their top line by creating customer relevance and developing aesthetically appealing offerings can achieve long-term success.

This change requires companies to employ specialists who can develop a differentiated and customer-relevant strategy and translate it into outstanding, unique, and aesthetically appealing customer experiences. People who are not only creative designers but also support the company in ways that keep it on track in everything it does. A profile that moves between the usual silos of marketing, product management, development, and design. A profile that is neither fish nor fowl, but both. Fish-birds, so to speak.

I fear that companies will continue to ride their old horses to death. The poor animals are now being fitted with an AI-turbo. In many cases, it’s futile: as long as you don’t change your perspective – and generate profits by adding value rather than taking it away – you’ll soon have to admit that customers are leaving their tips somewhere else. After all, profits don’t go to the company with the best AI, but to the one with the best customers.

“The purpose of a business is to create a customer,” Peter Drucker once said. After 35 years working with companies, agencies, and consultants, I still must conclude that most organizations do not put the customer at the center of their business and that shareholder relevance far outweighs customer relevance. While everyone complains, few are successful: Steve Jobs (also Tim Cook) and Jeff Bezos are frequently quoted, and their successes prove them right. So why doesn’t everyone follow their strategy? After all, it’s pretty simple. You need to put the customer at the center of everything you do and have capable employees who can implement this strategy, also with the use of AI.

Customer-centered design isn’t new, but it is new to many companies. It focuses on one’s own capacity to design and manage the company to benefit the customer. It establishes the necessary framework conditions for implementing AI that benefit the customer. It implements design management across the company, taking the reins and keeping the herd of AI-horses together.

Does that sound like an intriguing task? Then join me at HSLU for further training as a design manager, brand manager, or CX manager.

Would you like to implement this in your company? Then get in touch; my partners at Customer Metrics and Vetica are ready to help!