If you are
not using some kind of AI technology in your business today, it pretty much means you are committing
a mistake similar to what Kodak did back in 2012.But as founders in 2026, a core question we aren’t asking ourselves enough (probably even more so under investor pressure) is: Are we adapting AI because we truly believe it is crucial for our brand’s growth or
are we taking Kodak’s cautionary tale too literally and being driven by the fear of becoming irrelevant?Talking about cautionary tales, we have a few from a different POV now: Companies like Ford, Klarna, IBM, and Salesforce, which, after participating in the AI frenzy, quickly realised that we still need human beings for more complex situations that require empathy and sensitivity.
One area where full-scale AI adoption may require a little more thought and careful assessment before replacing the entire function with bots is
Sales and Customer Service , quite literally the bread-and-butter functions for most businesses.
Let’s be real, Speed, Automation, and Efficiency no longer impresses anyone anymore.These are expected.
We have created a new baseline for what is considered decent.
If you are able to respond to your customers’ grievances within seconds, you aren’t doing anything different, your competition is doing that too.
Every product and service is wrapped in world-class branding and promoted by exceptionally creative marketing teams.Products are faster to build, cheaper to replicate, and easier to distribute.
The pricing is nearly identical.
Even the services being provided by companies have started to feel remarkably alike.
Every application now offers a chatbot experience. Every service feels reactive by default.
In this growing homogeneity of offerings and market saturation, how are customers deciding which product to buy, which brand to choose?They are now choosing
brands that are treating them better.What we are failing to understand is that customers discovering they are speaking to a bot is quietly translating to:
"I am not valuable enough to deserve more than being put up against a bot."Resolving human feelings cannot be sped up with the pace of the bot’s responses.To truly stand out and be chosen in this economy, you need to provide a service that your competitors cannot. It is about creating Sales and Customer experiences that are memorable and differentiate you.
Look at these firms:
- Amazon : Probably the clearest example of friction removal at scale. Easy ordering, delivery visibility, simple returns/refunds, and increasingly proactive issue resolution. No other e-commerce brand comes even close to it.
- Zomato and Blinkit: Have come a long way in providing relatively effortless issue resolution compared to their competitors.
- Tanishq : Good example of handling a high-anxiety, high-consideration purchase with considerable trust-building.
- American Express : The value proposition is not simply the product; it's the feeling that someone will actually take ownership when something goes wrong.
- Decathlon : Good example of reducing purchase anxiety through product information, demonstrations and self-service.
- IKEA: Excellent example of a well designed self-servicing and overall a customer journey.
- The Oberoi: Probably one of the strongest Indian examples if your lens is effortless, personalized service. The service is deliberately quiet rather than performative.
Especially when we talk about consumer platforms : The handover process from bots to human intervention should be seamless enough that
it doesn’t spike your customer’s blood pressure by taking them through an extensive loop of 9 automated prompts before finally connecting them to an agent.
AI is necessary for where we are heading, 100%. But let’s not forget why it was introduced in the first place: To increase human efficiency. To free up people’s time so they can focus on what matters more.
"Progression of Economic Value", as you may know, is a concept that describes how economies evolve from agrarian to offering goods, then services, and finally, creating unique, memorable experiences. This was conceptualized by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore in their book
The Experience Economy.
In the simplest terms, it refers to how societies’ "needs and wants" change and evolve over time. And with these changing needs and wants, what a firm must do to remain competitive also changes.
And guess what has accelerated consumers’ focus, needs, wants, and attention towards "Experiences"?Artificial Intelligence!You can see it all around you, especially with younger generation of consumers aka Gen Z: increased travel, concert attendance, listening parties, adults trying to find friends on Bumble to meet them in real life, shopping dates, co-working together… Why?
The world is changing and especially with the introduction of AI and its deep integration everywhere,
we’re moving faster than ever towards the Experience Economy. The desire for meaningful experiences is innate and timeless for humans.AI tools are freeing up time and making people more aware of what feels capitalistic and overly commercial versus what feels curated and thoughtful. And the firms winning in this economy are the ones who actually value their consumers.
