Last week, someone asked me to add AI to their product. I asked what the product actually does. Twenty minutes later, I still wasn't sure.
The problem wasn't the missing AI. The problem was the missing product.
Technology isn't strategy
It's easy to fall for it. AI today feels like mobile apps did in 2012: if you don't have it, you're behind. CEOs walk into boardrooms saying "we need AI" — without answering what for.
OpenAI shut down Sora. Fifteen million dollars a day in compute, under 8% thirty-day retention. The technology worked. The product logic didn't.
With Phora, AI runs in the background — users never see a prompt, never configure a model. They upload a product photo, they get a lifestyle scene back. The AI is a tool, not the value proposition. The value proposition is that you don't need to pay for a photoshoot.
Faster in the wrong direction
AI's most dangerous quality is speed. If you're heading the right way, that's a gift. If you're not, you arrive at the wrong destination faster.
On earlier projects, I watched companies spend months building AI chatbots that answered questions nobody was asking. The feature worked. The problem was that nobody needed it.
Before adding AI to anything, it's worth asking: does this product solve the user's problem without it? If yes, AI accelerates it. If no, it's just packaging.
The question isn't whether you can — it's whether you should
The best AI features are invisible. People don't use them because "it has AI" — they use them because the result is better. If your main marketing message is "AI-powered," there's probably nothing else in the product worth mentioning.
There's always budget for technology. Rarely for understanding the problem.
There's always a next level.
If you like what you see — whether you're building a product or a team — I'd love to hear about it.