Wasting Innovative Technologies on Incremental Improvements
Just as the food industry is guilty of slapping labels on products that have little meaning, such as “all natural” or “balanced”. The tech industry has its own sins, such as “AI-powered”. Personally, I’m guilty of using that one many times over. Word-filling aside, the real tragedy is when innovative technologies that are exponential improvements become available and we use them for incremental improvements rather than making concurrent step increases.
The reasons are usually well intentioned. Companies face constant pressure to deliver faster. Could new tools be used to accomplish this faster and with less effort? Totally correct thought process. Fear of falling behind is another rational thought: “Other companies are releasing capabilities with the new technology and we haven’t yet — we’re potentially perceived as less capable or less innovative than others.” Again, totally sane. \
This pressure usually leads to Gartner’s “Trough of Disillusionment” of features that were based on an innovation but just worked as the previous version but maybe a little better. Or, everyone else is promising the same thing and there’s a monotony of options.
The harder approach is to pause and embrace those ideas that might be considered “crazy” but are actually now possible because of these innovations. This is the “Crossing the Chasm” moment. Most companies won’t dare. Do you?
