AI Adoption is a Trust Problem

As companies scramble to become “AI-first” and satisfy demands from investors and their boards to ship products that are AI rather than solve customer problems, a rift has emerged between legacy companies and companies that will emerge with different shapes and structures than those of the last few decades. This pattern is timeless in business. Upstarts emerge, capable of taking risks, and incumbents can’t respond effectively to challengers because their pre-existing business becomes a liability in the face of the ongoing change. Legacy orgs have been shortsighted During ZIRP and the Uber-era of blitzscaling, cheap capital was abundant and it was an employee-friendly market. In tech, most people could get several job offers and negotiate and pick among their favorites. When ZIRP ended roughly in early 2022, the market switched from rewarding growth to rewarding profitability. Companies started looking at teams that weren’t directly contributing to the bottom line and started cutting.…