What a strange headline!
But there’s method to my madness…
Today I opened up ‘The Register’, a tech industry daily newsletter. The main headline for today reads “AI agents get office tasks wrong around 70% of the time, and a lot of them aren’t AI at all”.
Their headline is based on research conducted by Gartner and Carnegie Mellon University. It’s a serious read.
Gartner predict that “more than 40% of agentic AI projects will be cancelled…”
Look at my post a month ago, which covered this in detail – it was titled “Pretty Controversial”. Lots of great responses…
The above figures are shocking.
It made me wonder, are we at peak hype with AI now? ?
On one side, dazzling new technology, which will likely change all our lives – IN TIME.
On the other side, early adopters, organisations, and companies who are flying ahead (see the Gartner quote above).
In the middle, the Tech sales and marketing teams saying “we do AI”, “we are AI-enabled”, “Agentic AI is the only way forward”, and as I have heard myself “it never fails”, “move all your agent admin and process work over today”, etc.
Here’s the mainframe bit:
In the 1980’s a quote stuck in my head. I still remember it word for word. An industry guru was interviewed after the launch of a new IBM mainframe series. His quote when asked what he thought? “Well, they don’t do what you want, but they do what you don’t want 5 times faster…”
Brilliant!
Is there a sniff of that today? ?♂️
Again, we are getting two messages. “AI is a revolution for sales and marketing today.” “AI can do SO much already today.” Especially in sales and marketing.
However, project failures, as noted in Gartner’s quote above, suggest a degree of caution would be wise.
My Sales and Marketing Maturity Matrix analyses your maturity across the major disciplines and capabilities that comprise modern revenue generation activities.
It suggests greater efficiency through a data-centred approach, LLM, and the increasing use of AI is a very good thing for business.
BUT – Be cautious, move slowly, and test thoroughly. Go step-by-step. You don’t want to be one of those 40%+, do you?
Rubbish in = rubbish out still applies.