Essays - Benedict Evans · Benedict Evans
articleinsightThe AI summer
9 July 2024Strategy
Source excerpt
About Essays - Benedict EvansHundreds of millions of people have tried ChatGPT, but most of them haven’t been back. Every big company has done a pilot, but far fewer are in deployment. Some of this is just a matter of time. But LLMs might also be a trap: they look like products and they look magic, but they aren’t. Maybe we have to go through the slow, boring hunt for product-market fit after all.
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Apollo layer
What a founder can learn
Founder takeaway
Treat early AI adoption as evidence of curiosity, not product-market fit. Move past impressive demos and identify a recurring customer problem where the product delivers enough reliable value to become part of normal behavior or workflow.
Why it matters
Trial volume and enterprise pilots can create a false sense of traction. Founders who distinguish experimentation from sustained use can focus scarce resources on real customer value instead of assuming that the technology’s novelty will drive adoption.