The AI-driven company: data challenge

When interviewing the people for our study on industrial AI adoption, it became clear that some or even many especially view LLMs and multi-model models as a mechanism to leapfrog inherent weaknesses in their company. One of the key areas is data. I keep getting surprised by how poorly many companies deal with their data. … Read more

The AI-driven company: challenges

Both the proponents and questioning antagonists around artificial intelligence are expounding on the outrageous capabilities of modern AI solutions such as LLMs, foundation models and agentic AI. And yet, when interviewing key business leaders and observing the companies I work with, I must say that the adoption of AI is slow going and far from … Read more

The AI-driven company: introduction

With new breakthrough models being announced all the time and hundreds of billions invested, the hype around artificial intelligence seems to keep going much longer than any other major technology I’ve experienced in my lifetime. The promise (and to some extent the threat) of AI is that it will provide new levels of automation and … Read more

10 outdated distinctions: conclusion

One of the facts of human cognition that never ceases to amaze me is that we seem to ignore more than 99.9 percent of all information that reaches us through our senses. Consciously, that is, as at least some of it is used by the unconscious parts of our brain. This means that our brain … Read more

Outdated distinction: business model vs product

Over the decades that I’ve worked with companies, I’ve seen many, many examples of sales versus engineering. These two functions are frequently at odds with each other for a variety of reasons. In companies that are mostly technology-driven, senior management often comes out of R&D and is frustrated with the sales organization being unable to … Read more

Outdated distinction: platform vs product

Few words get as much attention and excitement in the software-intensive systems industry as “platform.” One of the reasons is that it has several, quite distinct meanings that often are ignored or forgotten in the process. Everyone supports “the platform initiative” while failing to understand that we mean different things. In my view, there are … Read more

Outdated distinction: products vs services

For the better part of well over a century, companies would classify themselves as product- or service-oriented. Product companies often were high-margin businesses with high volatility as the investment in product R&D was largely fixed, but the sales and margins were very much influenced by the competitive landscape, the economic climate and the capabilities of … Read more

Outdated distinction: innovation vs development

Few words are as overused and misused in product companies as the word “innovation.” In most contexts, it means something along the lines of new and good. It’s new because we didn’t have it before we developed it and it’s good because it wouldn’t be innovation otherwise. Few people are interested in discussing innovation that … Read more