I think Jeannie should move ahead with the Gen AI solution and develop it as a beta testable feature. The capabilities of Gen AI are so clear and powerful, not to mention they improve very rapidly; by the time the appropriate infrastructure and fine-tuning was done the model would already be more consistent and knowledgeable than most representatives. Not engaging in this technology will clearly mean falling behind; in this regard I disagree strongly with the idea of letting others move first and then adapting. Gen AI models take huge amount of data, compute, and time from initial training to launch- even if competitors go first and you learn certain mistakes they make, by the time they iterate and build on next generation foundational models you will be far behind.
Though my recommendation is to pursue the Gen AI chatbot, I recognize there are several key factors to consider. Firstly, the company must consider the sentiment and message being sent to its employees, particularly on the sales team. When a sales representative hears about a Gen AI sales robot, the first thing they think is “how good is it” and “will I be replaced?”. Therefore Jeannie should consider ways to either be very transparent about the Gen AI chatbot’s development or create it such that it is a tool that can be used to increase the productivity of current sales representatives. Another clear factor to consider is the current customer base and how it will respond. Clearly customers such as Orion feel very strongly against the Gen AI move; alienating loyal customers is a dangerous outcome during an innovation phase. Similarly to employees, maintaining clear communication and offering opt-in / opt-out Gen AI functionalities to let the customers realize their value themselves is key. Though it sounds simple, another key factor is being realistic about the technology and its trade-offs. Often people hear “AI super-bot” and they get carried away with what it excels in and where it falls short. In this case its important to take a very honest and data-driven approach to innovating with Gen AI- there are risks of hallucination, there are privacy concerns, and the AI may not come off as human, which can seriously dissuade customers from your product. Keeping this in mind will ensure a more careful and customer-centric approach to innovating. Lastly I would consider how the executive team and shareholders react to the proposed change- it’s difficult to know beforehand, but thinking about how the transition cost and perception of Gen AI will be accepted by fellow executives and shareholders is key. It’s probably not worth enforcing the change if many key executives disagree with you and want to leave. Additionally, the returns of such a technology will likely not be measured for several years, so it’s worth thinking how shareholders react to a CEO focusing on Gen AI innovation rather than increasing profitability or market share.
