Technology is often sold with a phrase that with the innovation ‘anyone can..[complete the job the tech supports]’. Do you really want anyone doing the task? Success is about focus and leveraging unique talents.
Rob Castaneda Founder/CEO of Service Rocket recently said on Linkedin:
I want my sales people vibe-coding as much as I want my engineers vibe-selling.
Rob’s witticism digs at a greater truth: Success in business depends on focus. Engineers are expensive resources. The should support sales efforts but it’s not their focus. The greatest challenge in sales is that it is hard and demanding interpersonal work. Most people would much rather do sales related admin than sell. Creating the focus for sales success involves taking tasks away to allow teams to specialise, learn and improve their customer conversations.
Technology companies promising miracle transformations commonly say that using there technology ‘anyone can do anything’. Technology can be a great enabler and undoubtedly changes the skillset required for tasks. Far too many of these promises aren’t exactly that user friendly and actually need people to specialise (Microsoft SharePoint anyone?). However, even if the newer AI enabled tech does enable anyone, do we want that?
At University studying Economics, we were introduced to the concept of comparative advantage in trade. The lecturer pointed out that though he may be better at all the skills of economic research than a research associate it is still advantageous for him to hire one to help with basic research because his unique advantages were in the more complex areas and he could devote more time to his advantages if he did so. We are rarely better off if anyone can do something. We are better off when those who are best placed to do work focus.
Technology offers all kinds of temptations of distraction and lack of focus. Anyone can code. Anyone can produce images. Anyone can produce marketing materials or pitch decks and so on. The technology products can be built up with dedicated governance, data sets, insights, guardrails and approval processes that manage the risks of anyone doing anything. The only question is do you want that?
If it is a choice between no resource at all, then you will want to empower people to do incremental and often discretionary work through technology. At the margins, technology can be very powerful in realising more productivity.
You may have opportunities to totally transform processes to remove expertise or people. Well designed you may be able to make this work but it’s unlikely to be the outcome of dabbling by anyone. Delivering productivity through transformation takes careful design, great engagement with all stakeholders and impeccable delivery.
Anyone is not always a great option. As attractive as it might sound that rarely pays out as a successful course in business. Success takes focus, skills and graft. Do you want your highly valuable resources distracted and unfocused on things that they could do? I doubt it. You want them doing more of the core things you hired them to do. Use AI to take away their distractions, not add to them.
So next time someone sells technology on the basis that ‘anyone can’ ask instead ‘who should and how?’
