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Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

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Re: Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

#111

Post by yencabulator »

sofixa wrote: post #56
codingdave wrote: post #23

From what I've seen, anyone giving you definitive answers is blowing smoke. I've seen teams go for AI, do it well, and succeed. I've also seen teams go for AI, f it up, and all get fired as the company shuts down. The question is whether the key value of your product can benefit from the strengths of AI? If not, don't go there. If so, you then need to determine if your team can actually deliver an AI-driven vision th…

> I've seen teams go for AI, do it well, and succeed. Succeed based on what criteria? I struggle to think of a single product with "AI" that I'd call successful (excluding the already existing and established niches of recommendation algorithms and computer vision which have been rebranded AI and maybe are what you're referring to).

I'd guess "succeed" here == "VC gave them money".

Re: Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

#112

Post by ironmagma »

ffsm8 wrote: post #70
conartist6 wrote: post #40

I don't know what industry your company is in, but godspeed to your CEO on tanking your company with AI bullshit so that this stupid f**ing bubble pops and everyone can go back to thinking carefully using their brain instead of working on better serving Roko's Basilisk. Couldn't be more excited for this kind of short-sighted, AI-instead-of-people thinking to become shameful. How many people need to aim the gun at the…

> pops and everyone can go back to thinking carefully using their brain I am sorry I have to burst your bubble, but that is not going to happen, ever. This is the new normal now. We have to accept that reality and adjust accordingly. Maybe with new hiring filters or similar. Hopefully these filters won't be just a LLM hallucinating random things, but realistically speaking... Yeah, it's gonna be that, isn't it?

> that is not going to happen, ever

This is exactly the sort of thing people start saying before a bubble pops.

Re: Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

#114

Post by bruce511 »

scarface_74 wrote: post #84
TheNewsIsHere wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Tech has become a place where “funding” has become synonymous with “find a VC to fund you”. Most businesses don’t go that route, and plenty of tech ones don’t either. Savings, bank loans, lines of credit, private loans between people, local angel investors, and so on are how most businesses bootstrap. I co-own a technology business that has never taken outside money (well, we do have a credit card) and I’m n…

Can you name one tech company of note that hasn’t gone that route? BaseCamp and who else?

Your qualifying statement is found some heavy lifting.

First 'tech company' is a very narrow band. There are lots of companies that were founded to leverage technology, but which do not consider themselves 'tech' companies. We're, for example a services business, the service we provide happens to use tech we developed.

Second "of note" is very subjective. Do you mean billions of users? Global brand name? Thousands of workers? Because those are very high capital outcomes achieved either via long time (IBM?) or massive capital injection (which leads to very financial motivations.)

Of course there are zillions of my smaller 'less notable' businesses that exist all around you and me. You've never heard of the company I work for, but we're well known in our domain in our market. We've never taken outside investment, and we're free to make a lot of 'discretionary spending' that often serves a purpose other than increasing dividends.

For example we pay low-end workers (non techies) substantially more than market rate (aka minimum wage) because we belive in 'living wage' principles. That directly reduces profits, which we can do because the owners care about many things, and money is just one of them.

Of course the business has to be a business. Of course it has to make money. But money is like blood. You need it to live, but you don't live to make blood.

Re: Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

#115

Post by babyent »

josh2600 wrote: post #43
codingdave wrote: post #23

From what I've seen, anyone giving you definitive answers is blowing smoke. I've seen teams go for AI, do it well, and succeed. I've also seen teams go for AI, f it up, and all get fired as the company shuts down. The question is whether the key value of your product can benefit from the strengths of AI? If not, don't go there. If so, you then need to determine if your team can actually deliver an AI-driven vision th…

I came here to write this exact response. Folks work in mission driven organizations. In organizations that are optimizing for dollars you see quality fall by the wayside. Mission driven organizations that understand the levers of capital are the most enjoyable workplaces of my career. You want a CEO who is customer obsessed, not a CEO who is maximizing for dollars in the bank at all costs. It has to be mission first…

Maybe it’s a PE backed company

Re: Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

#116

Post by xg15 »

somesortofthing wrote: post #9

Draw up the product roadmap such that you can claim maximum AI-ness while including as little of it as possible in the actual product. Sounds like the CEO doesn't have any technical objections to not using AI, he just wants the ability to raise on AI branding. Include as much non-AI work as you can in the AI teams' projects, pitch an "AI efficiency initiative" that minimizes new spend on AI with the justification of…

> AI efficiency initiative

Don't forget to name it after a dog, too.

Re: Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

#117

Post by mattmanser »

scarface_74 wrote: post #105
onli wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is listed often as example. Dell as well. Apple startet without VCs, but added one a bit later.

Microsoft and Apple were founded in the late 70s not exactly applicable in 2025 with a completely different landscape.

GitHub, MailChimp, stack overflow, craigslist, Zoho, pluralsight. Just ask an ai.

Or do you want to shift goal posts again?

And it's totally applicable right now given the recent collapse of VC funding.

Re: Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

#118

Post by kadushka »

sofixa wrote: post #56
codingdave wrote: post #23

From what I've seen, anyone giving you definitive answers is blowing smoke. I've seen teams go for AI, do it well, and succeed. I've also seen teams go for AI, f it up, and all get fired as the company shuts down. The question is whether the key value of your product can benefit from the strengths of AI? If not, don't go there. If so, you then need to determine if your team can actually deliver an AI-driven vision th…

> I've seen teams go for AI, do it well, and succeed. Succeed based on what criteria? I struggle to think of a single product with "AI" that I'd call successful (excluding the already existing and established niches of recommendation algorithms and computer vision which have been rebranded AI and maybe are what you're referring to).

You wouldn’t call ChatGPT a successful product?

Re: Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

#119

Post by sofixa »

kadushka wrote: post #118
sofixa wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've seen teams go for AI, do it well, and succeed. Succeed based on what criteria? I struggle to think of a single product with "AI" that I'd call successful (excluding the already existing and established niches of recommendation algorithms and computer vision which have been rebranded AI and maybe are what you're referring to).

You wouldn’t call ChatGPT a successful product?

It's not a "product that went for AI", the product itself is AI.

Re: Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

#120

Post by HenryBemis »

> we are limiting resource on key teams

Yes, growth without the 'human tax'! Cost-savings all the way to 11!! (also no dependency/no key-employees risk/backups/shifts/etc.)

I remember this vid from a year ago where it's pretty clear what every CEO's wet dream is: reduce headcount, improve output, more profits. It's sad in a funny way: https://youtu.be/20TAkcy3aBY?t=230

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