Ask HN: Do you think it's bad for businesses to tout they use AI for everything?

1 points by ovoxo 1 year ago | 4 comments

For a business, do you think it's "bad" to proudly tout that you use AI for everything?

I'll start by saying I know it depends on the target market, etc... but curious what this group thinks even though I know this audience isn't representative of the general public.

*Context:* I built Text To Frame It (https://texttoframe.it) as a midnight hustle. While I have a website for it, the actual service is a phone number (917-905-1015) you can text pics to and the recipient of those texts is an AI bot that automatically/instantly frames those pics for you onto canvas, posters, puzzles, etc... And, from there, you can purchase what you like and have them shipped to your door in less than a week. The target market for this is individuals that want a simple, quick, frictionless way to create sentimental gifts - largely, guys like me lol on holidays like this one coming up. But, I digress ...

*The point I'm making:* The entire system is automated with AI - the AI bot you text message (powered by ChatGPT), the AI bot you talk to when you call that same phone number (powered by Retellai.com & ElevenLabs), the SEO-optimized blog posts (generated by a custom ChatGPT-powered AI workflow on Make.com - based off work by Nick Saraev), the ad campaigns (powered by AdWin from usestyle.ai), and more! And, I'm actually very proud of all of that. It allows me to run the entire thing as just one person. Not only does all of this allow me to keep the prices for framing the lowest in the market (with free shipping to boot), but it also allows me to focus on the core of the business: making quality products that people really like and find great for gifts and such. It also allows me to focus on how to make things quick and frictionless instead of worrying about writing the next sentence on a blog post, etc...

*So, my question:* I proudly have a disclaimer at the bottom of my blog posts highlighting that the blog posts are generated by AI (ex: https://texttoframe.it/blogs/posts/the-benefits-of-custom-picture-framing ). And, I'm considering adding other disclaimers throughout the site highlighting the use. *Do you fundamentally think this is a net-negative right now? And, conversely, do you think it's a net-positive?*

hypeman 1 year ago |

I feel that with a lot of hype cycle technologies, there are very few cases where being AI first is better than being AI enabled (with it being in the background) - your offering is around a fast & easy turnaround- not necessarily AI, so does your market respond better to AI based messaging or speed based messaging? I would assume it’s the latter.

I agree with theGreatZhopa, no one has to know, it can be your little secret that improves the customer experience and makes things feel a bit more magical.

theGeatZhopa 1 year ago |

in my opinion, I would offer the service without telling anyone, that I don't invest much time in this[1]. Because, this is the thinking I have everytime a company is saying "its all AI" - so, what workforce should I pay for?

I would make a nice story out of it. No one has to know, its a one-man-show.

[1] of course you invested a midnight-hustle. It is meant as "after the photo is send in" - not much work is done.

the next thing, how your service will behave, if one of the used AI-Tools cease operation? You'll need to find another one. Is there a replacement for this specific one that ceased operation?

After all I think that "All AI" is a much risky approach. Me as a customer is rather turned away, because I know how much the modern AIs are capable to do and how error-prone the whole process is - I don't want an error prone product (as an metapher)

ai-christianson 1 year ago |

There's a lot of nuance in how AI is used vs. the fact that it is used at all. Which specific AI tool is used matters a lot as well.

For example, LLMs can generate a ton of slop, whether in writing form, code, or anything else. But if used thoughtfully, they can lead to higher quality code bases with less tech debt and allow higher quality products to be built faster.

If someone is using the right tools for the right reasons, I see it as a good thing.

JohnFen 1 year ago |

Personally, given that everybody and their dog is using "AI" as a marketing point, I've come to view such language in product descriptions as being mostly marketing BS. I think less of such products/services in the same way that I think less of any product or service that involves marketing BS.