Why?

Why would I spend my time fixing a janky data pipeline?

Because that janky customer data pipeline is what’s causing everyone to talk about how the AI bubble is about to burst.

The thing is… that is just everyone waking up to the fact that AI can’t do it FOR you.

AI isn’t magic.

AI isn’t a silver bullet.

AI isn’t Mjölnir.

The thing is even if it were magic, a silver bullet, or Mjölnir, there is still a person on the other side of that thing.

…Wizards, the gunman, Thor.

Wait what?

You might have seen how I talk about garbage in, garbage out?

If you think you can ask AI to fix “this“ (whatever “this“ maybe) you are likely to find that it will not only not fix it… it will often make it worse.

Why?

Because these problems aren’t simple.

And AI is only doing what you ask it to do. And it has limitations in that.

So back to the janky customer data pipeline.

If you give someone half of the story and then ask them for their opinion what do you get?

An opinion formed on part of the information.

A janky customer data pipeline is worse than that.

Most people I’ve talked to don’t even have a data pipeline.

So what are they giving to AI to get things done?

Whatever they have handy.

Is that half of the available data a company has about customers?

Not hardly.

How do I know that?

DATA SILOS ARE EVERYWHERE.

There are people out there who have more handy data than a fragment of a silo’s worth of data.

They exist.

That is not most people.

So when I say that churn isn’t a customer success problem…

What I’m saying is that it isn’t just a customer success problem.

If I ask AI to understand a problem and give it a small amount of information about the problem… I won’t get deep understanding.

If I ask a human to understand a problem and give that human a small amount of information about the problem… I won’t get deep understanding.

Asking AI to fix things that you don’t know how to fix, won’t get you a fix.

It will get you a mess.

So go ahead an blame AI if you want.

That’s not going to solve the problem either.

Getting the information together that helps you gain deep understanding will help.

Asking AI to understand that once you do…

that will speed you up.

Because that’s what AI does.

Speeds you up.

It’s up to you whether you are accelerating towards that crash.

Or if you are accelerating towards the finish line.