When Does It Actually Make Sense to Put AI Into Products?
TL;DR
Over the past few years, the tech industry has rushed to plug a new microchip into every device on the assumption that if you can add AI, you should. Smart vision toothbrushes, mood-reading household robots, and a host of physical products are invading consumers’ daily lives, reliant on artificial intelligence to learn, predict, and adjust our behavior. But as anyone who’s struggled to update the firmware in their fridge knows, AI doesn’t improve every product.
Nauti's Take
Small teams should start with one testable behavior: which decision or action becomes measurably better because of AI? Before adding the feature, test failure modes, ongoing model costs, data handling, and the offline fallback, because a clever capability can also make the product harder to maintain.
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