AI·Mar 22, 2026·5 min read
Applied AI vs AI theater
Most AI features in B2B software are ornamental. The ones worth shipping remove a human step or compress a judgment call.
A useful test
Ask of any AI feature: does this remove a step, or does it add a surface the user has to learn? If it adds a surface, it is ornamental. Most of the AI tooling shipped in B2B software over the last two years is ornamental.
What earns its keep
Retrieval that makes the next action obvious. Classification that routes without asking. Generation that drafts a first pass the operator edits. The model is not the feature. The compression of the decision is the feature.