Sell aspiration, not efficiency

VisiCalc, introduced in 1979, was the first electronic spreadsheet software. It eliminated manual calculations and made accountants more efficient. More importantly, it made the profession aspirational. Accounting was no longer just about number crunching but complex financial modeling, scenario planning, and client advisory.

When applied correctly, new technology makes a profession aspirational — and today's language models are no different.

Language models free us to focus on more rewarding tasks. Developers can concentrate on interesting business logic instead of boilerplate code, while SDRs can build relationships rather than spend time enriching spreadsheets.

If you believe this worldview, you've probably also been underwhelmed by the many AI products that pitch you on efficiency. Do 20% less work on some task. Fire 20% of your staff. It all feels so uninspiring.

Sell aspiration, not efficiency

There are two reasons aspiration is a better selling point than efficiency: one emotional and one economic.

The emotional reason is that everyone yearns for meaningful and fulfilling work. Yet every job involves necessary but tedious tasks—grunt work that gets in the way of true engagement. An aspirational pitch taps into this emotion. It shows how eliminating grunt work makes tasks easier and liberates us to pursue more rewarding and impactful parts of our work.

The economic case for an aspirational pitch is tied to greater resource utilization. Better technology leads to more, not less, resource consumption. This dynamic is most readily seen in software engineering:

First, developers become more productive as their tools get better. Next, the cost of producing software decreases overall. Consequently, more projects become economically viable, leading to an explosion in demand for software. The net effect is that as it gets easier to build software, even more software is built. We never quite catch up to the flood of new supply due to increased efficiency.

- The Future of Programming with Language Models

You don't want to fire 20% of your developers; you want to build 20% more features. You don't want to fire 20% of your SDRs; you want to close 20% more deals. The desire to do more with new tools is an aspirational quality deep in our psyche. The most compelling AI products tap into this mentality and lead with aspiration.

If you're building an AI product, consider selling aspiration, not efficiency.