by Pattie Sullivan, Senior Vice President, B2B Practice Head, HAVAS Red U.S.
You might expect to spend a day surrounded by leaders in robotics and AI and hear a lot about technology.
At Pittsburgh Robotics & AI Discovery Day, I heard surprisingly little about technology for technology’s sake.
Instead, CEOs and industry leaders from Pittsburgh’s thriving robotics and AI ecosystem kept returning to decidedly low-tech ideas: Solve a real problem. Get solutions into the real world quickly. Listen closely to customers. Measure outcomes, not activity. Stay curious enough to change coursewhen something isn’t working.
There’s a lesson in there for communicators, particularly at a moment when our own industry is racing to figure out what AI can do.
That distinction matters.
Whenever a new technology emerges, there’s a natural tendency to start with its capabilities. How can we use this? What can we make with it? Where can we plug it in?
But the robotics leaders I heard from seemed to approach innovation from the opposite direction. Start with the problem. Understand it deeply. Then determine what technology, if any, can solve it better.
Communicators could stand to do more of the same.
AI can help us analyze data, uncover insights, accelerate production, personalize experiences and rethink workflows. But “we used AI” is not a strategy any more than “we produced 50 pieces of content” is a business outcome.
The same goes for the metrics we’ve traditionally used to demonstrate our value. Impressions generated, content produced, events attended and announcements made can tell us what happened. They don’t necessarily tell us what changed.
That requires us to begin somewhere different: What problem are we solving? Who needs something from us? What do we want them to understand, feel or do differently? And how will we know whether it worked?
Only then should we decide which tools, channels and technologies belong in the solution.
That was my biggest takeaway from Pittsburgh’s robotics and AI community. Some of the people pushing technology furthest into the future are remarkably grounded in the here and now. They’relistening to customers, testing ideas in real-world conditions and judging innovation by whether it creates tangible value.
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in communications, that mindset is worth borrowing.
The smartest use of technology may be knowing when technology isn’t the point at all.
Take the next step and reach out today.
