To thrive in today’s AI landscape, enterprises need more than just AI teams—they need AI product teams. These teams solve real-world challenges by iterating quickly, integrating user feedback, and delivering outcomes, not just outputs.
Here are the top common pitfalls of AI teams we’ve seen:
- Static Plans Fail: Rigid, pre-defined blueprints assume the solution is already known. AI teams working this way often struggle to adapt when real-world needs deviate from the plan.
- Siloed Roles Slow Progress: Isolated functions (e.g., product managers, data scientists, developers) reduce agility and delay iterations.
- Lack of Product Focus: AI teams frequently prioritize building advanced models without addressing user needs, operational constraints, or business outcomes.
Building AI Product Teams That Ship Solutions
Here’s how leading enterprises transition to AI product teams:
- Prioritize Product Strategy
- Align AI capabilities with business goals.
- Focus on solving user challenges to create measurable business outcomes.
- Leverage Generative AI Expertise
- Create meaningful user experiences beyond building models.
- Ground AI outputs with data (e.g., Retrieval-Augmented Generation) to ensure reliability and accuracy.
- Adopt Lean-Agile Practices
- Embrace rapid iteration, incorporating user and system feedback at every stage.
- Design solutions with safety and reliability in mind through robust monitoring and performance management frameworks.
Case Studies: Real-World AI Successes
Nike: Rapid Prototyping for Scalable AI Solutions
Nike needed a fast, scalable solution to enhance their product recommendation system. In just three weeks, we developed a working prototype for an AI-powered recommendation engine that aligned with user needs and laid the foundation for production scalability. By focusing on rapid iteration and feedback, we helped Nike move from concept to implementation seamlessly.
Babbly: New Product Development
Babbly partnered with us to create an MVP for their AI-powered speech and language development platform. Delivered in under a month, the MVP used AI to analyze audio inputs and provide actionable insights for parents and caregivers. This product demonstrated the platform’s transformative potential, helping Babbly secure funding and scale its vision.
Construction firm: AI-Driven Matching for Regional Growth
Faced with regional expansion, a construction firm needed a scalable solution to match contractors with project leads. We delivered a human-in-the-loop AI matching system in under a month, leveraging LLMs to improve precision, reduce manual workloads, and enable continuous optimization. The system provided instant recommendations while capturing feedback for ongoing improvement, making it adaptable for future growth.
Moving from POC to Production: A Roadmap for AI Teams
Great AI product teams excel at turning ideas into impactful solutions by building, testing, and iterating:
- POC (Proof of Concept): Test feasibility with a controlled, small-scale implementation.
- MVP (Minimum Viable Product): Build a functional product addressing a core user need, designed for feedback collection.
- Production: Scale the solution for real-world use, ensuring reliability and measurable business outcomes.
What Success Looks Like
- Rapid Delivery: Ship a functional AI product in 4-6 weeks.
- Real-world Impact: Deploy to production in 12 weeks.
- Compounding Competitive Advantage: Every AI experience deployed creates a feedback loop—more data leads to better insights and more impactful solutions.
Ready to Unlock AI’s Full Potential?
Ask yourself:
- Are we solving real user challenges or just building models?
- Can we ship solutions quickly and reliably?
- Does our team have the skills and processes to deliver business value?
We specialize in empowering enterprises to succeed with AI product development. From designing product roadmaps to ensuring AI reliability and governance, we help you move rapidly from POC to production.
Get your AI Product & Architecture Benchmark to assess your current capabilities and uncover opportunities to accelerate impact.
