AI First: The Playbook for a Future-Proof Business and Brand by Adam Brotman and Andy Sack.
Adam holds a BA in Classical Civilizations from UCLA and JD from the University of Washington School of Law. He started his career as a corporate attorney before becoming Starbucks’ first Chief Digital Officer and EVP of Global Retail Operations before departing to become President, Chief Experience Officer, and co?CEO at J.Crew. Andy holds a BA from Brown University and MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Andy co-founded Forum3 with Adam.
They position the book as a strategic manual for organizations embracing artificial intelligence and business. In fact, the book functions as simply promotional of the world’s enthusiasm surrounding AI. The book wants to convince readers that adopting an “AI-first” mindset is non-negotiable for any modern organization.
Rather than educating readers with concrete examples, Adam and Andy leans heavily on name-dropping and aspirational catchphrases.
Name dropping goes nowhere
The tone is set from the opening chapter, which eagerly cites conversations with Sam Altman, Bill Gates, and Sal Khan. However attributing the graphical user interface (GUI) to Bill Gates was a mistake, so they never met Steve Jobs who made the Macintosh GUI stand out from Windows.
I was just waiting for the next chapter to begin with their conversation with Elon Musk. They missed with really meaningful insights and focused on celebrity to woo the reader. It missed badly. Adam is recognized for his Starbucks digital work. Andy certainly knows how to sell an idea. They are selling the reader on AI’s potential and inevitability.
They praised insights from Sam, Bill, and Sal, all who used ChatGPT 4.0 just as the world was learning of ChatGPT 3.5. So, this leads the reader to believe they have an exclusive inside scoop to the next killer AI release from OpenAI. They never address how ChatGPT writes suicide notes for teenagers. This would dampen their wild enthusiasm for AI.
In conclusion, AI First is all hype, and overconfident in scope. This will certainly appeal to executives seeking to be social media influencers showing how they are keeping pace with this evolving technological change. The book’s title is AI First, but make this ‘AI Last’ on your reading list.