AI: Our Silicon Friend, Not Substitute
Those who see AI as a wholesale replacement for humans are short-sighted
“Add More Stuff!!!” is the battle cry of startups everywhere. But much like a Swiss Army knife — bulky, heavy, and rarely better than any single tool — it raises a tough question: what are we actually building?
To find our own Id, we turned to our own branding tool. We undertook a detailed analysis of our brand archetypes. This allowed us to compare our current positioning with other potential archetypes, providing clear recommendations about where we could best connect with our customers.
One archetype stood out distinctly: The Mentor.
We gravitated toward this archetype not simply because it resonated with our personal beliefs, but because it encapsulated precisely how we envision VSTRAT in the broader ecosystem of strategic planning and generative AI. The Mentor archetype emphasizes guidance, collaboration, and empowerment rather than spectacle, magic, or heroics. Besides, Peter is a long-time strategy professor and I’m a former research fellow - we’re natural mentors.
Consider the alternatives we consciously rejected:
First, there's The Magician archetype. It's appealing at first glance. After all, generative AI does indeed appear magical: input a prompt and, seemingly from nowhere, out pours content, analysis, or even strategic insights. Voila! Instant Expert. Everyone in the generative AI space already leans into this magical trope. It's crowded, superficial, and unhelpful… cool in the way Segways once were: fun to watch, awkward to use, and gone in a flash.
Next, we considered The Hero archetype. Heroes (read: consultants) charge into challenging situations, deliver rapid-fire solutions, and then vanish. They save the day (or at least their own P&L’s), but rarely stay around long enough to ensure their deck is used for more than expensive fish wrap. It’s not a question of if the plant manager will toss the deck, but how long it’ll gather dust first.
Our mission isn’t about being momentary saviors who drop a flashy presentation and leave. Rather, we aim to democratize strategic thinking by empowering people consistently and sustainably. VSTRAT isn't designed to merely deliver a one-off solution; it's created to integrate deeply and collaboratively into the ongoing strategic processes of our users.
In contrast, The Mentor is about relationships built on mutual respect and growth. The Mentor archetype thrives on guiding and collaborating, working alongside people and technology in harmony. This approach aligns perfectly with our fundamental belief: machines should augment human intelligence, not replace it.
Think of how technology has historically served humanity. We don’t physically fly like birds, yet we routinely soar through the sky in airplanes. We can't run as swiftly as gazelles, but cars effortlessly speed us along highways. We certainly can't lift enormous weights with our bare hands like Superman, yet cranes handle immense burdens without strain.
These technologies don’t replace us: they extend us. Generative AI, and specifically VSTRAT, operates on this same principle. It’s a tool designed to help, guide, and augment human strategic decision-making, not to perform those tasks autonomously.
This philosophy also informs our views on the broader GenAI marketplace. We see many sites and services promising a magical "push-button" solution to strategic complexity. Such promises aren’t just unrealistic; they're fundamentally misguided.
Nobody understands your business better than you do. Strategic choices, nuanced decisions, and critical insights come from deep, contextual knowledge. What a tool like VSTRAT does exceptionally well is amplify your capabilities. It helps structure your thinking, organize your insights, and suggests pathways you might not have otherwise considered. But it doesn't do the strategic thinking for you or claim to.
The Mentor archetype clearly communicates our role as facilitators, not magicians or heroes. It emphasizes that real success comes from human-machine collaboration, each enhancing the strengths of the other.
Our commitment to dogfooding reaffirmed something essential: that VSTRAT's real value lies in its capacity to support and elevate human strategy rather than replace it.
So yes, we eat our own dog food … and proudly. We don’t just believe in our product, we daily experience the tangible value it provides. By embracing The Mentor archetype, we affirm that the most meaningful strategy arises not from magic tricks or heroic stunts, but from thoughtful, guided collaboration.
Michael