AI & The Red Queen · Hunter Software Consulting<br>“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”<br>― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland<br>I find myself returning to quote, time and time again. AI is moving so fast. How can you possibly hope to keep up?<br>The Builder&rsquo;s Dilemma

Link to heading<br>&ldquo;If you build it, you must maintain it&rdquo; - I think this is my quote (Inspired by Wayne&rsquo;s World &ldquo;If you book them, they will come&rdquo;).<br>Building a product has inertia. The sunk cost fallacy exists. Once something exists, once people pay for it (or god forbid you go freemium and they don&rsquo;t), it is tangible. Changing it can be painful.<br>This represents danger. AI enables building faster than ever, but obtaining customer feedback is still a slow process. It&rsquo;s very easy to slip out of balance - then you end up building and maintaining in an unprofitable direction.<br>Furthermore, AI is biased towards being additive. It&rsquo;s honestly hard to get agents to do broad removals well.<br>This adds up to a multifaceted danger. It&rsquo;s easier than ever to overbuild and overspend, while underserving your customer. It&rsquo;s also easier than ever to slip out of product market fit.<br>Stay Limber To Pivot

Link to heading<br>So what is to be done? The market will make or break you. If you slip too far out of product market fit, you die.<br>First, focus on fundamentals. An effective SDLC means that if you need to pursue a new product, that option is available to you.<br>Second, focus on the customer. The customer is God. You serve at their leisure. Learn them, love them, live with them. Don&rsquo;t focus on what you want to build, or what you have built. Continue evaluating how your offering slots into their needs.<br>Third, experiment. If you have a core, profitable business, don&rsquo;t throw it away. But make some small side bets. Spin up a skunkworks division. Do hackathons, and actually ship the results into production. Admit that you might be wrong.<br>Change is the Only Constant

Link to heading<br>Change comes for us all. I&rsquo;ve seen it happen at every company I&rsquo;ve seen survive. Complacency is a killer.<br>None of this is new. But AI has accelerated all of this, significantly. The good news is, the solution is the same as always.<br>Serve your customer, serve your community. If you get outrun while running your best race, that&rsquo;s just the game. But you&rsquo;ve gotta come ready and able to run.