From Product to Function: The Strategic Artificial Intelligence Shift

Abstract

Products stand at the heart of the business. They fulfill consumer needs, demonstrate corporate innovation; guide research and development, and provide a strategic thrust. Case histories of “dominant”   products from software to soft drinks confirm this paradigm.  Windows fulfilled executive needs, demonstrated Microsoft’s innovation prowess, guided Microsoft’s research and development efforts, and stood at the heart of Microsoft’s strategies. Forces of artificial intelligence seem to alter this paradigm, however.  These forces seem to introduce a shift in the fundamentals of strategic thinking by introducing the concept of strategic product-function analysis.  What they say in essence is that big data is revealing a different framework of environment functions. Those functions are introducing new concepts of product technology, product innovation, and product positioning within a strategy construct. They are inducing a strategic shift from products to functions.