Hamel Husain argues that slapping a chatbot onto your product doesn't work. Real AI integration requires rethinking workflows from the user's perspective, whether through dedicated AI components or APIs that actually speed things up.
There's a mandate from on top that, hey, we need to use AI. And people take an existing product surface area and just slap a chatbot on it and say, hey, we got AI. You know, that is a very mediocre experience that kind of doesn't move the needle. You should try to be thoughtful of how you can actually help the user, like accelerate their workflow and do things faster. For example, instead of putting a chatbot on your product, consider putting an MCP on your product. Or consider exposing APIs for your product. That is likely to be way more helpful to a lot more people than just putting in a chatbot on.
