AI and the Myopia Trap.

First coined by Theodore Levitt in the 1960’s, marketing myopia happens when companies define their business exclusively in terms of the products or services they offer, rather than understanding and fulfilling the underlying user needs.

Marketing Myopia

First coined by Theodore Levitt in the 1960’s, marketing myopia happens when companies define their business exclusively in terms of the products or services they offer, rather than understanding and fulfilling the underlying user needs. Nokia, Kodak, BlackBerry among others have fallen into the myopia trap, fixating solely on their specific category and not on the bigger picture. But how does AI relate to this?

Many of us fear that AI will take their job and this will happen if workers are unable to adapt and apply it to their job. It is clear that a large number of tasks and jobs will be disrupted by AI and yet it won't replace basic human needs, just as the invention of the camera didn't make paintings obsolete.

When the washing machine was popularised in the 1950's, people thought that would be the beginning of the end of household chores while the advent of the automatic door caused uproar among the porters who realised the end of their careers. And what happened to all the NFT experts?!

What marketing myopia tells us is to look at the broader picture as opposed to focusing on the means because the mobile phone will disappear, the laptop will become obsolete and people controlling a car will be considered an irresponsible and unsafe activity of the past. 

AI will replace many products and services but will it displace the need to eat, work, explore, create, and communicate? Probably not in my lifetime..