Read this fantastic LinkedIn post by Brian Balfour. Brian is the former vice president of growth for HubSpot, and the founder and CEO of Reforge (as an alumni, I can say it is the best information on the internet about building and growing software companies)

He talks about how two types are AI products are emerging. Horizontal products like ChatGPT that can do everything well and vertical products, like Fluent and EvenUp, that only do one thing, but do it exceptionally well.

Fluent helps sales reps generate business cases and EvenUp helps personal injury lawyers create demand letters.

Brian points out some common themes among these vertical products: The tasks aren’t performed every day or once every six months but somewhere in between. The tasks relate to how the company makes money and both companies makes fairly expensive things (deals are in the five to six figure range). Before AI, these tasks were difficult to do and involved lots of man hours. Lastly, both companies have (or are building) huge data sets and examples of how these tasks are done. For example, EvenUp leverages millions of public records on medical documents and case files and Fluint relies on a company’s internal sales calls to customize their approach for each customer.

If you’ve ever considered turning your expertise into an AI product these are important patterns to take note of. The takeaway here is that anything in between these two extremes is the “death zone” – the middle ground where AI products offer a slight bump in productivity on a volume of loosely related tasks. Many note-taking or AI presentation tools fall into this category.

Bottom line: Stay away from small improvements to well-established workflows and focus on one mind-blowing improvement to a ridiculously expensive process.

• Brian’s LinkedIn post.

• A recording of the conversation the post is based on.

• Reforge – Live classes from tech’s top experts.

• EvenUp – turning medical docs and case files into AI-driven demand packages for injury lawyers.

• Fluint – Generate compelling business cases to help sales reps sell.