UX for AI

CHAPTER 2The Importance of Picking the Right Use Case

As you saw in the case study in the previous chapter, picking the wrong use case is often the first harbinger of doom for the AI project. This is a common problem. This chapter provides a detailed guide for picking the right use case for your AI-driven project—the foundation of your success.

The following story comes from the time I was consulting for a precision irrigation company. This company was trying to use AI to tell farmers when and how much to water their crops so the plants were sufficiently watered. Many of their potential customers were third-generation farmers whose fathers and forefathers tilled that same land they were now caring for. Farmers who knew and loved their land the way they loved their children.

(You see where I’m going with this…)

When my team did the user research, we discovered that farmers like the ones the company was trying to sell their AI solution to had no difficulty whatsoever determining adequate soil moisture levels. They did not need AI, fancy sensors, or computer models. Instead, they used a time-honored “kick test” performed precisely how it sounds: Every morning, the farmer goes into the field and kicks the heel of their boot into the soil. If their boot sinks into the soil, voilà—the crops are sufficiently watered.

And that was that.

In fact, the idea that a third-generation farmer would rely on AI to tell them that their crops were sufficiently watered was downright insulting