
Faster to the Wrong Place: The Problem With AI Bolt-Ons
There’s a pattern showing up across companies of all sizes right now, and it’s worth pointing out: more AI tools, more cost, more complexity, yet with little real improvement in outcomes.
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There’s a pattern showing up across companies of all sizes right now, and it’s worth pointing out: more AI tools, more cost, more complexity, yet with little real improvement in outcomes.

Most CRMs, marketing automation solutions, and customer experience management platforms share a hidden flaw: they were designed to help people do their jobs, but not to help them succeed at them. That distinction sounds subtle but it isn’t.

Flooding the funnel doesn’t create more signal, it buries the signal you already have under noise. The real opportunity isn’t a bigger funnel. It’s a smaller, sharper one, built around the leads that are truly worth pursuing, with enough focus and attention on each one to actually close it.

Customers are opening Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Grok and doing in-depth company evaluations there. They’re treating the LLM like their own personal due diligence expert on whatever category, or solution, they’re evaluating.

Our system handles all of this coordination automatically. Messaging across teams stays in sync without anyone having to check who’s doing what. When something needs resolution, it happens without the back-and-forth of figuring out ownership first. No manual coordination necessary.

If you’ve spent time evaluating CRMs, you’ve probably noticed they all feel remarkably similar. Most are built the same way, for every industry, which means they’re built for no one in particular.

Most companies don’t realize they’re overwhelming their own customers — not because they’re trying to, but because every department communicates independently with no automated coordination between them.

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Even smart data can still be fake if it’s built on synthetic data, or what some call “silicon sampling.” Companies are now leaning on AI to generate convincing-looking responses.

A Much Better Way to Generate High-Quality Leads. The best leads you can ever generate are those that come from customer referrals.
The core purpose of a Customer Experience Management (CXM) program is straightforward yet incredibly powerful.

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The most accurate ideal customer profile is built by analyzing your happiest existing customers, not by guessing which prospects might convert.

AI is rapidly becoming embedded in customer experience and voice-of-customer programs.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most companies actually have more customer data than they know what to do with. They run NPS surveys, collect customer support feedback, gather onboarding input, do product roadmap questionnaires, have account manager summaries in their CRMs, the inputs are endless.

Customer frustration doesn’t wait for your next meeting. Act fast, or watch loyalty erode and customers vanish. Here’s how to intercept issues in real-time.

I regularly speak with small, fast-growing companies who often say they haven’t started an NPS, customer satisfaction, or Voice of Customer (VoC) program. When I ask them why, their common justification: “We’re still small, haven’t lost customers yet, and they stay in personal touch.”

In the past, attracting customers meant mastering Google Ads: select prime keywords, set your bids, and watch the inquiries pour in. But that tried-and-true approach is fading fast.

Most companies think they’re doing enough to understand their customers. They run an annual satisfaction survey, maybe buy some anonymous market research report, and call it a day. The problem? That’s not really knowing the mind of your customers. That’s checking a box.

Just the other day I was reading a post on X by some silicon valley VC talking about how AI agents are going to replace countless different jobs. As expected it kicked off a lot of comments and replies.

Management consultants have long been a go-to strategy for the C-Suite. They’re brought in to evaluate a business, recommend strategic directions, advise on product launches, encourage RIFs, and even weigh in on M&A.

Customer churn is one of the most pressing challenges any business faces. Regardless of the state of the overall economy, or even the caliber of your competition, keeping current customers happy is critical. Your customers are the foundation of your business and it costs a lot more to get a new customer than it does retaining them.

Market research is essential for every business. It’s a shame, however, that companies spend so much money to get such a small return.

Every business faces the same challenge: figuring out where to focus. Where are the best opportunities? What’s the best go-to-market strategy? Who are truly the toughest competitors to have to deal with?

AI isn’t just supposed to speed up existing processes, it’s supposed to improve them. But when it comes to the world of HR and recruiting, is AI actually causing more problems that it solves by screening out good candidates before they even get the chance to get interviewed by a real person?

For many healthcare organizations, participating in standardized patient surveys like HCAHPS is mandatory. These government-mandated surveys are supposed to help gauge true patient satisfaction and improve care quality. But in practice, they fail miserably.

While doing a great deal of calls with hospital executives recently, AI was (unsurprisingly) constantly brought up. But I noticed that cloud infrastructure was mentioned quite frequently as well. The two seemed to go almost hand-in-hand.
Reaction helps organizations unify audience intelligence, coordinate engagement, and simplify growth operations across the customer lifecycle.