Why I stopped saying "AI" in sales calls

The word does two jobs at once, and you do not choose which one it does in the other person's head.

Say "AI" to one director and they lean in. Say it to the operations manager beside them and they start working out who is being replaced. Same word, same sentence, two entirely different meetings.

What I say instead

I describe the outcome and let the method be an implementation detail, which is honestly what it is.

"Your quotes go back the same day instead of Thursday." "Nobody re-types the order." "The van stock is right." Whether that takes a language model, a scheduled script or a rule engine is my problem, not the client's.

Nobody asks their accountant which spreadsheet formula they used. They ask whether the numbers are right.

The bit people miss

Dropping the word defuses the fear conversation before it starts, and that conversation is the real blocker on most projects. Not budget. Not technology. The quiet worry going round a team that this is the start of something being taken away.

If that fear is live, the software will not get used however good it is. I would rather spend the first hour there than on a demo.