A tool, an intern, or a replacement

I was in a pitch meeting with a large food and beverage company a few months ago. Two software audiences in the room—users and managers. Same software product, but with two completely different asks. The users wanted AI to take the parts of their job they hated: manual visual design changes, repetitive reporting, brand validation checks. They wanted an assistant. Their managers wanted something else. They wanted the tool to free up the team’s time to reallocate people elsewhere. Either eliminate roles outright, or take a step toward fewer people doing more. THE MISALIGNMENT This is the misalignment. I see it in pitch meetings every day. Users want an AI assistant to make them faster at their own job. Executives want a substitute, something that removes the job entirely, because that’s the number that moves a valuation. And the startups building AI tools are pricing toward whichever story is more fundable, not whichever one users are asking for. You can see this choice: assistant, intern, or employee on pricing pages of various AI startups. Artisan, a sales automation startup, doesn’t sell seats. It sells “intern” and “employee.” Two tiers, two job titles, priced to answer the exec…