To convince executives at traditional companies of AI's potential, abstract presentations fail. Instead, provide tangible, immersive experiences. A ride in a Waymo car, for instance, serves as a powerful product demo that makes the future feel concrete and inevitable, opening minds in a way slideshows cannot.
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In a crowded space like voice AI, pitches sound generic. The founder of April found that investors who converted were those who used the product before the first meeting. The direct experience of a working product bypassed skepticism and made fundraising calls short and successful.
Go beyond static prototypes by using text-to-video tools like Flow or Sora to create promotional clips. This final step allows stakeholders to visualize the product in a real-world context and emotionally connect with the user experience, making your pitch significantly more persuasive.
Generic use cases fail to persuade leadership. To get genuine AI investment, build a custom tool that solves a specific, tangible pain point for an executive. An example is an 'AI board member' trained on past feedback to critique board decks before a meeting, making the value undeniable.
Instead of a feature walkthrough, structure your demo as a story. Remind the prospect of their current painful 'day in the life' (uncovered in discovery) and then show them the future, transformed 'day in the life' using your product. This sells the outcome, not the tool.
Verkada sold its entire cloud platform not on a daily feature, but on the 'magic' of texting a live camera link. This simple action showcased the platform's modern capabilities in a way legacy systems couldn't, creating an unforgettable 'aha' moment that made the entire value proposition click for buyers.
When introducing AI to a skeptical executive, a detailed, multi-week rollout plan can be overwhelming and trigger resistance. A more effective approach is to showcase one specific AI capability within an existing tool to solve a tangible problem. This "dip your toe in the water" approach builds comfort and demonstrates immediate value.
To overcome leadership resistance to an internal tool, Walmart's PM built prototypes populated with actual production data. This tangible "what if" scenario demonstrated exactly what executives would see and the value they would get, proving far more effective than standard mockups for securing buy-in.
Use AI coding tools to build a prospect's requested feature or app in real-time during a sales call. This live demonstration of capability is a powerful sales flywheel that blows clients' minds, as most have never seen their ideas realized so quickly.
Don't underestimate the power of a tangible, even if imperfect, prototype. A designer used AI tools to build a working demo of a complex concept (MCP server). This "vibe-coded" project made the abstract value concrete for leadership, directly leading to the technology being prioritized on the company's official roadmap.
In an AI-driven workflow, the primary value of a rapid prototype is not for design exploration but as a communication tool. It makes the product vision tangible for stakeholders in reviews, increasing credibility and buy-in far more effectively than a slide deck.