Bezos explains who will win AI in 1999
Obsess over customers and invent on their behalf
We found an incredible interview clip of Jeff Bezos in 1999. At the time, Bezos was building Amazon.com, and the interviewer was hounding him with criticism about the company’s obsessive focus on user experience. The reporter seems to think the company should be 100% focused on the Internet. Bezos’ response is eerily relevant today. The cutting-edge technology in question has changed, but today’s entrepreneurs and product people need to hear this mic-drop moment from 1999-Bezos. 🎤 Check out the video below.
1999: Internet, Shminternet.
2024: AI, Schmay-I.
History repeats itself, and it feels like we’re having very similar conversations today about AI. Like the Internet in the 90s, recent advances in generative AI are truly changing the world. And everyone is feeling the pressure to adopt AI or become irrelevant. It feels like every single product I interact with now has some fancy-schmancy new AI features, and while many of them are awesome and game-changing, most leave wondering, “Does anyone actually need this??”
It’s so refreshing to see Bezos-of-the-past standing his ground that obsessing over the customer experience is more important than chasing the latest technology trends.
You can compare Amazon’s success over the past two decades to the countless “pure internet plays” that died in the early 2000s to see where we’re going here. Companies that chase technology trends without focusing on their customers, won’t stand the test of time. The internet in the 90s and AI today are tools to solve problems, but to have a sustainable business, your product needs to solve a real problem that customers care about.
The Internet was a huge part of Amazon.com’s solution, because the Internet was the right technology for the right solution to a real problem that customers cared about.
In Jeff Bezos’ first public shareholder letter in 1997, he wrote:
But this is Day 1 for the Internet and, if we execute well, for Amazon.com. Today, online commerce saves customers money and precious time. Tomorrow, through personalization, online commerce will accelerate the very process of discovery. Amazon.com uses the Internet to create real value for its customers and, by doing so, hopes to create an enduring franchise, even in established and large markets.
— Isaacson, Walter; Bezos, Jeff. Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson (p. 31).
The Internet was not the focus, and even though Bezos acknowledges that it was “Day 1” for the Internet, he was focused on the long term, not just the hot new tech of the moment.
Obviously, the Internet and AI are revolutionary technologies. It’s Day 1 for AI, and we’d be silly to ignore it. Being on the first wave of a new technology can be incredibly profitable, and let’s be honest, it’s fun and makes you look cool. 😎 But when we’re building our products and want to throw in some AI features, we have to pause and ask, is AI necessary here? Is it the right technology for the right solution to a real problem?
Lots of product managers and entrepreneurs make the mistake of jumping to solutions. Don’t do it. Always start with the customer and their problem. (Check out my video about exploring the problem space if you’re not sure where to start! 🪐🌌🧑🚀)
This quote from Bezos’ 1999 shareholder letter (the same year as the interview clip above) hits home on this topic. You can see his obsessive focus on the customer. Even invention is “on their behalf.”
Our vision is to use this platform to build Earth’s most customer-centric company, a place where customers can come to find and discover anything and everything they might want to buy online. We won’t do so alone but together with what will be thousands of partners of all sizes. We’ll listen to customers, invent on their behalf, and personalize the store for each of them, all while working hard to continue to earn their trust.
— Isaacson, Walter; Bezos, Jeff. Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson (p. 47).
So, lean into the cool, new tech, but don’t lose sight of who you are building for. Start with the customer and obsess over their problems to build lasting products.
You got this!
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Referenced in this post:
Jeff Bezos In 1999 On Amazon's Plans Before The Dotcom Crash by CNBC on YouTube
Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, by Walter Isaacson, Jeff Bezos