How Vertical Software Companies Can Harness AI Intelligently, Not Artificially

As a vertical software leader, you’ve probably already answered the question of whether to adopt AI. Now the real question is: where and how should you implement AI?

AI is shaking up industries across the board, and vertical software serves many industries that expect the highest benefit and hence adoption of AI, such as high tech, banking and manufacturing. At Azlin Software, we’ve seen firsthand how delightful AI features boost productivity and eliminate tedious, repetitive tasks. Let’s be honest—who enjoys manual data entry, anyway?

Competitive dynamics and customer expectations of vertical software are also evolving fast with the AI adoption surge. A recent survey of private vertical software companies found that 31% already offer AI solutions, and another 39% plan to launch one within the next year. That’s a whopping 70% with AI initiatives in the works!

Yes, your company and your customers are AI-ready. Let’s dive into two key areas to advance your AI implementation right away: AI in your product and AI in your internal operations.

Enhance and Future Proof Your Product with AI

A good product strategy always starts with your customers—which pain points could AI solve, in order to reduce costs, increase revenues, or both for your customers?

As a vertical software company, you have two unique advantages: deep knowledge of the industries you serve and unique customer data. Your product strategy should leverage these insights to integrate AI where it matters most to your customers.

Large B2B software companies have explored the functional areas that could be significantly improved by AI, including marketing, sales, product development, service ops, and resource management. Salesforce has integrated AI capabilities, known as Einstein AI, across sales, marketing and customer service platforms. Asana is making project management smarter with AI Teammates. The proprietary usage data can guide fast iteration of different AI features.

However, beware of “AI-washing”, because customers can see through a mere rebranding. Back to the first principle, focus on building AI features that deliver real value to customers.

Concerned about the learning curve? Your team don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of quick-start resources, from general guides on prompt design to hands-on courses by production large language models (LLMs) like Claude or ChatGPT. Building on top of these LLMs help your development and support team to focus on crafting specialized flows for your customers.

This leads nicely into the second area of AI adoption - internal operations.

Streamlining Internal Operations with AI and Automation

Just like designing AI features for customers, think about where AI can help with your team’s needs, whether it’s fast prototyping or eliminating repetitive, error-prone tasks. The internal issue backlog is a goldmine for spotting areas ripe for automation– remember we mentioned no one likes manual data entry?

One area of obvious AI adoption by software companies is faster and better product development using AI tools - think Github Copilot. For marketing and sales, tools like ChatGPT are more widely used to draft content or handle customer queries, saving time and boosting efficiency.

At Azlin Software, we’ve stayed lean by building an AI-native tech stack. We constantly ask ourselves: what tasks can we delegate or automate right now? Tasks that once needed outsourcing can now be automated. For example, AI tools help us stay on top of market research, giving us more time for high-value, human connections.

And don’t forget: document everything! Codify processes for current and future teams, and foster a mindset of continuous improvement—build, test, iterate, and repeat.

Curious to Explore Further? 

Now is the time to future-proof your business with AI. Embrace the innovation and maintain your competitive edge.

At Azlin Software, we are excited to team up with exceptional vertical software companies, embracing new AI products and staying at the forefront of innovation!

If you want to stay ahead of the curve with AI or would like more insights into what others are doing in the broader market, don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected]. Let’s talk!

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