Nikhil Kabadi

The biggest challenge I’m facing in building Eibira as an AI-first company is not this:

• Which AI tools should we standardize on?
• How do we prompt well?
• How do we build real differentiation in an AI-saturated market?
• Do we have a viable business model and pricing? Etc.,

But instead, the single most frustrating blocker I hit every now and then is this:

“Making collaborators understand: you now have to communicate with a machine and a human.”

Though this seems obvious… it’s a mindset shift, a new communication behavior which very few are willing to endure learning. 

For example…

As a designer:

In an AI-first set-up, a designers components and tokens are organized in a hierarchy with a naming structure that enables an AI to reliably infer frontend development.

There is a fundamental shift here, from design → translate (handoff) → build, to design → build. 

As a founder:

Working with another co-founder on the ideas, strategy, and GTM, it’s no longer responsibility → process → execution, but it’s instead process → AI-augmentation → execution.

AI is the third seat at the table that needs to be considered in all decisions.

As a developer:

For a tech-driven AI-native startup like Eibira, the development approach is a significant change. The thinking hat changes from code → review → deploy to architect → evaluate → integrate.

You’re not constructing code, but are directing it.

This mindset shift is a profound leap in behavior and communication.

Communication and collaboration are no longer just happening between humans; they are now happening through a machine.

And that machine is still a black box for many. 

---

🍪 Fortune Cookie:

A simple remedy I’ve suggested to others and seen significant behavior change, expanding their realm of thinking, are these three basic rules:

1. If you can afford it, get on a paid plan on at least one LLM. Spend that $20/month. It’s worth the investment.
2. You are the “intelligence” part of AI; the LLM is the workhorse. Make it do what you did earlier. Own the prompt, the process, and the guardrails.
3. Whatever “role” sits directly upstream and downstream of your work is now in your realm of thinking. Own these as well. (Example: if you’re a PM, think like a marketer and a developer too.)

I believe these three steps to be the lights-out moment, launching your race in a world that is rapidly moving towards everything AI.

Related article:

Stories are the first product