OP #285: From What If, to What Now with AI

Author

Darren Herman
February 04, 2025

Wow, what a week. I was pretty much offline for 72 hours as we hosted our Bain Capital Growth Leaders Summit here in Boston for 40+ senior executives across our portfolio. This is a group I lead and it’s humbling, inspiring, and invigorating to be amongst this awesome group of executives. I recapped the event below for those who might find this of interest.

Later today (Tuesday), I’m paneling for my friend Kate and her company, OneGuide. The event is about “how to get into portfolio ops” and begins at 3p EST. If you’d be interested in joining, you can do so here. Sorry for the last minute invite but it was only announced last week and they have over 250+ folks registered to attend.

Last, it can’t be an OP letter without a nod to the Knicks. I was catching up on a week under a rock, and came across this retrospective post about Kristaps Porzingis. I enjoyed it and thought I’d share it out. And of course, there’s plenty of NBA trade action occuring, so what are the Knicks options?

A few quick articles to check out:

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Darren

🤖 The AI Revolution: Moving from "What If" to "What Now"

Last week, I had the privilege of hosting an incredible gathering of minds at the Bain Capital Boston HQ for the 2025 Growth Leaders Summit. With approximately 40 senior executives from our portfolio companies coming together, the energy was electric as we dove deep into AI's transformative potential.

What struck me most? The shift from theoretical AI discussions to real, tactical implementations. Gone are the days of "AI might..." - we're now firmly in the era of "AI does..."

This shift is how I programmed the Summit and I believe it paid off.

✨ A few moments that stayed with me:

The legendary Rishad Tobaccowala opened our minds with a perspective I can't shake: AI isn't just about technology - it's fundamentally about human evolution. As someone who's been in the digital trenches for years, this resonated deeply. We're not just upgrading our tech stack; we're upgrading how humans work, think, and create. While his new book, Rethinking Work, is not just about AI, it covers it, and his thoughts are prescient.

Shopify's story was particularly fascinating (and personally relevant as someone who's seen the e-commerce landscape evolve). Their top-down AI adoption wasn't just about implementing new tools - it was about reimagining their entire organizational DNA. It reminded me of how the best transformations often start with culture, not code. CEO Tobias Lutke is a driving force of that culture.

The Alexander Group's presentation on GenAI for B2B marketing hyper-personalization was very solid. As someone who's spent countless hours crafting marketing strategies, seeing AI create detailed customer personas in minutes was both humbling and exciting. The future of marketing is here, and it's more personal than we ever imagined.

A few other companies presented: Shift, Evertune, and Instalily.

Shift talked about AI services and the fundamental rethinking of the tech architecture and stack to enable growth.

Evertune talked about how brands can manage themselves in a world where LLMs dictate their fate. How does your brand show up in Llama vs. ChatGPT? Whats old again is new again, but instead of SEO, we now have AEO (answer engine optimization).

Instalily introduced the concept of autonomous AI agents. While they started in distributor businesses within the industrial sector, there are many use cases across all sectors.

💡 What's keeping me up at night:

The gap between AI inspiration and implementation isn't technical - it's human. Our friends at BCG had some really good thoughts around this. Their 70-20-10 framework was really helpful: 70% is human, 20% technology, 10% algos. As leaders, our challenge isn't just about selecting the right AI tools; it's about orchestrating a symphony of change that touches every aspect of our organizations.

Looking ahead, I'm more convinced than ever that AI isn't just another tech trend - it's the fundamental rewiring of how we do business. But here's what makes me optimistic: seeing our portfolio companies not just adapt to this change, but lead it. Some of the peer case studies showed value creation and momentum and was proud to see our execs embracing growth strategies enabled by AI.

Bonus: I did not put this in my LinkedIn post but our friends at The Alexander Group, a b2b GTM consultancy, gave an incredible presentation around use cases for AI in b2b marketing motions. I turned this into a podcast using NotebookLLM and you can listen to it here.

Below are a few articles I came across this past week that I found interesting. While I may not agree with everything in each one, I think they're worth a read. If you stumble upon an article you think I or the Operating Partner community would enjoy, feel free to share it with me. Of course, I reserve the right to decide what gets featured in the OP.

2025 Predictions (Scott Galloway)

The Perfect ChatGPT Prompt (Bernard Builds)

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