AI-Native, Not AI-Sprinkle: Why AI Is A Business Change, Not A Technology Change
Companies unlock AI’s biggest productivity gains not by adding AI tools to existing workflows, but by redesigning teams, roles and daily work around AI. The broader lesson, argues Bob Morse, co-founder and managing partner of Strattam Capital, is that achieving transformational gains like 3x productivity requires CEO- and board-backed organizational change — not merely technology adoption.
HireRoad, an HR software company owned by the reporter's investment firm, faced the challenge of rewriting one of its oldest software products from scratch. The original plan was to complete the rewrite in 18 months, but with a new CEO, Jeff Fernandez, and a smarter approach, the company was able to complete the development in just 16 weeks.
This shift in strategy, which involved redesigning the engineering team organization and job specs, led to a 30% reduction in development time and allowed the company to migrate customers and decommission legacy code by the end of 2026. The company achieved these results by moving from an AI-sprinkle approach, where AI tools are added to an existing organization, to an AI-native approach, where AI tools are integrated into daily work practices.
This change allowed HireRoad to achieve productivity gains of up to 3x, rather than the typical 30% gains achieved through AI-sprinkle. The story highlights the importance of adopting AI-native strategies over AI-sprinkle for significant business transformation, rather than simply viewing AI as a technology change.
Written by urgent.news from Crunchbase News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
