The Lucent Perspective
In The Lucent Perspective, host Rebecca Hastings interviews executives and leaders from the tech sector to learn about their successes, most valuable lessons learned, challenges, solutions and insights. Rebecca is an executive headhunter who has built leadership teams and helped technology companies rapidly scale. If you're looking to learn about startup and scale-up technology companies and hear from some of the most entrepreneurial and innovative leaders, join Rebecca Hastings and guests on The Lucent Perspective.
The Lucent Perspective
How to Leverage AI with a Product Thinking Approach with Angus Allan
AI is transforming the way companies innovate and serve customers. But deploying AI effectively requires careful planning and a product mindset. In this episode, Angus Allan, of xDesign and former startup founder, shares his playbook for leveraging AI to create competitive advantages.
You will hear key insights on:
- Finding the pragmatic middle ground amidst AI hype cycles
- Determining if your company is a net consumer or producer of AI innovation
- Applying product thinking to solve real customer problems with AI
- How Money Saving Expert launched a chatbot in just 6 weeks
- Building an "AI moat" by using proprietary data to enhance AI capabilities
- Intrapreneur vs entrepreneur mindsets and how companies can leverage these
Episode Highlights
[01:34] Why adopting AI effectively requires finding a pragmatic middle ground between hype and pessimism
[02:58] How AI accessibility makes it easier to get started but harder to differentiate your business
[09:19] Why product thinking is key to solving real customer problems with AI (not just using AI for its own sake)
[13:35] How Money Saving Expert launched a chatbot in just 6 weeks using an agile process, safety measures, and trusted data sources
[23:50] Why building an "AI moat" using your unique data is crucial for creating competitive advantage with AI
[31:17] How intrapreneurs can successfully champion AI innovation by securing executive support and establishing risk frameworks
About Angus Allan
Angus Allan is a product leader and former founder with global experience across AI, financial services, and product management in start-ups, scale-ups, and enterprises. Currently a Senior Product Manager at xDesign, Angus combines his passion for AI and product strategy to deliver innovative solutions. He advocates for building responsible AI products that solve real customer problems and helped launch the award-winning MoneySavingExpert Chatbot. Angus regularly consults on AI product discovery, ideation, and implementation, co-organizes Product Tank Edinburgh, serves as Non-Executive Director at Rock Trust, and writes about AI and Product Management at AIAngus.com.
• Angus on LinkedIn
• Angus' AI Product Management newsletter
Rebecca Hastings, Founder and Director at The Lucent Group
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hastingsrebecca/
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The Lucent Group Ltd website - https://www.thelucentgroup.co.uk/
The Lucent Perspective website - https://thelucentperspective.com/
Rebecca has extensive talent and executive search experience supporting digital and technology businesses through complex changes and fast-paced scale-up periods. She works with businesses advising on C-level, technical, sales and commercial appointments, workforce planning, strategic talent management, recruitment processes and associated technology and employer brand development.