Shipping AI features that actually help
Most AI features fail not because the model is bad, but because they show up in the wrong place. Here's how I wire AI into products so it removes work instead of adding it.
It's easy to add AI to a product. It's hard to add AI that people keep using after the first week. The difference almost never comes down to the model, it comes down to where the feature lives and whether it saves the user a real step.
Put the suggestion where the decision is made
A summary is useless on a separate "AI" page. It's valuable at the top of a long thread the user is already reading. A draft reply is useless in a sidebar. It's valuable inside the box where they were about to type. The rule I follow: the output appears exactly where the user was going to do the work anyway.
Give the model tight, structured context
Vague prompts produce vague output. I feed models a narrow, well-shaped slice of context, the specific record, the specific history, and ask for a specific shape back. Less room to wander means fewer wrong answers to clean up.
Every suggestion is a draft
AI proposes; the human confirms. Nothing sends, saves, or changes state without a person clicking. That single rule buys you trust, and trust is what keeps a feature in daily use.
Do these three things and the model almost stops mattering, the feature works because it fits how people already work.