Demos That Wow vs Demos That Work

Short summary

Mocked product demos hide AI's two defining challenges—latency and non-determinism—letting clients fall in love with instant, always-correct assistants teams can't actually build. Functional proof-of-concepts surface these constraints early, generating honest feedback from real behavior instead of choreographed stories. The right choice depends on what you're validating: desire (mocks work), or actual feasibility (functional PoC required).

• •Mocked demos hide latency and non-determinism, selling a false picture of AI capabilities
• •Functional PoCs surface real constraints early and generate honest feedback
• •Use mocks for validating desire; functional demos for validating feasibility

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.