AI Won’t Rescue Your B2B App From the “Confused User” Clickathon
In B2B product land, there’s a recurring Groundhog Day moment: you ignore UX for another quarter. Your brilliant engineers build a technically impressive product… that loses deals because prospects can’t navigate a basic demo. Sales hides the features you spent months developing because they’re too painful to explain. Adoption stalls. You wonder why.
The cycle breaks only when you decide that user experience isn’t decoration — it’s a competitive weapon.
Why B2B Keeps Forgetting About UX
B2B product leaders are under constant pressure. Sales needs boxes ticked for the next RFP. Roadmaps are locked to hard commitments. Corporate buyers don’t care about end-user sanity. Proving UX ROI in B2B is slow and messy, unlike consumer apps where ratings and downloads tell the story instantly.
The result? UX is treated as optional. I’ve taken that shortcut before, and I regretted it every time.
The Original B2B Sin: Buyer ≠ User
The buyer chooses software for reasons that rarely match user needs.
Finance picks payroll tools for accounting efficiency, not so employees can easily check pay stubs.
HR selects performance management software for compliance, not manager usability.
Procurement buys expense software for cost control, not traveler convenience.
Historically, it didn’t matter — users were captive. No app stores, no BYOD, no AI workarounds. Inertia was the moat. IBM’s old saying, “Nobody gets fired for buying IBM,” existed because buyers valued risk avoidance over user happiness.
That world is gone.
The New Reality
Modern users have options and high expectations, thanks to their personal tech experiences. They use the same devices for Instagram and for your software. Every smooth Venmo transaction makes your clunky expense tool feel worse.
Remote work rewarded products with great UX. Zoom beat entrenched incumbents by focusing on the core meeting experience. Slack and Figma bypassed gatekeepers entirely, winning over teams first. Switching costs have collapsed thanks to integrations and APIs. SaaS billing means unused licenses get noticed at renewal time.
Adoption suddenly matters.
No, AI Won’t Magically Fix This
Some leaders think AI makes traditional UX less important. “We’ll replace the whole interface with chat!” Not likely. Chat is great for certain workflows — queries, summaries, idea exploration — but not for building financial models or managing complex timelines. Users need persistence, structure, and predictability.
Others bet on fully generated interfaces. Sounds futuristic, but too much change kills muscle memory. Users value consistency for high-stakes work. The real win is AI-enhanced UX: natural language setup, smart suggestions, contextual help — all within a stable framework.
Poor adoption of “bolt-on” AI features wasn’t an AI failure — it was a design failure. The tools doing AI right (Cursor, Perplexity, Notion AI) integrate it into existing workflows where it actually helps.
Making the Internal Case for UX
If you want buy-in, don’t sell UX as “polish.” Translate it into business outcomes.
“Bad UX costs $X in support tickets” beats “UX is important.”
“Low adoption is killing ROI” beats “Users deserve better.”
“Competitors with modern interfaces are winning deals” beats “This looks outdated.”
Tailor your pitch:
CFO → show cost reduction via fewer tickets/training hours.
CEO → show how better UX drives adoption and revenue expansion.
Board → frame UX as a competitive moat.
What “Good UX” Means in B2B
Completing tasks faster
Lowering mental load in complex workflows
Enabling bigger business processes
Reducing errors and rework
Start Small, Prove ROI
You don’t need a total redesign. Target one visible pain point, fix it, and measure the change in metrics leadership cares about. Win a quick battle, and you gain political capital for the next one. Stack enough wins, and you change the culture.
Make UX Your Moat
UX erosion will always be a threat. AI will keep shifting the landscape. But making your product easier, faster, and more intuitive pays for itself in adoption, retention, and expansion. A great experience is something users notice when it’s gone — and something competitors can’t easily copy.