Is Experimentation Dead in the Age of AI?

AI accelerates the build, but only experimentation tells you what customers actually want.

If you’re new here: I’m Leslie Barry, founder of Exponentially. We help enterprises build Innovation Engines that turn ideas into evidence and results. This newsletter is where 3k+ leaders and innovators get practical ideas on Pretotyping and rapid experimentation. Subscribe here.

From the Stage: Reflections on AI Innovation Day

Last week, I had the chance to speak at Mantel Group’s AI Innovation Day, and I opened with a provocation:

If AI lets us go straight from idea to vibe-coded proof of concept, does that mean experimentation is dead?

The answer is no. AI accelerates the build — but it doesn’t replace the fundamentals. We still have to ask the right questions, test with real customers, and let evidence guide our bets. That’s the heart of innovation.

What I Shared

• Evidence beats opinion every time. We’ve seen companies save millions by shelving the wrong ideas early, while generating new value from the right ones.
• AI is a game-changer. It accelerates everything: idea generation, coding, prototyping, testing. The real advantage isn’t just faster builds, but faster learning.
• The Innovation Engine matters more than ever. Start by learning the methods, accelerate with 2–4 week sprints, and sustain by embedding the capability into your teams.

Proof in Action

In the session I shared some real examples:

• An early project at SwiftX that was shelved → hundreds of thousands saved
• A failed AI concept that could have cost millions → stopped before launch
• An AI initiative validated with strong ROI → significant upside
• Another scaled AI experiment with a large customer → multi-million dollar value created

The message landed: winning with AI isn’t about having the boldest ideas, it’s about testing more ideas, faster, and only scaling what customers actually prove they want.

My Takeaway

Standing in front of a room of leaders grappling with AI’s potential, I was reminded that the fundamentals haven’t changed: innovation equals experimentation equals results. AI just makes it possible to do this at a speed and scale we’ve never had before.

👉 If you’re curious about how this applies in your context, the best place to start is with our Innovation Engine Playbook.

Now Free: Pretotyping Course on YouTube

When I first learned Pretotyping from Alberto Savoia, it completely changed how I thought about innovation. It’s the foundation of data-driven experimentation, and I believe it should be a baseline skill for every innovator.

That’s why I’ve made my complete $400 Pretotyping course free on YouTube. Not as a marketing play, but because I want more people using Pretotyping to test ideas with evidence, not assumptions.

Here’s what’s inside:

• Foundations of Pretotyping – what it is and why it matters
• The Innovator’s Mindset – how to escape “Thoughtland” and kill bad ideas early
• The Pretotyping Toolkit – practical methods like Fake Door and Mechanical Turk
• From Idea to First Experiment – structuring assumptions and launching your first test
• Running Experiments & Getting Data – designing pretotypes and getting the evidence you need

Hopefully, this is a small step toward more teams building what customers actually want.

👉 Start with Module 1 on YouTube

Building experiment velocity in your company? I work with leadership teams to embed rapid experimentation as a core capability, increasing confidence in investing in the right products. Reply if you want to explore what this looks like for your business.

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Get Started with Your Innovation Engine

I run complimentary executive briefings and team sessions online, so you can join in wherever your team is based. It is a quick 30-minute talk to introduce Pretotyping, share real case studies, and show how to test which AI and innovation ideas need validation before investment.

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