3 Takeaways From The Product Podcast With Faisal Masud

Table of contents

Faisal Masud discusses why AI should support business strategy, how manager roles may change, and why outcomes now matter more than seats.

“If we can’t provide that return on their investment, we shouldn’t exist. It’s as simple as that. The right to be in the room is only earned if we can demonstrate the performance.”

That quote from Faisal Masud, President of HP Digital Services and Workforce Experience, perfectly encapsulates the idea that any technology has to prove its value. Even in the age of AI, where companies are driven heavily by FOMO, the real test is whether those investments actually pay off.

That’s just one of many insights shared in the latest episode of The Product Podcast, hosted by Carlos Gonzales de Villaumbrosia, CEO of Product School. During the 30-minute conversation, the two explored how AI is changing the way companies work, organize teams, and measure the value of technology. Here are three key takeaways from the episode.

AI Is Part of the Strategy, Not the Strategy

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke recently went viral for his “AI slop grenades” comment, criticizing the flood of low-quality AI-generated work employees toss at co-workers. They end up spending more time checking and fixing it than it would have taken the original employees to do the work correctly in the first place.

The irony, of course, is that Tobi made AI use a company-wide “fundamental” and “baseline” expectation last year. From wasting time to adding more work to daily workflows, the lesson is that AI adoption without a clear purpose and human judgment can quickly create more problems than it solves.

Faisal pointed out that companies should treat AI as a tool that supports the strategy, not treat it as the strategy itself. Leveraging AI in the best way possible while utilizing human judgment is where the real impact is.

Middle Management May Become AI Agent Managers

Microsoft predicts that the journey to the “Frontier Firm” will divide into three phases: employees first work with AI assistants; agents then join teams as digital colleagues; and finally, humans set direction while agents run workflows and business processes.

Faisal also expects AI to reshape management structures. He noted that AI can already take on work such as:

Monitoring
Data collection
Information aggregation

As those layers shrink, managers will need to do more than manage people. They may increasingly direct AI agents, make higher-level decisions, and take on more hands-on work.

Outcomes Matter More Than Seats

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) model is rapidly evolving from seat-based pricing to outcome-based pricing. As AI reduces the number of human seats, vendors may need to charge customers based more directly on the value they deliver.

For example, Faisal mentioned how pricing for the HP Workforce Experience Platform (WXP) is tied to outcomes such as:

Reducing ticket volume
Lowering IT support costs
Improving resolution times
Cutting hardware refresh spending

CIOs increasingly want measurable results and vendors willing to put some “skin in the game” by tying pricing to those outcomes. For HP, that can even mean recommending that customers buy less. According to Faisal:

Selling more hardware is not the answer. It’s selling more actual value to the customer.

Watch the Full Conversation

Those are just a few key takeaways from the conversation. Faisal also touched on how HP is using AI throughout product development, the privacy and security challenges posed by autonomous agents, and why WXP was built to work across devices and operating systems.

To catch the full discussion, check out the video below.

▶ Watch the full interview:

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Frequently asked questions

Here's everything you need to know about WXP.

What is the HP Workforce Experience Platform (WXP)?

WXP is an AI-powered digital employee experience (DEX) solution that integrates with various systems and devices to maximize IT efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the employee experience.¹
How does WXP work?

WXP equips technology leaders with detailed performance insights of PCs, printers and more, coupled with enhanced preventative workflows to maximize end-user productivity while reducing costs. The SaaS-based platform also has an advanced employee engagement engine and integrates with various third-party systems like ServiceNow, PowerBI, and Tableau, along with integrating printers, virtual desktops, mobile devices and more to maximize IT efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the employee experience.
Can WXP be customized to fit specific business needs?

The platform’s modular design allows for tailored customization and scalability to meet specific business needs. Presently, WXP integrates capabilities for fleet management (formerly HP Proactive Insights) and employee engagement, facilitating direct communication between IT and employees, and targeted feedback collection via device pop-ups and self-help capabilities. Planned optional, add-on modules will include additional devices for fleet management, endpoint security, and Digital Workspaces powered by HP Anyware, all supported by enterprise-level support. Additionally, there are add-on options for hardware, managed services, and print software.
How is WXP modular?

WXP is designed to be modular, allowing organizations to tailor the solution to their specific needs, including Fleet Management, Employee Engagement, Digital Workspaces, and Endpoint Security.

The modular design allows companies to select the capabilities needed to achieve business goals. New capabilities can be added to an existing portal as their business needs change and expand. Initially, WXP comes with fleet management and employee engagement, with the ability to add-on endpoint security, digital workplaces, and/or HP support services for an additional fee.
Is WXP compatible with different vendors and operating systems?

The Platform’s agnostic design allows seamless integration with systems and devices running Windows, macOS, and Android operating systems, regardless of manufacturer. WXP is a cloud-based solution that uses firewall-friendly network ports and sits atop other systems versus a rip-and-replace solution. It does not require a VPN or direct, deep access to customer networks.
How does WXP integrate with other IT tools to provide a more comprehensive solution?

WXP has open APIs for incident and analytics integration to IT tools, as well as pre-configured connectors for ServiceNow, PowerBI, and Tableau available in the 3rd party integrations.
What is a Workforce Experience score?

A Workforce Experience score combines telemetry and user satisfaction sentiment for a comprehensive view of the digital workforce experience. The score refreshes daily, ensuring timely insights. Understand which departments, device models, operating systems, countries, site locations, and devices with specific software installed are experiencing the lowest and highest Experience scores.

The main dashboard provides a snapshot of the workforce experience and critical recommendations for IT teams to act on. IT teams quickly understand where to focus with insights from the Experience score and trendline, fleet inventory breakdown, apps with poor performance, and sentiment by persona.
How is AI used within WXP?
AI is built into the fabric of WXP and makes it easy for IT teams to optimize processes and prevent technology issues by providing:
- Recommendations: Identify issues from device data and survey results to share recommended actions.
- Assistance: Take the recommendation and make it executable by IT or an end-user in just a few clicks.
- Automation: Experience optimization with AI anticipating issues and resolving them with no human involvement.
How can I buy WXP and find out about new releases?

WXP is now available to new and renewing HP Proactive Insights customers in the United States at no additional cost.

Additionally, our beta program is expanding to more countries, in a multi-phased, customer-focused approach to solve our customers’ biggest pain points. Talk to an HP expert to see how WXP can intelligently anticipate and resolve digital friction within your organization.