At some point, any college student studying business comes across Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. TL;DR: Not all worker desires are created equal. Employees will never become self-actualized unless management pays them on time. You know, that sort of thing.

A recent experience at the gym reminded me that, when it comes to customers, today's decision-makers ought to follow Maslow's timeless advice.

By way of background, my health club last year introduced rudimentary AI functionality into its app. I prompted it and it responded as follows:

The oddly named L•AI•C is far from perfect, but it answers many obvious fitness-related questions in English. In fact, I do enjoy GTX classes.

My high-end offers this shiny new thing. Great, but is it a trailblazer? Hardly, as I've said many times, AI is everywhere today.

And yet...