Object-based AI is the idea that your business's own systems become the reusable parts your AI runs on, so everyone in the company works towards the same objective and gets the same standard every time. It's Alan's own term, not an industry standard, and he believes it is where AI is heading.
Right now, most people use AI the opposite way. Everyone prompts in their own direction, and everyone gets their own result. Alan points out that the people using AI most are busier than they have ever been, getting more done, but not necessarily moving towards an objective.
In this post we'll walk through what Alan means by object-based AI, why every industry has made the same move before, and why he thinks your business systems are the missing piece. You can also watch the original: Prompts Don't Matter Anymore: The Future Is Object-Based AI.
Every industry stops building from scratch
Alan's argument starts with a history lesson. Industry after industry has gone from building everything from scratch to working from standard, reusable parts pointed at one objective.
Cars. Early on, every car was custom, with fitters fitting each part by hand. Then Ford built standard parts along a conveyor belt, with a single goal: a standard car an ordinary working man could afford. Black paint was part of that, because it dries fastest. Nobody in the factory was heading in a different direction. Everyone was building towards one objective.
Software. Programmers once built everything from scratch. Alan built his own CRM before WordPress and the other off-the-shelf options existed. Then came object-oriented programming, which let developers pull in standard, pre-built objects, a bit like Lego bricks. Instead of making each brick individually, you snap pre-built ones into place.
Design. Design systems did the same for design. Margins, structure and layout are decided once, so every website or email is built from the same pieces. The result is the same quality standard every time.
Object-based AI: the same move, now for AI
Alan's point is that AI is next. At the moment, with AI, everyone is going in a different direction. Each person has their own prompts, their own approach and their own results.
He calls the fix object-based AI. It's his own term rather than an industry standard, and he hasn't heard anyone else use it, but he sees people building towards it. Claude Skills are part of it, and so is building business systems with tools like systemHUB. Alan expects that whichever AI you use, whether Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot, will have skills or something similar.
Your business systems are the objects
If you run a company, direct one, or manage a team, you already know what a business system is. It's "this is how we do things here": step A, B, C, D, E, F, and then you reach the objective. It's the same objective every single time.
In object-based AI, those systems are the reusable objects. Alan's phrase is that your business systems are the language of AI. The AI understands them, and it uses them to move each person along the conveyor belt towards the same result.
Take an accountant who does end-of-year tax for clients. The firm has a way of doing it. Bring that system into Claude, and everyone who uses Claude works along the same route, advised on how this particular company does it. If the system isn't written down yet, Alan says you can even get Claude to help build it.
Without your systems, he argues, every employee and every supplier goes their own direction. His bluntest version: using AI without your business systems is using AI wrong.
The McDonald's standard, every time
Alan's comparison for the result is McDonald's. It might not make the best burger in the world, but you know exactly what you're getting every time. You're never disappointed if you're after a McDonald's hamburger. Ford's cars and a design system's websites work the same way: one standard, repeated.
Object-based AI aims for that same consistency inside a business. Because everyone is working from the same systems, their energy goes in the same direction, and the AI stays on track within your guardrails. Alan adds that with AI set up the right way, your systems stay inside your own company and aren't used for training.
This is also why he says prompts matter less than context and objectives. A perfect prompt can't replace a business system that tells the AI how your company does things. We'll leave the prompt question for another post.
What this means for your business
The takeaway from Alan's video is simple. Cars, software and design all moved from building from scratch to standard, reusable parts pointed at one objective. Alan believes AI is next, and that your business systems are the parts it will run on.
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If you'd like help working out where your own systems and AI fit together, you can book your free AI Health Check
And if you'd rather hear it from Alan himself, watch Prompts Don't Matter Anymore: The Future Is Object-Based AI on the Irish Web Solutions channel.