What do your clients actually want? The answer might surprise you — because you haven't asked the right questions yet.
There's a well-intentioned impulse many professionals share: when something important is happening in your field, you want to share it with the people you serve. And right now, few topics feel more urgent than artificial intelligence.
So it's no surprise that thoughtful advisors — lawyers, consultants, financial professionals — are reaching out to clients with AI briefings, seminars, and thought pieces. The instinct comes from a good place: expertise, care, and a desire to be useful.
But here's a question worth sitting with: before we start educating our clients, have we asked them what they actually need to know?
The Lean Startup lesson professionals often overlook
Eric Ries built the Lean Startup methodology on a deceptively simple insight: before you build, validate. Don't assume you know what the customer wants — go find out. Ask. Listen. Then create something that serves a real need, not an imagined one.
This principle is just as powerful in professional services as it is in product development. When we show up with answers before understanding the questions, we risk solving problems our clients don't have — while missing the ones they do.
"The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build as quickly as possible." The same applies to client strategy: figure out what's actually needed before investing in delivery.
What do your clients actually want from you on AI?
The honest answer: it depends on the client. And there's only one reliable way to find out.
Some are already deep into AI experimentation and want a thought partner who can help them think through risks. Others are quietly anxious about being left behind and would appreciate a clear, jargon-free orientation. A few have already moved on from curiosity to implementation and need practical guidance. And some — perhaps more than we expect — haven't thought much about it at all and would benefit most from knowing why it matters to them specifically.
None of these clients are best served by the same presentation.
Ask open questions — and then really listen
The most valuable thing you can do right now may not be preparing a briefing — it may be scheduling a conversation with a handful of key clients and asking a few genuinely open questions. Not questions that lead toward a predetermined answer, but ones that create space for clients to tell you what's really on their mind.
Something like:
How are you thinking about AI right now?
What would be most useful to you as this unfolds?
What's the one thing about AI that's keeping you up at night — or exciting you most?
Notice there's no multiple choice. You're genuinely curious — and that curiosity is what will make clients feel heard rather than handled.
What you hear back will be more valuable than any research report. It will tell you exactly what to offer — and how. It will also deepen the relationship in ways that a seminar simply cannot.
Your expertise will shine — through the questions you ask
Here's something that might feel counterintuitive: asking questions doesn't diminish your expertise. It demonstrates it. A novice doesn't know what to ask. An expert knows exactly which questions open the right doors — and how to hear what's really being said in the answers.
When a client tells you they're excited about AI but worried about data privacy, your knowledge shapes how you follow up. When they say they're overwhelmed and don't know where to start, you know exactly what kind of guidance to offer. The expertise doesn't disappear — it gets applied with precision, because you've earned the context to use it well.
The professionals who will build the strongest client relationships through this AI moment won't be the ones who had the best briefing deck. They'll be the ones who knew how to ask clients the right questions — and actually listened to the answers.