AI Is Built on Probability. Strategy Is Built on Possibility.
Pull out ChatGPT right now, and ask it to pick a number between 1 and 10.
Did you get 7? Most of the time, you will.
Now ask it: “The cat sits on the ____.”
Did it say “mat”? Probably.
I mean, how are you supposed to find anything interesting and creative when we have a soup and a gumbo of that?
This is not a glitch. It’s AI’s design. AI is built on probability and predictability—not possibility.
That’s the point: it aggregates what’s common. It predicts the most likely next word. It proofreads well and smooths your edges.
BUT…
And this is a bit BUT…
It does not imagine what’s possible.
And if we’re talking brand differentiation (how to stand out in a crowded marketplace), well… differentiation most certainly does not live in the realm of probability.
Brand differentiation lives in tension. In contradiction. In what people won’t say directly. In what surprises you.
AI is powerful. It can give you general information fast. It can summarize past data. It can aggregate trends.
BUT IT WILL. NOT. TELL YOU. SOMETHING. SURPRISING.
It will not tell you something creative.
Why? Because it’s not designed to.
Because surprising is statistically unlikely.
And it’s designed to do just the opposite.
So if you want the most probable answer, use AI.
If you want to discover what’s possible — you need humans.
Because AI cannot human.
“The best brands don’t just happen to get noticed. They create that instant spark where customers think: ‘I NEED this in my life!” At Bixa, our job is to uncover the exact triggers that make that moment happen—and help our clients design for it every time.”
Why companies work with Bixa
When the decision matters, teams call Bixa because they don’t want probability — they want clarity they can stand behind. We conduct human-moderated interviews and rigorous quantitative studies like MaxDiff and Conjoint, and we manually analyze the work because nuance, emotion, and contradiction don’t show up in automated summaries. We’ve partnered with companies ranging from startups to global brands like Google, IBM, and Cvent, and the common thread is simple: they’re making a high-impact decision and need research that understands humans. If that’s where you are, book a no-pressure call with one of our senior researchers — we’ll help you determine the right path forward.
If you’re navigating an important decision and want to pressure-test it with real humans, book a call with one of our senior researchers:
