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Adit Abhyankar is CEO and Founder of Breakthrough, but we think he should have created a company called “Track Record”. Because he has one, with over 30 years of enterprise sales and SaaS experience. To be precise, as the former CEO of Ad-Lib.io (acquired by Smartly) and Head of Google Marketing Platform EMEA, he has a proven track record of scaling businesses and driving growth.
Adit’s latest passion is AI – when we asked him to name the technology that would shake up this industry over the next decade, his reply was instant: “It will be AI, by a mile.”
You need look no further than the work Breakthrough is doing to see that he means it. “We are developing a platform which will help companies achieve genuine cut-through in the mass of AI slop we’re all currently wading through,” he said.
“We’re all used to companies offering personalisation; what we’re focusing on is deeper, more natural and less unnerving than <first name> in an email.
“Using AI, we’re building a way that helps companies understand their prospects, customers, employees and other stakeholders and creates messages that will really resonate.”
Read on for more of Adit’s predictions for the next decade, and why he’s such a big believer in Google-style “20% projects”.
The movement from structured systems to unstructured systems. The core building block of technology today is the database, where we store data as discrete fields, each of which is related to each other. These relationships are carefully built when designing databases. To make sense of the data in a database, you need to not only pull out data but also recreate the context of that data.
That entire model is in the early stages of going through a massive transformation with the advent of LLMs. Since computers now not only understand language but can also process large chunks of text together, the way you think about data and databases changes in many use cases.
For example, if I want to store the history of communications I have had with a customer, instead of distilling out fields like “topic”, “customer” and “date” and putting them all in different fields in a database, I can simply store the entire conversation along with some summary information as a single piece of text that can be accessed as a whole as needed later.
What this means is anyone in the organization can contribute to and get value from data directly, without needing specialized data science/database knowledge or someone to run “reports”. I believe this is a fundamental shift in how systems will be built in the future.
It will be AI, by a mile. We have never seen a technology that has such an expansive understanding of so many domains. What this means is the same tool that can be used in a healthcare application focused on improving eyesight can also be used, with no additional configuration, to help me sell my software product more effectively. We have seen an early view of this kind of capability when we were introduced to internet search (which is now a $175 billion business for Google alone), although now the potential for AI is far greater.
By removing, or reducing the need for deep domain experts, we are able to, at once, reduce the fragmentation of technology (why do i need two separate pieces of software if it’s easier for me to design more capabilities into one) as well as easily and cheaply develop new technology that is better fit for purpose (why do i want to work with rigid software that does not fit my need perfectly when I can build custom software for my needs without needing to hire experts).
An example of this is I used to rely on expensive UX designers to build mockups for my new product features. I can now do it myself, with no knowledge of or capability in UX design code or best practices or specialized tools – all I need is an AI UX builder tool and 15 minutes.
The key skill for future IT professionals is the ability to understand something deeply because it will help harness technology’s vast capabilities.
To use these tools effectively, you must know precisely what you are trying to accomplish and identify your biggest “pain.” That way, you can direct technology to solve problems in the right way.
However, it is not enough to be an expert in a single area; you also need to connect various domains. For example, sales is no longer just about traditional selling or relationship building. If you want to sell to healthcare, you need to understand the healthcare context and business operations deeply. If you want to sell to the automotive sector, you must deeply understand the nuances of the niche you will sell into.
People often react negatively to salespeople who appear shallow or inauthentic because they do not truly grasp the customer’s pain. By leveraging the advanced tools now available, it is possible to develop deeper domain knowledge and become far more effective in any role.
This principle applies across finance, healthcare and any other sector. Ultimately, real and lasting value is created when you combine depth in one field with the skill of connecting it to multiple other areas.
I think one big overlooked opportunity in IT involves building what I’d call “pop-up software” or lightweight systems that can be spun up quickly, even by non-technical people. Right now, tools like ChatGPT give a glimpse into this possibility because users can go back and forth with prompts, essentially creating mini workflows on the fly.
But the potential goes way beyond a simple chat interface.
Imagine if, instead of just asking a question and getting a single response, you could iteratively build and save entire processes or mini applications tailored to a specific business need – without needing to be a deep technical expert.
In practice, that means someone on the business side could create a customized workflow for a task, tweak it as needed and then continue to refine or expand it. I don’t see many systems truly delivering that capability yet, but it’s a trend that I believe will keep growing and deserves a lot more attention.
I have a somewhat contrarian view: rather than narrowing, I believe the digital divide may actually widen. The core reason is the accelerating pace of innovation – everything is evolving so quickly that it’s almost impossible for most people to stay on track.
We’ll see a split between those who find ways to stay on top of these rapid advancements and those who simply don’t have the time or inclination. But this divide isn’t purely socioeconomic. Today’s technologies, particularly language models, are more globally accessible than ever. They work in more languages, so in theory someone in India, for example, has as much access as someone in a developed country.
However, the real gap forms around tech-savvy individuals who experiment and “play” with new tools versus those who can’t or won’t invest that effort. That’s why I think things like “20% projects” – where people get the freedom to explore new ideas – are so crucial. Even if formal programs like that no longer exist, adopting a mindset of exploration and experimentation is what keeps people on the cutting edge.
Ultimately, the digital divide I’m talking about is more about the knowledge and the willingness to engage with new technology, rather than a strict divide of rich versus poor or first world versus third world.
We are developing a platform which will help companies achieve genuine cut-through in the mass of AI slop we’re all currently wading through. It’s about tailored messaging for sales teams that helps build connections at scale.
We’re all used to companies offering personalisation; what we’re focusing on is deeper, more natural and less unnerving than <first name> in an email. Using AI, we’re building a way that helps companies understand their prospects, customers, employees and other stakeholders and creates messages that will really resonate.
Most importantly, we’ve developed the approach to continually learn so that it grows more powerful and relevant with every interaction.
