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Like what you read here? Practical insights for business owners on where AI can create value, how to improve the way work gets done, and how leaders and employees can shape and sustain change.
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Want Quick AI Adoption? Give It Harder Tasks
Businesses can capture more value from rapidly improving AI by giving it more demanding work and investing in how their people learn and adapt.
Guardrails Help You Move Faster
Clear AI rules and consistent leadership direction help employees move faster while reserving deeper review for higher-risk uses.
Test the Person and the AI Together
Compare people working alone, AI working alone and people using AI in real workflows to identify which approach delivers the best results.
Anticipating the Gain
When a company adopts AI, results often stay flat or dip before the gains arrive, a pattern economists call the productivity J-curve. Knowing it exists helps you anticipate what to expect in the first year with AI adoption.
Grow With the People You Have
Most companies have valuable work that nobody has time to do, and AI can free up the people best placed to do it. This article shows how to find out how much of each role AI can take over, and how to put your employees’ knowledge of the business to work on growth.
What Is an Agent?
A chatbot answers your questions, while an agent does the work. This article explains the difference, what agents can do inside a business, and a simple test for choosing the first task to hand one.
Where Did the Saved Hours Go?
Ask your people whether AI saves them time and most will say yes. Ask where that time went and the answers get vague. The time is real, but unless someone decides what it is for, it gets absorbed back into the day.
When Will We See Benefits of AI?
When will we see the benefits of AI? It is one of the first questions an owner asks. The answer depends on what you are trying to achieve and how much you invest to get there.
Take Ownership of AI’s Mistakes
AI is a tool, and the people who use it need to take ownership of what it produces, including its mistakes. That only works when accountability belongs to one person, not a department or a committee.
Work Redesign Is a Practice, Not a Project
A one-time redesign around AI soon goes out of date. A simple standing review, backed by proven process methods, keeps the gains building.
Start With the Decision, Not the Tool
Most AI projects start with a tool and then look for a use. Four questions help you start with the decision instead, before you spend on software.
Hunting for Hidden Tech Debt
Old workarounds, aging systems and undocumented processes can quietly undermine an AI project. Find that tech debt before you build on it.
When Your Customer Asks How You Use AI
Customers may soon ask how your business uses AI. Having clear answers ready builds trust and makes your company easier to buy from.
Why Most AI Rollouts Stall
AI projects often stall because of how people work. Before blaming the software, ask your team what’s getting in the way.
Who Bears the Cost and Who Benefits
People rarely resist change because they dislike change. They resist when they conclude that the benefits will go to someone else while they carry the costs.
We Don’t Know What’s Possible or What It Would Cost. Where Do We Start?
We Don’t Know What’s Possible or What It Would Cost. Where Do We Start?
You Are Not Behind
Almost every owner I speak with believes their company is behind on AI. Most are wrong about what they are behind on, and many are wrong about how far.
AI’s Four Jobs
“Should we use AI here?” is a big question with many related factors, often making it hard to answer. A more useful question is what job AI would do at this particular step.
Ask Your People Before You Automate
Most automation decisions are made by looking at a process from the outside and picking the steps that appear repetitive. That is a reasonable place to start. But it misses something important, which is what the people doing the work would actually like to hand over.
The Highest Opportunities for ROI Are Often Hidden
Every owner I talk to feels some version of the same pressure. Competitors are talking about AI. Customers are asking about it. Somebody at a conference described a result that sounds impressive. The worry that the business is falling behind is real.