Three Companies the Same Size, Years Apart

Over the past several months I have had detailed conversations with owners and executives about where AI actually is being used inside their businesses. What surprised me most was how little the company size impacted their progress with AI adoption.

One of the companies I spoke with already began adopting AI in an intentional way a few years ago, and now has an employee whose main job is building AI tools for their own operations. Those tools are running in production. It’s early days, but they are experiencing measurable productivity benefits from the technology.

A second company in the group has technical staff of its own. Only four people there were using AI at all. The use was light, none of it touched core operations, and the leader was interested but openly doubtful that it would help his business.

A third company I met with encourages everyone to use AI and has no policy, no training and no oversight. Two or three people there are remarkably productive with it. Most are not.

Similar scale of operations. Years apart in practice.

What this changed for me is the benchmark. Owners naturally compare themselves to companies their own size, but similar revenue and headcount tell an owner little about how effectively another company uses AI. A company with the same scope of operation as you may be well ahead of you. And the next peer you compare yourself to may have done nothing with AI at all.

At your next management meeting, ask three questions: Where is AI already helping our people? Which recurring bottleneck would be worth improving? Who will own a small test, and what result would justify continuing?

The useful benchmark is whether your business is building a repeatable way to improve and whether those improvements extend beyond a few capable individuals.