I know. You are firehosed with AI content. I said as much in a previous blog.
And yet, here I am. Writing about it again. 😂
Because it is not going away. And some of it is genuinely powerful. Unlike anything we have seen before in software.
But AI is not a magic bullet. And today I have some cautionary advice.
If your company is operating without detailed systems, AI will not fix that. It will magnify it. Repeat: it will not fix it.
Here is why.
Reason One – It Makes Mistakes With Confidence
AI gets things wrong. Sometimes a lot.
And it delivers the wrong answer with total confidence. That combination will trick you into thinking it has nailed the answer, when it has not.
Reason Two – It Is a Mirror
AI is a perfect reflector of your thinking.
If your instructions, your prompts, your thinking are scattered, weak, or shallow, the AI will reflect that right back at you. Weak inputs. Weak outputs.
You can blame the AI. But it is just a robot. It is a pretty good reflection of you. It is a mirror.
Soooo.
Reason Three – Chaos Meets Chaos
If your business has not been systematized — no workflows, no Performance Standards, no documented outcomes and processes — adding AI to the mix will not clean that up.
It will create chaos on steroids.
The Xero Lesson
How do I speak with such authority on this? Because I watched it happen. Up close.
An associate of mine converted from desktop accounting software to Xero. His old system was more manual. More human-driven.
He came to me almost in tears. Firehosed by daily bank feeds and automations he never asked for. He reverted to his old system.
AI is simply the next chapter of that same story. All of this AI stuff is an evolution of what has been unfolding for twenty years. Cloud-based software has virtually wiped out desktop software.
And it is entirely possible AI now disrupts the cloud-based software industry in ways we cannot yet imagine. It already has. To the tune of $285 billion in market value this past February.
But I digress.
Systems First. Then Play.
Coming back to the real challenge — integrating AI into your business, for systems, for automation, for real work.
Be careful.
Document your workflows, your systems, everything you do, first. On the side, play with AI in simple ways. Get comfortable with how it handles practical, everyday admin work.
Here is an example. The other day I used Claude Cowork to reorganize a ten-year-old folder structure for my company. It gave me a four-part plan. Asked permission. I said fly away, step by step.
I kept working on other things while it restructured and organized my slightly messy folders. Beautifully, I might add.
That was not value-added client work. But it built my confidence in what this thing can actually do. And it expanded my thinking to other areas I had not considered.
Here is another one worth testing. Set a repeating task that surfs the internet for items of interest on any topic you choose. Ask it once. It runs every day and drops a summary report in your inbox.
That single example opens the door to a much bigger idea — working with repeating tasks that run without you.
In Summary
Put systems in place first. Play with AI on the side to get comfortable with it handling routine, admin work. Do that, and you will be ready when it is time to go further.
Thanks for reading…