The answer to the question of ‘if AI is worth it’ is that it depends and the situation is growing exponentially. In other words – the rate of change is so quick and so great that even if you are a doubter or lack the technical skills, AI is arriving all the same. Our perspective is to keep an open mind and to really roll up the sleeves and test it as you would any new technology.
The Rate of Adoption Is Increasing
According to Stanford’s AI Index – 78% of organizations reported using AI in 2024, up from 55% the year before. One would imagine 2025 will be even higher. Are you one of those organizations that leverage AI? Even if you don’t personally I’d imagine there’s someone around you regularly engaging AI as a strategic partner or tinkering with something more systemic/automated. A friend I used to work with at HubSpot created an app through Lovable that helps him and his clients stay on the same page for major goals. AI is everywhere.
The Value Is Still Murky
All that being said, you’ve probably also heard stories of implementation with little to no value. According to this Boston Consulting Group study, 74% of companies struggled to achieve and scale value with AI in 2024. Whoops! One of the biggest drivers of AI value is time savings. Time that can be applied to other useful areas like more strategy time and or addressing other work to execute. According to a Gartner study released in December 2025, 0.8 of the overall average of 5.4 hours saved was spent redoing the work AI did. Doh!
Strong Methodology Helps
How do you avoid redoing work? The answer is the “human in the loop.” If you’re in a Waymo and something unexpected happens like a man dancing in front of the car (happened in Austin), the car’s AI doesn’t know what to do. It contacts someone in an office and asks “what do I do?” The human provides the correction. This is the same for wherever AI operates as an agent. A friend of mine on LinkedIn who is a data engineer, Steve Vong, has a strong methodology for extracting value with AI, the 10/80/10 rule. You are the 10% of the task/project at the beginning (prescription) and the end (verification). The AI is the remaining 80%. AI is powerful but it requires strong instruction to deliver the desired results, specifically what to to do as well as what not to do. A good prompt or script can be as intricate as a legal document sometimes if the task requires a great deal of complexity. Not something to fear necessarily, more to be mindful and prepared.
Search or Strategic Partner or Agent?
The vast majority of people who use AI today do so at least initially in the way they’ve been used to using Google – search. What are good goggles to buy for my kid’s science fair? How are the Cowboys doing this year? Why do bees buzz like that? AI will surf the internet for you and leverage its logic to present you with the best options.
But the AI is still there. In the terminal. You can keep asking it anything (some folks even becoming romantically involved). Some people eventually realize that AI can be a continued partner for just about anything. Need support determining if your business should be an LLC or a Corporation? AI can help. Need support talking through how you’re going to propose? AI can help. AI is a thought partner and now can even keep an active memory of whatever you’d like for it to know (your goals, who you are, etc). The applications and value are vast (although you can’t believe everything -> remember when people told you not to believe everything on the internet?). Leverage discernment with the AI – does a response feel off based on your knowledge? It probably is.
Lastly, AI agents are the big emergent to the scene. Give these agents a set of skills and a set of tasks and they are off and running! The off and running can a problem however. It can mean 1) high token consumption (token – what you are paying each time the AI receives an input/produces an output) and 2) lots of results that are off mark. Like when wizard Mickey uses magic to make the broom fill the well for him – sometimes something simple gets out of control fast. That’s why it’s good to have a strong architecture (sometimes even agents directing agents) to ensure proper protocol compliancy and quality control. This is the area of AI that is evolving the fastest and the propensity of value is the greatest.
Where to Start?
The easiest place to start is search. Instead of Google, try Gemini directly or ChatGPT or Claude (the strongest models currently). See how the answers differ to your typical search activity. Have a question? Ask it. You can ask the AI why it showed that answer and it will direct you to the source material (if it’s not linked already). The strategic partner value is not a big jump after search. Once you are in a conversation you are already seeing the value of the connection. The soundboard can be helpful across many different areas. The agent value is there and requires a lot of practice as well as patience. At the end of the day – AI’s arrival is here and it’s worth it to at least be fluent enough to understand it and how it can benefit you.
