Where to start with AI.

As I talk to more business owners, there are 2 things almost all of us agree on. There’s no shortage of work, and AI can be overwhelming.

Work and life activities fill our calendars. There’s even enough for some double or triple bookings for good measure.

We all have so many different things going on in our lives. The details are different for each person, yet the themes are usually similar. Whether it’s work, relationships, caring for others, self-care, or something else, these are the things that make each of us unique and human. We are so much more than our task lists.

For those that can take their work with them, there are often laptops at sports practices, music lessons, or the other endless activities kids are involved in these days. Work calls or family/friends catch ups taken in a nearby quieter spot while waiting.

Choosing what deserves a place on your calendar comes first. (I’ve written about that in The wrong question. The link is at the end of this article.)

And there’s also what to use AI for to free up time for other priorities. Most of the business owners I talk to already use AI. Many want to use it better. Many also feel overwhelmed by the constant changes and new options.

So what are a few simple things a business owner can do?

• Start with the why – Ask what you are trying to solve. It could be doing your client work faster with the same quality to free up time to work on something else, or maybe it’s posting on social consistently to keep your business moving.

• Ask what is ONE thing that AI could help with – Be specific and start small. An end-to-end process such as from client conversation to final output is too big. Make it bite sized.

• Build the foundation first – AI runs on data. This data needs to be clean and easy to maintain. Otherwise, using AI can feel like playing a slot machine. It can’t guess what you’re thinking. It’s now smart enough to sometimes get close to what you want. If you want repeatable results, take time to set up the data and rules.

• Iterate quickly and fail fast – It’s always the edge cases that get you. We tend to build for when everything goes as planned. Remember Murphy’s law.

• Automate fully what works well – Recent Harvard Business Review articles have shared that AI productivity gains are nuanced. AI speeds up many work tasks, and also expands the amount and variety of tasks each person takes on. This increased task switching can lower productivity and add to information overload. Minimize task switching.