Start With the Work, Not the Tool
I've spent most of my working life on the practical side of business: customers, employees, schedules, suppliers, cash flow, and all the small decisions that never make it into a press release. That shapes how I look at AI. I'm interested in one question: does this help a real business do its work better, this month, at a cost that makes sense? If the answer is unclear, I'd rather say so than pretend. The demo vs Monday morning Most AI demos are impressive. They're also clean. The data is tidy, the request is clear, and nobody is interrupting with a customer on the other line. Real businesses don't look like that. Information lives in inboxes, spreadsheets, notebooks and people's heads. When a tool that looked great in a demo meets that reality, it usually needs more setup, more checking and more patience than anyone expected. That isn't a reason to avoid AI. It's a reason to bring it in with open eyes. The useful question isn't "what can th...