Written by Dennis O’Donovan
I’ve been in the technology world long enough to carry a buzzer, dial 27 digits on a phone card, and close real transactions on my Blackberry. Billions of dollars worth of businesses have been built on these tools. They were serious, trustworthy, and deeply embedded in the way the profession worked. And now they are paperweights.
Changes in technology are nothing new to Gen Xers. We’ve been through some of that. We rewired ourselves every time and did it without a playbook. The difference in artificial intelligence is not the change itself. It’s speed. The period between initial advantage and permanent catch-up is no longer measured in years. It is measured in quarters and sometimes weeks. And unlike previous technology transitions, the penalty for waiting isn’t just falling behind. It is becoming irrelevant for clients who expect capabilities that AI already provides elsewhere.
AI will identify and eliminate human mediocrity
That word makes people uncomfortable. You shouldn’t. What that means is that AI rewards the intentional and reveals the average. Companies that thoughtfully implement AI do more than just operate lean. They end up operating at a level that makes competitors running five-year-old workflows seem like they’re working in a completely different era.
The biggest misconception I’ve encountered is that meaningful AI adoption requires a major overhaul. it’s not. The most practical approach is to identify several workflows within your company and aim to improve each one by 15-25% using AI and automation. It may sound modest at first, but the cumulative effect is very real.
It’s not just about measuring time saved. Also measure the opportunities that time has created. If your team gets 15 hours a week back, the real question is what to do with that time. Can you take on two or three new clients without increasing your headcount? How much does that earn per year? For business owners who are hustling through another busy week, has breathing room now helped them get out of the office in time to catch that soccer game they’ve missed three years in a row? Not every big win comes with a dollar sign attached.
AI is not Google Search
Before that is possible, a mental change must occur. AI is not a search engine. Feeding a basic question into an AI tool and getting a mediocre answer is nowhere near what AI can accomplish.
To get real value from AI, you need structured input. The framework I use and teach is built around four elements called RCRQ. This means what roles to assign to the AI, what context to provide, what requests to make, and what questions to ask the AI that form A-level output rather than C+ output. When you apply this approach consistently, AI goes from being a novelty to thinking along with your users on a truly useful level. Use Knowledge Base or Brain to train your tools, connect them to other tools you use in your business, and watch the quality of your work change before your eyes.
Working with AI without that skill is like fishing without polarized glasses. You can see the water surface. I just can’t see the fish. When you train your employees to properly prompt, they begin to see opportunities for AI in their workflows, client communications, and operational gaps that they’ve been passing by without realizing for years.
4 things that really matter
Companies that successfully implement AI are not all lucky. They are structured.
Before you need the right tools, you need the right coach. The field of AI consulting is crowded right now, and the right advisors will ask the tough questions before recommending anything. They understand existing technology, the actual capabilities of their teams, and the real gap between their current situation and what AI can lead to. Wrong recommendations don’t just waste money; It erodes trust and slows adoption in ways that are difficult to recover from.
When choosing tools, you should consider what you already have. We see companies buying AI tools that either duplicate existing functionality or quietly break the integrations they rely on on a daily basis. The goal is to connect what you have to something smarter. The evolution of AI is moving from tools that interact, to systems with real knowledge bases, live integration into operations, and fully autonomous tasks that run on a schedule. We implemented just such a platform for a local 3-person company and restored over 100 hours of production capacity per month without adding a single employee. My thinking at the time of writing regarding fully autonomous AI is that if the outcome has financial or reputational impact, someone needs to approve it.
When measuring results, always look for two wins. One is leadership, the people who are writing the checks, and the other is the people who are actually making a difference in the day-to-day work. If only one side wins, recruitment will stagnate. When both sides win, the culture changes permanently.
Governance is no longer optional. This is the area where well-run businesses have the most dangerous blind spots. Nebraska, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington all enacted chatbot disclosure laws in 2026 alone. Maryland is not sitting idly by. Lawmakers in Annapolis are actively considering disclosure requirements for chatbots, and Maryland Senate Bill 827, which specifically targets the data Marylanders feed into AI tools, was unanimously supported by the Maryland Cybersecurity Council’s Subcommittee on Trustworthy AI.
Every business owner in Baltimore should be able to answer two questions right now. What data do you input into your AI tools? Once you send it, where does that data go? If AI helps with customer recommendations, hiring decisions, or financial summaries, how do you document it? If you can’t answer both clearly, there are gaps in your governance, and gaps that can turn into liability issues in the worst case scenario.
At ProfitComm, we built the SiteTrust certification framework specifically for this purpose, giving companies in Baltimore a structured, auditable path to responsible AI adoption that keeps pace with the evolving regulatory environment. Customers want to know that the companies they trust with their data are operating AI responsibly. Businesses that can document this will have a meaningful advantage.
And employees need real training, not a one-time lunch and learn. Structured AI education built around real-world tools and workflows will transform your team from skeptic to competent. The mixing begins from there.
Questions worth asking
It’s not about whether or not to invest in AI. we know the answer. The question is: Are you tinkering with AI tools or are you truly building an AI-backed organization? There is a difference, and that is important. I95 Content Marketing
This free eBook reveals where to start on your AI journey and how to better evaluate AI tools and implementations. Email AIHelp@ProfitComm.com with I95 Business in the subject line and it’s yours.
