Hi Reader,

I hear two very different things from business owners when we talk about AI.

Some tell me, “I know I should be using AI more.”

Others say, “I don’t really want to use AI more, but I feel like I should.”

They sound like opposite problems, but I think they have something important in common.

They’re both starting with AI.

THE OPENING SIGNAL

AI keeps showing up in more of the tools we already use, with more things it can help us do.

So a lot of the conversation still starts with capability. Can it write this? Analyze that? Automate this process? Take this task off my plate?

Those can be useful questions. But as AI gets more capable, the answer to "Could AI help me with this?" is going to be yes more and more often.

And when the answer is almost always yes, it stops being a very useful way to decide where AI belongs.

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WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERS

I've been thinking about this with all the information that comes into my inbox.

I subscribe to a lot of newsletters, Substacks and publications for my business. There's valuable information in there, but keeping up with it takes time. I have to read it, decide what's relevant or time-sensitive, figure out what might help my clients, and determine if there's something I want to do with it.

Since my email is in Outlook, I've considered having Copilot help me manage some of that.

And it might.

But before I decide that Copilot is the solution, there's a more important question I need to answer:

What am I actually trying to improve?

Am I trying to spend less time reading? Make sure I don't miss something important? Organize what I want to come back to? Turn what I'm learning into something useful more easily?

Those aren't necessarily the same problem. And they may not have the same solution.

The question isn't where we can use AI. It's where AI belongs.

There are places in my business where AI makes a lot of sense. I use it to help with information overload and mental overload, to give me a starting point when I'm staring at a blank page, and to help me sort through a lot of information more quickly.

Other times, what I actually need is a simpler system, a better process, or a decision I've been putting off. Starting with what I'm trying to improve gives me a much better chance of choosing something that makes the business easier.

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ONE SMALL MOVE

The next time you find yourself wondering, Could AI help me with this?, back up one step.

Ask:

What am I actually trying to improve?

You don't have to know the solution yet. Just get clear about the problem first.

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WORTH PAYING ATTENTION TO

I came across a TechRadar article this week that asks almost exactly the question we've been talking about here.

The article looks at why businesses need to be more selective about where they're using AI. One of the points that stood out to me was the idea that businesses shouldn't measure progress by how many processes they've added AI to. They should look at whether those processes got better.

That's an important distinction for small businesses too.

What matters is whether AI is reducing friction, helping you make better decisions, saving meaningful time, or improving something the business needs.

Read the TechRadar article.

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The more capable AI becomes, the more choices we're going to have about where and how to use it.

I don't think the goal is to keep up with all of those possibilities. It's to get clearer about what our businesses need, and then choose accordingly.

Talk soon,

Lucy

P.S. If you've been thinking, I know I should be using AI more, my AI Fit Framework can help you decide where it makes sense in your business. Get the AI Fit Framework​