Don’t be deceived by the gizmos and gimmicks.
To understand the real power of AI, you have to look beyond them.
Right now, it’s the party tricks that most people see first, tools like Sora or image generators that can turn your photo into a video of you flying across a mountain on the back of a dragon eating a doughnut.
Entertaining? Maybe.
Impressive? Sure.
Misleading? Very.
It’s like judging a Tesla by the fact it can play party mode or light show mode.
Fun, but not the point.
The real value of AI isn’t in the show. It’s in the systems and the leverage they can give you.
AI’s real potential lies in how it can work inside your business, not in the novelty you see online. I think everyone should be working with AI each week, whether you like it or not you need to know it. If you choose not to use it at least you have an idea of what you're giving up and are going to be up against.
If you’re a business owner, or plan to be one, you should be working with AI every day.
Not using it to create dragon videos. Using it to understand what you can or could build or implement to automate, streamline, and supercharge the systems you already have.
Think of AI as part of your business stack:
Research – gathering insights and market intelligence faster and on a larger scale than any team could
Data & Information – cleaning, structuring, and connecting what you already own and what's out there for you to learn from.
Forecasting – identifying patterns and future opportunities
Process Leverage – automating repeatable workflows
Reporting – turning complex data into simple, actionable views
Planning – helping you simulate, test, and prioritise decisions
These are the low-hanging fruit. The real, practical applications that deliver long-term value today.
Really get to know AI
The most important thing right now is simply to get to know AI and working with it regularly is the best way to do that. Understand how it works, how it thinks, what it’s good at and where it’s heading.
Once you grasp that, you’ll see it not as a gadget, but potentially as the most powerful business partner you’ve ever had.
