Friday, May 30, 2025
Read time: 5-6 min
Read this article online
Hi, it’s Chad. Every Friday, I serve as your AI guide to help you navigate a rapidly evolving landscape, discern signals from noise and transform cutting-edge insights into practical leadership wisdom. Here’s what you need to know:
1. Algorithmic Musings. Stop Playing John Henry Before It Kills Your Business
“AI is just another tech trend that’ll blow over,” said the CEO whose company just became someone else’s lunch.
Last month, I sat across from a manufacturing CEO who insisted their “hands-on business” was immune to AI disruption. We shook hands and I wished them well. Meanwhile, I’m waiting for their largest competitor to announce automation of a significant portion of their quality control processes using computer vision.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: If you’re still treating AI like it’s Y2K 2.0 or the next crypto bubble, you’re not just wrong, you’re dangerously unprepared for what’s coming.
Remember John Henry? He beat the steam engine in a one-on-one contest, but died in the process and was the last human to win that contest. The moral isn’t that humans can compete with machines – it’s that even when we win, we lose. And we only get to win once.
The Four-Way Tug-of-War Nobody’s Talking About
Here’s how I think about our current AI predicament: imagine a four-way tug-of-war with your business stuck in the middle:
Your Current Position: Where you are today, with comfortable assumptions and familiar workflows
Future Reality: The AI-transformed world coming whether you like it or not
Current AI Capabilities: What the technology can actually do right now
What You’re Willing to Accept: The changes you’re psychologically prepared to embrace
Only one of these forces is under your control.
Here’s what this looks like in practice: Your accounting team could process invoices faster than ever using AI tools, but your CFO refuses to implement them because “we’ve always done it this way,” while your competitors are already automating 80% of their accounts payable processes, leaving you exactly where you started… behind.
Why Smart Leaders are Acting Dumb
I’ve consistently underestimated humanity’s capacity for willful ignorance when it comes to AI. This baffles me because we’re talking about the most transformative general-purpose technology ever unleashed upon the world.
Think about that. Ever. Unleashed. Upon. The. World.
This technology can generate human-quality text and code, analyze complex data faster than entire teams, automate cognitive tasks we thought were uniquely human, and learn at an exponential rate.
Yet somehow, many leaders are still treating AI like it’s a fancy autocorrect feature.
The Disruption is Already Here
Still think I’m being dramatic? Your wake-up call:
- Goldman Sachs estimates AI could automate 300 million jobs globally
- McKinsey reports 70% of companies are already piloting AI initiatives
- ChatGPT hit 100 million users faster than any technology in history
This isn’t future-tense speculation. It’s present-tense reality.
Three Actions You Must Take Now
If you’re running a middle-market company, here’s your action plan:
1. Audit Your Vulnerability
Stop asking “Will AI affect us?” Start asking “Where will it hit us first?”
Look at every role involving data analysis, content creation, repetitive decision-making, or customer service. Those are your ground-zero impact zones. Map them now.
2. Become an AI Power User
You need hands-on AI experience – today. Spend 30 minutes with ChatGPT or Claude this week. Use it to draft a strategic memo or analyze a spreadsheet. Experience what your competitors and employees are already using.
Leadership ignorance is no longer acceptable.
3. Create Your AI Reality Task Force
Gather your sharpest people – especially the young ones who aren’t afraid of change. Their mandate:
- Identify three AI pilot projects by next quarter
- Find one process to automate within 90 days
- Report directly to you, not through bureaucracy
This isn’t about becoming a tech company. It’s about not becoming obsolete.
The Choice is Yours (But Not Really)
Remember that four-way tug-of-war? Three of those forces are beyond your control. The AI capabilities will advance. The future will arrive. Your current position will become untenable.
The only variable you control is what you’re willing to accept.
You can choose denial. You can wait for regulations that won’t come fast enough. You can hope market forces will protect you. You can tell yourself your industry is “different.”
Or you can remember John Henry and choose reality.
We’re standing at an inflection point that makes the internet revolution look like a practice round. Unlike the dot-com era, there’s no bubble to burst here. This is bedrock change sweeping far beyond the actual technology.
So here’s my challenge: Stop sandbagging. Stop pretending this is someone else’s problem. Stop waiting for permission to prepare for the future.
Because unlike John Henry, you don’t have to die proving a point. You just have to be smart enough to pick up the right tools.
Ready to stop playing John Henry and start playing chess master? Drop me a line. Let’s talk about how to position your organization for the AI-powered future that’s already knocking at your door.
2. Paper Trail: AI Research Decoded
How LLM-Powered AI Agents Are Transforming Business Operations
New research sheds light on how LLM-powered AI agents are transforming business operations across six key industries while addressing critical implementation challenges for middle market organizations. Here are a few key insights:
- LLM-powered agents offer superior adaptability and multi-modal processing compared to traditional rule-based systems, enabling deployment across diverse business functions
- Applications span customer service, software development, manufacturing, education, healthcare, and financial trading with proven effectiveness in real-world implementations
- Organizations must address significant challenges including high inference latency, output uncertainty, and security vulnerabilities through strategic implementation and robust safeguard systems
Read our full analysis of each of these research papers at AI for the C Suite
3. Sound Waves: Podcast Highlights
Our latest episode featuring my conversation with Jan Lehman & Rafe Johnson from CTC Productivity drops this coming Monday, June 2. Learn why your CEO likely needs Copilot more than your marketing team and how executives are using AI to summarize lengthy email chains, prepare for meetings by analyzing calendar context, and draft mass communications – saving hours of high-value time daily. Subscribe for free today on your listening platform of choice to ensure you never miss a beat.
New episodes release every two weeks.
4. AI Buzz: Fresh Bytes
Here are several interesting articles that caught my eye.
- Claude’s AI voice mode is finally rolling out – for free. Here’s what you can do with it
- Anthropic launches a voice mode for Claude
- OpenAI upgrades the AI model powering its Operator agent
- Google Meet is getting real-time speech translation
- Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath
- Microsoft and Hugging Face expand collaboration to make open models easy to use on Azure
5. Elevate Your Leadership with AI for the C Suite
Subscribe today because your organization deserves the competitive edge that only cutting-edge AI insights can provide.
Don’t let your organization fall behind in the AI race. AI for the C Suite’s insights and tools are designed to keep you ahead of the curve.
Questions or need personalized guidance? Reply to this email – we’re here to help.
As we navigate this unprecedented fusion of human and machine intelligence, remember: the best leaders aren’t just adapting to change – they’re actively shaping it. Until next week, keep pushing boundaries.
Chad