S3 Ep 36 Stop Slapping AI on Broken Processes with John Sampogna

AI is everybody's favorite topic right now.

You and I share a somewhat similar view in that it really isn't about which tools to adopt, but it's more about figuring out where AI fits into your business model.

So let's unpack that a little bit more from your perspective.

It's clearly like the greatest efficiency tool we will probably see in our lifetime.

And it's getting better.

And we're using it in all aspects of our business.

So I'm a believer.

I think that we're past the tinkering and hobbyist stage of AI where...

We're just building things and creating vibe coded digital products, vibe coded websites, dashboards that don't really say anything, crazy long research documents that are potentially not factual.

I started to draw a line where it's, If this isn't part of our day-to-day and we're not expecting it, please be intentional about why you're sharing it with people.

Because there's a lot of stuff where people are just sending AI-generated things that are interesting, but now you're having senior resources review something that's not part of any contract, not part of any internal initiative, not part of a client ask.

It's just stuff that doesn't need to necessarily exist.

So what I like to really think about at this point is We're trying to rewire our processes.

So from the very beginning, it's how would we do this knowing we have AI now as a very powerful efficiency tool versus trying to just slap AI onto the old way we did things and speed it up that way.

Of course, things like note-taking and document creation, basic stuff is great for that.

But I think when you actually take a step back and start at the beginning, you're able to actually approach the reworking of something from a much more pure standpoint and it'll lead to better results.

So we're trying to find repeatable things that are happening every single day at the organization.

And like repeatable workflows are the things that you can solve and find great efficiency unlocks for.

It goes back to a process that I like to do when I come in somewhere and they say, well, we have all these great tools.

And I'm like, let's peel back straight from the tools and just talk about what are you trying to accomplish? Because sometimes the process itself gets watered down by whatever tool they have, right? They've made decisions based off that tool.

And I think AI is the same thing, right? If you get too locked into one particular AI or one particular way of doing it, you're going to miss out on opportunity to actually make it more efficient.

I sat in a meeting one time where a client had sent us a 50 page AI document and he said, well, did you guys all go through it? Everyone was like, well, my AI went through your AI's doc.

And it's like, is that like, how was that helpful?

I'm glad you said that.

I've had this conversation now many, many times across the last year or so where I am completely unimpressed by long deliverables.

AI is everybody's favorite topic right now.

You and I share a somewhat similar view in that it really isn't about which tools to adopt, but it's more about figuring out where AI fits into your business model.

So let's unpack that a little bit more from your perspective.

It's clearly like the greatest efficiency tool we will probably see in our lifetime.

And it's getting better.

And we're using it in all aspects of our business.

So I'm a believer.

I think that we're past the tinkering and hobbyist stage of AI where...

We're just building things and creating vibe coded digital products, vibe coded websites, dashboards that don't really say anything, crazy long research documents that are potentially not factual.

I started to draw a line where it's, If this isn't part of our day-to-day and we're not expecting it, please be intentional about why you're sharing it with people.

Because there's a lot of stuff where people are just sending AI-generated things that are interesting, but now you're having senior resources review something that's not part of any contract, not part of any internal initiative, not part of a client ask.

It's just stuff that doesn't need to necessarily exist.

So what I like to really think about at this point is We're trying to rewire our processes.

So from the very beginning, it's how would we do this knowing we have AI now as a very powerful efficiency tool versus trying to just slap AI onto the old way we did things and speed it up that way.

Of course, things like note-taking and document creation, basic stuff is great for that.

But I think when you actually take a step back and start at the beginning, you're able to actually approach the reworking of something from a much more pure standpoint and it'll lead to better results.

So we're trying to find repeatable things that are happening every single day at the organization.

And like repeatable workflows are the things that you can solve and find great efficiency unlocks for.

It goes back to a process that I like to do when I come in somewhere and they say, well, we have all these great tools.

And I'm like, let's peel back straight from the tools and just talk about what are you trying to accomplish? Because sometimes the process itself gets watered down by whatever tool they have, right? They've made decisions based off that tool.

And I think AI is the same thing, right? If you get too locked into one particular AI or one particular way of doing it, you're going to miss out on opportunity to actually make it more efficient.

I sat in a meeting one time where a client had sent us a 50 page AI document and he said, well, did you guys all go through it? Everyone was like, well, my AI went through your AI's doc.

And it's like, is that like, how was that helpful?

I'm glad you said that.

I've had this conversation now many, many times across the last year or so where I am completely unimpressed by long deliverables.