Stop Chopping Carrots: What AI Should Really Do For You

Think about making breakfast for your kids (or recall how your parents somehow fed you every day). You want to focus on nutrition, their preferences, and creating a good start to the day—not necessarily the mechanics of slicing fruit or toasting bread.

Yet these mechanical tasks steal time you could spend on meaningful interactions.

This same principle applies at work—our days are filled with tasks that, while necessary, pull us away from where we add real value. That's why the real power of AI isn't replacing workers—it's eliminating tasks humans shouldn't have to do in the first place: Fewer cutting boards and mind-numbing routines, more strategy and human connection.

‍

Why AI Projects Fail (And How We Can Fix That)

The corporate landscape is littered with failed AI initiatives: pilots that stall, expensive tools gathering dust, models that hallucinate under pressure, dashboards showing meaningless metrics, and teams wondering why the promised transformation never happened.

We need a different approach: find the friction points in your workflows, then apply AI precisely at those spots—objectively and without assumptions. Look beyond obvious inefficiencies to discover opportunities you haven't considered. Where do teams need help? What processes consume too much brainpower for their actual value? How can AI plug those pesky leaks in your productivity bucket—even the ones you never knew existed?

‍

What Work Could Actually Look Like

Imagine if the most mentally draining parts of work simply vanished. Not the challenging problems that need your expertise or the elements that make your job meaningful—just the repetitive stuff that technology should have fixed years ago.

For support teams:

• What if AI handled all the initial customer information gathering, letting agents jump straight to solving real problems?
• What if your knowledge base updated itself based on successful solutions, with no manual documentation?
• What if previous similar tickets automatically surfaced when new issues came in?

For legal teams:

• What if AI pre-processed contracts to flag potential issues before review?
• What if compliance requirements automatically mapped to contract clauses, highlighting gaps?
• What if case research found truly relevant precedents, not just keyword matches?

For IT teams:

• What if systems monitored themselves and organized the findings, instead of making you interpret logs?
• What if security threats were spotted and categorized before needing human attention?
• What if routine configuration changes drafted themselves based on best practices?

These aren't science fiction scenarios. They're doable right now, with existing technology that's less complicated to implement than most organizations think.

‍

Making AI Invisible (In a Good Way)

The real goal isn't just automating routine tasks—it's transforming how work happens across your organization. When AI handles the mechanical parts of knowledge work, you can focus on strategy, creativity, and human connections.

The technology should become invisible not because it's hidden, but because it so naturally extends what you do that you stop noticing where your work ends and the AI assistance begins.

‍

What We're Going to Explore Next

In upcoming articles, we'll dive into practical applications for different departments. We'll focus on:

1. Finding the real friction points in your workflows
2. Creating targeted solutions that don't require an engineering degree
3. Measuring actual impact, not just novelty metrics

We're not promising overnight transformation. We're offering a way to identify what's silently consuming your organization's brainpower—so you can reclaim that energy for what really matters.

‍

Changing the AI Conversation

We need to stop asking, "What will AI replace?" and start asking, "What mental overhead can AI eliminate so we can focus on our best work?"

Consider again that parent who no longer chops vegetables for baby food—their relationship with their child doesn't change, but suddenly there's more quality time for connection. Similarly, when AI handles the mechanical aspects of work, organizations don't become less essential—they become more focused on what truly matters.

Let's move past vague transformation talk and start identifying specific friction points we can eliminate today. A version of your organization with more bandwidth for innovation and creativity is already possible—we just need to recognize what's been unnecessarily consuming your collective attention all along.