I spend way too much time talking to people and companies about how they use AI.
And one thing that surprises me is how many of those conversations, I’d say 99.5% of them, focus on efficiency.
Everyone is trying to make AI do the things they already do, just faster.
Summarize the meeting.
Rewrite the email.
Organize the documents.
And it seems to work. AI is, in fact, very good at making things faster.
But to what end?
Getting better at doing the same things doesn’t create an advantage. It just gets you to the status quo faster.
The 0.5% of conversations that stand out are different. They aren’t about speeding up the existing playbook.
They’re about rethinking what the playbook should be.
Here’s the pattern I see in the small group that’s creating real advantage:
Level 1: They automate the obvious.
They use AI to handle repetitive, low-value tasks. This is table stakes. It buys them time, but it doesn’t create differentiation.
Level 2: They challenge the process.
They don’t just ask, “How can AI make this workflow faster?” They ask, “Does this workflow even need to exist?”
Sometimes they’ll use AI to map the entire workflow, identify redundant steps, and automate around them. Other times they’ll create an entirely new tool that makes the old process irrelevant. Often the system everyone else is optimizing is the one they decide to eliminate.
Level 3: They reimagine the work.
They use AI to fundamentally change their role and the kind of value they deliver.
Here are a few real world examples:
A client leader who uses AI as a research partner, walking into meetings with insights that used to take a full team weeks to develop. They have evolved to become part strategist and part account manager. The same client lead is using AI to game out every likely client objection and prepare responses in advance, walking in not just informed but impossible to rattle.
An engineer who has reconstructed their workflow by embedding AI agents to handle testing, documentation, and bug fixing. This shift allows them to concentrate on system design, architecture, and innovation, the parts of engineering that create far greater value than routine maintenance.
A strategist who uses AI to build models that simulate competitor moves, then tests responses with AI-driven focus groups and scenario modeling.” Instead of just anticipating the future, they are using AI to design the best possible move in the future.
The pattern is clear.
The winners aren’t going to be the ones who are using AI only to go faster.
They will be the ones who are using AI to unlock entirely new ways to work.