Filed under bolt-on AI.
Notes, numbers, and hard-won lessons from helping small and medium-sized businesses actually put AI to work. No think-pieces, no vendor takes — just what the math said after we ran it.
Bolt a motor to a line shaft and you’ve still got a line shaft
Paul David's 1990 paper explains why electricity took 40 years to show up in productivity statistics: factories bolted motors onto steam-era line shafts. AI seats on unchanged workflows repeat the mistake.
Cuban’s right. The AI bill is for the workflow you never rebuilt.
Mark Cuban on Big Technology Podcast: F500s waste money on AI because they're running the business the way they always have. ROI comes from rebuilding the workflow on AI — not bolting AI on the old one. SMBs have the asymmetric advantage.