Do You Suffer from Premature Automation? You're Not Alone

Here's how most companies burn tens of thousands of dollars trying to AI/automate everything.

They see repetitive work and think

"This should be automated." 

Fair assumption.

But they're starting at the wrong end.

Don't start by asking "How can I automate this?" 

Start by asking "How can we understand this?" 

And you know what's really good at understanding things and seeing where shit is confusing? 

People.

People are a forcing function to deeply understand what's going on. 

And there's no large upfront build or giant capex required to put them to work immediately.

It's unfashionable to say this, but sometimes the best "tech stack" (…when you still aren’t exactly sure what is going on) is just a person with a checklist.

Not forever, but for now.

Think about customer support.

Everyone rushes to add chatbots and AI. 

If I were to do this, I would start by having some of my best people handle the support tickets manually for awhile - until we understood it

Learn the patterns, find the edge case, see what actually works when dealing with customers. 

Not what some jabroni promised you on a landing page trying to pitch per seat pricing because he's trying to get customers for his Y Combinator-backed SaaS.

Only then would we slowly add tech or automation (still under watchful eye of people).

Venture backed tech folks have this backwards.

“Add tech first, and learn later.”

Nahhhhhhhhhh.

You'll miss all the little details that make the difference between "technically correct" and "actually works in a real business."

Here's what to do instead:

1. Start manual

2. Learn

3. Look for patterns

4. Add tech once the challenge is truly understood

• Yes, this means doing things that don't scale.

• Yes, this means “higher costs” in the short term (but not really).

• Yes, this means being "less efficient" than companies that automate everything immediately.

But you know what's really inefficient?

Building the wrong automation.

Or automating something that shouldn't even be done at all.

Or spending months fixing edge cases you never knew existed.

The irony is that by starting slower, you actually move faster.

While others are redoing their tech for the third time, you're building tech that actually works because it's based on reality, not theory.

This isn't just about software.

It's about respect for the complexity of real work.

Every time we've rushed to add tech in my companies, we've regretted it.

Every time we've taken the time to understand first, it's paid off.

So next time someone tells you to “ADD AI TECH SAAS WHATEVER” everything immediately, remember: Sometimes the best technology is no technology at all.

At least for now.

It's not as sexy as "AI everything."

But it works, and that’s what matters.

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

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Passage of the Week

“T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

Tennyson