Show Notes
"I've Been Trying AI for Months and Nothing Has Stuck—What Am I Missing?"
Robin asks: "I've tried ChatGPT, some automation tools, things my team suggested. Nothing has stuck. We're not saving time. Nobody uses it consistently. I'm starting to think AI just isn't for businesses like mine."
You're not alone. 48% of companies who deployed AI reported disappointment with results. The problem isn't AI—it's how it's being deployed.
The core insight: AI is an amplifier, not a fixer.
If your workflow is clear and documented, AI makes it consistently excellent. If your workflow is chaos, AI amplifies the chaos. This is the Variability Trap—when everyone produces different outputs, AI just makes that inconsistency faster.
Treat AI deployment like hiring a VA. Use microtasks, not full workflow dumps. The 30X Rule: whatever time a task takes you, allocate 30X that to training. If it's an hour a day, that's ~900 hours of training investment over time. You're buying back your time—that takes patience.
Think of AI like teaching a child to ride a bike. Map out the micro steps. Train on one part. Guide them. Let go when they balance. Then connect the micro tasks into a larger workflow.
This is a horse and buggy to car moment. We have to adapt. But adaptation requires fixing the foundation first—then adding AI on top.
The bottom line: AI amplifies what's already there. Fix your chaos first. Deploy in micro steps. Expect it to take time.
Got a business question? Ask Scott here: scotttodd.net/ask
📜 Full Transcript (Click to expand)
Scott Todd (00:00)
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you fix your business. And the way that we do that is by answering questions on this show so we can go deeper and learn from other people. I'm your host, Scott Todd. I've built multiple seven-figure businesses and this channel is dedicated to helping you to grow and scale your business to be as large as you want it to be. Today's question comes from Robin and Robin writes, I've been trying AI for months.
chat GPT, some automation tools, and a few other things my team suggested. Nothing has really stuck. We're not saving time. Nobody uses it consistently. And honestly, I'm starting to think it's not just not for businesses like mine. What am I missing? Okay, so Robin, not alone here in
In there was a study that was released not too long ago where 48 % of the companies, organizations who deployed AI, they ⁓ basically reported the fact that, hey, it's not working for us, right? Like we're not seeing it. In fact, they're saying that they've been disappointed with the results in companies. They've been disappointed with results.
And I think part of this is there's multiple reasons why this is, we're having this problem. First and foremost, it's new. We all have to figure this thing out. Okay. Your teams have to figure it out. You have to figure it out. And I think that there's this image that, Hey, I'm going to go out there. I'm going to deploy this thing and then we're going to be more productive. But yet everyone is working more. Okay. Everybody I talked to this deploying technology and AI, they're like, we're working harder.
We're working more often. We're stressed out more. Because what's happening here is that there's an underlying problem with AI. And the underlying problem is that AI is an amplifier, not a fixer. I want to spend a little bit time on that part there. You see, AI is going to amplify what is in the organization. So, if you have the variability trap...
I call it the variability trap. It's where everybody that uses a process produces a different output. I don't care how they get there, but if the output is different, you're going to see that amplified, okay? Because your team is going to do it faster. AI is, again, it's an amplifier that makes things go faster. And the faster things move, the tighter your business needs to be.
the tighter your processes need to be, the tighter of control that you need to give it. So if your workflow is super clear and it's documented, then AI is going to make it consistently excellent. That's so important to think about. But look, if your workflow is not excellent, if it's not documented, if your workflow is already chaos and
you're trying to figure out your workflow from a manual standpoint, and then you throw AI at it, what's going to happen is you're going to amplify the chaos.
And that gets missed so many times because you have all of these people that are out there, hyping AI, they're hyping it. You have to do this. And I agree. I think that you have to be curious about AI today. It's not going to go away. It is the future of our lives. It's the future of our businesses. This ⁓ is a horse and buggy to car moment. Okay.
It's a horse and buggy to car moment. This is where the switch changes and we have to adapt to it, whether we like it or not. But really at the heart of the problem that I see in the businesses that I've been working with is that this goes back to chaos within the workflow. Because if your team can't do it consistently and it's documented every single time, then AI is going to struggle with it. And I really think that you have to treat this a lot like hiring
you know, a new employee or a virtual assistant. One of the things that I have taught for years and years, probably eight years now, is that whenever you're going to hire a new employee or better yet, a virtual assistant, the thing that you want to remember is that you have to act in microtask. So whenever I hire a virtual assistant, I don't just dump an entire workflow to them. I don't just dump an entire process to them. I think about it in microtask.
Okay, so what is this one component that I can give them, that I can have them do and I can build the foundation behind it? And then when they nail that step, then I give them the next step and I give them the next step. And this is where I kind of created the rule that I call the 30X rule. And the 30X rule essentially says that whatever time it took you to do a job, well, then you need to allocate 30X that amount to training
the employee. So if a task took you an hour a day, then you need to allocate, I mean, take that on a yearly basis, what was that, 365 hours, you need to take 30X that time in order to properly train a VA to do that task. That's the only way to do it. The 30X, you have to be prepared. And I'm not talking about like in one day, I'm talking about that training goes on for a period of time. You have to have that mindset that,
I'm about to invest 900 hours, more than that, 9,000 hours into this thing if it takes you an hour a day. Maybe not for the whole year, maybe for 30 months basically. So yeah, about 900 hours. If it takes you an hour a day, about 900 hours is what you should be prepared to train somebody. And again, it's not like you're gonna sit there with them for the next 900 hours in doing this, but you have to have that mindset, hey, this is gonna take some time to pass off. Because what you're doing is you're buying back your time.
And the same thing applies to AI. You see, you have to think about these things in a sequential manner. You have to map out what you want first. On my YouTube channel, I do these things called build sessions, where I sit down and I build out how I'm going to automate something. I go through a framework that I use. It's the build with scale framework. I do this thing every single time. And yes, whenever I'm going to automate something in my business, that is the very first thing that I do, is I build with
I build with scale. Because if I can map it out and I can look for ways that a human can do it or the technology can do it and I can alternate between there, it's going to be a much better process. But to win at AI deployment, we have to focus on this. We have to focus on automating one thing or deploying AI into one part of our workflow.
We have to grab a win. Okay, we have to have some sort of a win. And the way that I personally look at the deployment of AI within my organization, even within the work that I do, is I treat it a lot like a proud parent watching his or her child ride their bike for the first time. If you've never experienced teaching a child how to ride a bike, it is really something that's incredible because
as adults, we know how to do this. And then to be able to explain to a child like, Hey, this is how you keep your balance and you got to pedal and don't stop pedaling. And, you know, like learn to keep your balance and, and helping them by, by like, I always, I always took my, my fingers and held her around my children's, the back of their necks and guided them and the ability to figure out how that works. And then watching them take off and ride the bike and balance it for the first time.
That's the way that I feel about AI is what I do is I think about the micro steps. I map it out. I then sit there and I train the AI on one part of it. Do this. Do you have it? Cool. You're holding your balance. Okay, great. I can let go now. Now go do it. And then I put these workflows together, these micro tasks together to create a larger workflow.
And I think that that is the way that you have to do it. You have to think about AI and AI deployment as baby steps. ⁓ We've got more things to talk about AI and automation and kind of how to deploy it because I'm getting a lot of questions about that. I actually have a longer podcast coming out in a couple days. So watch for that one where I will make the case to you.
as to the way that you should be thinking about AI within your business. So that's coming out in a couple of days. I appreciate the question, Robin. And if you have a question that you want answered for your business, head over to scotttodd.netforks.com. And I will see you on our next episode.
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you fix your business. And the way that we do that is by answering questions on this show so we can go deeper and learn from other people. I'm your host, Scott Todd. I've built multiple seven-figure businesses and this channel is dedicated to helping you to grow and scale your business to be as large as you want it to be. Today's question comes from Robin and Robin writes, I've been trying AI for months.
chat GPT, some automation tools, and a few other things my team suggested. Nothing has really stuck. We're not saving time. Nobody uses it consistently. And honestly, I'm starting to think it's not just not for businesses like mine. What am I missing? Okay, so Robin, not alone here in
In there was a study that was released not too long ago where 48 % of the companies, organizations who deployed AI, they ⁓ basically reported the fact that, hey, it's not working for us, right? Like we're not seeing it. In fact, they're saying that they've been disappointed with the results in companies. They've been disappointed with results.
And I think part of this is there's multiple reasons why this is, we're having this problem. First and foremost, it's new. We all have to figure this thing out. Okay. Your teams have to figure it out. You have to figure it out. And I think that there's this image that, Hey, I'm going to go out there. I'm going to deploy this thing and then we're going to be more productive. But yet everyone is working more. Okay. Everybody I talked to this deploying technology and AI, they're like, we're working harder.
We're working more often. We're stressed out more. Because what's happening here is that there's an underlying problem with AI. And the underlying problem is that AI is an amplifier, not a fixer. I want to spend a little bit time on that part there. You see, AI is going to amplify what is in the organization. So, if you have the variability trap...
I call it the variability trap. It's where everybody that uses a process produces a different output. I don't care how they get there, but if the output is different, you're going to see that amplified, okay? Because your team is going to do it faster. AI is, again, it's an amplifier that makes things go faster. And the faster things move, the tighter your business needs to be.
the tighter your processes need to be, the tighter of control that you need to give it. So if your workflow is super clear and it's documented, then AI is going to make it consistently excellent. That's so important to think about. But look, if your workflow is not excellent, if it's not documented, if your workflow is already chaos and
you're trying to figure out your workflow from a manual standpoint, and then you throw AI at it, what's going to happen is you're going to amplify the chaos.
And that gets missed so many times because you have all of these people that are out there, hyping AI, they're hyping it. You have to do this. And I agree. I think that you have to be curious about AI today. It's not going to go away. It is the future of our lives. It's the future of our businesses. This ⁓ is a horse and buggy to car moment. Okay.
It's a horse and buggy to car moment. This is where the switch changes and we have to adapt to it, whether we like it or not. But really at the heart of the problem that I see in the businesses that I've been working with is that this goes back to chaos within the workflow. Because if your team can't do it consistently and it's documented every single time, then AI is going to struggle with it. And I really think that you have to treat this a lot like hiring
you know, a new employee or a virtual assistant. One of the things that I have taught for years and years, probably eight years now, is that whenever you're going to hire a new employee or better yet, a virtual assistant, the thing that you want to remember is that you have to act in microtask. So whenever I hire a virtual assistant, I don't just dump an entire workflow to them. I don't just dump an entire process to them. I think about it in microtask.
Okay, so what is this one component that I can give them, that I can have them do and I can build the foundation behind it? And then when they nail that step, then I give them the next step and I give them the next step. And this is where I kind of created the rule that I call the 30X rule. And the 30X rule essentially says that whatever time it took you to do a job, well, then you need to allocate 30X that amount to training
the employee. So if a task took you an hour a day, then you need to allocate, I mean, take that on a yearly basis, what was that, 365 hours, you need to take 30X that time in order to properly train a VA to do that task. That's the only way to do it. The 30X, you have to be prepared. And I'm not talking about like in one day, I'm talking about that training goes on for a period of time. You have to have that mindset that,
I'm about to invest 900 hours, more than that, 9,000 hours into this thing if it takes you an hour a day. Maybe not for the whole year, maybe for 30 months basically. So yeah, about 900 hours. If it takes you an hour a day, about 900 hours is what you should be prepared to train somebody. And again, it's not like you're gonna sit there with them for the next 900 hours in doing this, but you have to have that mindset, hey, this is gonna take some time to pass off. Because what you're doing is you're buying back your time.
And the same thing applies to AI. You see, you have to think about these things in a sequential manner. You have to map out what you want first. On my YouTube channel, I do these things called build sessions, where I sit down and I build out how I'm going to automate something. I go through a framework that I use. It's the build with scale framework. I do this thing every single time. And yes, whenever I'm going to automate something in my business, that is the very first thing that I do, is I build with
I build with scale. Because if I can map it out and I can look for ways that a human can do it or the technology can do it and I can alternate between there, it's going to be a much better process. But to win at AI deployment, we have to focus on this. We have to focus on automating one thing or deploying AI into one part of our workflow.
We have to grab a win. Okay, we have to have some sort of a win. And the way that I personally look at the deployment of AI within my organization, even within the work that I do, is I treat it a lot like a proud parent watching his or her child ride their bike for the first time. If you've never experienced teaching a child how to ride a bike, it is really something that's incredible because
as adults, we know how to do this. And then to be able to explain to a child like, Hey, this is how you keep your balance and you got to pedal and don't stop pedaling. And, you know, like learn to keep your balance and, and helping them by, by like, I always, I always took my, my fingers and held her around my children's, the back of their necks and guided them and the ability to figure out how that works. And then watching them take off and ride the bike and balance it for the first time.
That's the way that I feel about AI is what I do is I think about the micro steps. I map it out. I then sit there and I train the AI on one part of it. Do this. Do you have it? Cool. You're holding your balance. Okay, great. I can let go now. Now go do it. And then I put these workflows together, these micro tasks together to create a larger workflow.
And I think that that is the way that you have to do it. You have to think about AI and AI deployment as baby steps. ⁓ We've got more things to talk about AI and automation and kind of how to deploy it because I'm getting a lot of questions about that. I actually have a longer podcast coming out in a couple days. So watch for that one where I will make the case to you.
as to the way that you should be thinking about AI within your business. So that's coming out in a couple of days. I appreciate the question, Robin. And if you have a question that you want answered for your business, head over to scotttodd.netforks.com. And I will see you on our next episode.