For seven months, I’ve been building our own AI agent. It’s taught me something I hadn’t expected.
The hard part isn’t building. The hard part is choosing what not to build. And finishing what you do build.
Everyone has access to the same tools. That’s why I think the difference between companies over the next few years will be who gets them working day to day. That’s execution.
The hardest part was leaving things out
Recently, I built a dashboard with AI to show operations, finances and how things are developing. The first version had everything in it. It was so overwhelming that I didn’t know what to look at. Now it shows eight numbers at the top. The hard part was choosing what to leave out.
I’ve called it bad taste before, when you make something because you can and not because it’s needed. I said that about content. It applies to what you build too.
Start with a problem, not a tool
Any technology moves faster when you have a problem that’s big enough. Our own AI agent started with a problem, not with a tool. A tool without a problem becomes a side project. A problem that’s big enough gets solved.
Execution is what keeps running day to day
Execution means putting a decision into practice. Not starting it. Finishing it, so it works every day.
It’s a long way from a demo that works once to something a whole team relies on.
For us, it isn’t the cleverest features that have made the difference. It’s the ones we use every day: the morning review of the ad accounts, the check on every creative and corrections that turn into rules.
None of it is much to look at. It’s just finished. And that’s why it works.
Structure is a necessary evil
I’m not naturally organised. In my personal life, I’m always too optimistic about time, and I forget things.
Even so, I care enormously about structure at work. Because structure is what makes you prioritise the right things and know why you’re doing what you’re doing. You can’t get around it if you want to go far.
The funny thing is that AI can help with that part too. These days, the agent remembers things for me. What I did last week, and why I chose one solution over another.
So AI isn’t just the thing that makes it easy to build more. Used properly, it’s also the thing that helps you finish it.
Say no to what pulls your focus
I’ve always said you should say no to the clients who pull your focus away from the core work. The same goes for AI projects.
This is how I try to do it myself:
- One problem at a time. Find the problem that costs the most, and start there.
- Finish it before the next one starts. Even when the next one looks more fun. A half-built system isn’t worth half as much. It’s worth nothing until someone uses it.
- Measure whether it gets used. Not whether it’s been built.
- Let a person approve. AI does the work. A person makes the decision.
- Get 1% better every day. One thing at a time makes the big problems small.
What we can’t do without
None of the things we use every day were the most exciting to build. They were the ones we finished.
I think the winners of the next few years will be the ones who’ve got one system running so well that they can’t do without it.
If you’d like to hear how we’ve done it at Amplify, I cover it in my talk on AI.