Hey Adopter,
Let me tell you what's actually happening with AI right now.
Most companies are completely screwing it up. They're either doing nothing (paralyzed by the hype), doing everything (throwing money at consultants with no strategy), or doing just enough to put "AI" in their LinkedIn profile (implementing a chatbot nobody uses).
Meanwhile, a small group of professionals is quietly lapping everyone else. These people aren't smarter or better funded. They've just figured out what nobody's talking about: the power isn't in choosing between small, safe AI moves or big, risky ones. It's in deliberately doing both.
This isn't theoretical. Urban Company boosted satisfaction 5% with basic chatbots while Waymo is betting billions on autonomous driving. Netflix used recommendation algorithms to hook viewers while it prepared to reshape an entire industry. Your career follows the same pattern: learning prompt engineering today builds toward the machine learning specialization tomorrow.
The winners have discovered that AI isn't an either/or game. It's a now-and-later strategy that creates compound advantages while everyone else debates which single path to take.
By the time you finish this email, you'll know exactly how to implement this two-track approach while your colleagues are still stuck in PowerPoint purgatory.
The Two-Track AI Strategy Smart Players Use
After analyzing hundreds of AI implementations, we've identified two distinct approaches that drive real results:
Foundation Plays: Low-risk moves that deliver immediate value by optimizing what already exists. These boost productivity, cut costs, and build your reputation as someone who gets things done while everyone else is still planning.
Breakthrough Bets: Higher-risk, higher-reward initiatives that could fundamentally transform your business model or career trajectory, but might fail if technology or markets shift unexpectedly.
The tension isn't theoretical. It's the difference between becoming 20% more efficient or potentially changing the game entirely. Between keeping pace or breaking away from the pack.
Foundation Plays: Small Moves That Actually Work
Foundation Plays aren't flashy, but they deliver consistent wins by optimizing existing processes rather than reinventing them:
Customer service automation delivers measurable wins. Urban Company implemented chatbots using Azure OpenAI Service that resolved up to 90% of customer queries, boosting satisfaction by 5%. Motel Rocks saw a 43% ticket deflection rate with AI handling and a 9.44% jump in customer satisfaction.
Meeting and workflow enhancement drives immediate productivity. ClickUp's ChatGPT-based tool increased agent solves per hour by 25% within just one week of implementation. Telstra used AI to summarize customer histories, reducing follow-up calls by 20%, and 90% of agents reported being more effective.
HR and finance automation cuts administrative waste. Unilever slashed recruitment time by 75% with AI-powered assessments while increasing diversity among hires by 16%. IBM's internal "AskHR" chatbot saved 12,000 hours over 18 months in their HR department.
For individuals, foundational AI upskilling represents the same low-risk, high-value approach. Taking online courses like Google's AI Essentials (under 10 hours), learning basic prompt engineering, and experimenting with tools like ChatGPT all build relevant skills without requiring major career shifts.
These moves share key traits: they're low-risk, deliver fast returns, and work regardless of which AI future materializes. They're the pocket change that actually adds up while everyone else is chasing imaginary millions.
Breakthrough Bets: When Transformation Beats Optimization
Breakthrough Bets aren't for everyone or every situation. But when they hit, they don't just improve the game, they flip the table entirely:
Proprietary AI models create uncopyable advantages. Market research firm Kantar developed custom AI solutions trained on their unique historical datasets. Their analysis shows 82% of successful AI applications rely on internal, proprietary data that competitors can't replicate.
Business model transformation can redefine industries. Netflix fundamentally changed how it delivers value by placing AI at its core, using algorithms for content recommendations and production decisions. Waymo invested billions over a decade in autonomous vehicle technology, aiming to revolutionize transportation entirely.
AI-powered market intelligence creates competitive edges. Iceland Foods partnered with Kantar to use ConceptEvaluate AI for rapid testing of a new wellness meal range, accelerating innovation cycles. Google utilized Kantar's LINK AI to evaluate 11,000 ads in under a month, a scale impossible with traditional methods.
For professionals, Breakthrough career bets include pursuing advanced AI specialization (like becoming an AI Researcher requiring advanced mathematics and PhD-level knowledge), pivoting careers into dedicated AI roles, or launching AI-focused startups like Cursor (founded by Michael Truell) to help engineers write code using natural language.
These moves involve substantial risk, longer timelines, and significant investment. But they create the potential for market leadership, career transformation, or breakthrough innovation that incremental improvements never will.
How to Play Both Sides While Everyone Else Picks One
The most effective approach isn't choosing one path. It's building a balanced portfolio:
Start with Foundation, aim for Breakthrough. Use Foundation Plays to build capabilities, gain experience, and generate savings that can fund more ambitious projects.
Turn quick wins into strategic options. Rather than jumping straight into massive commitments, use intermediate steps like pilot programs to test hypotheses before scaling.
Recognize the synergy. The productivity gains and skills built through Foundation Plays often create the necessary capacity to execute more transformative opportunities.
Stay flexible. The optimal balance isn't static. Market shifts, competitor actions, and technological developments require continuous reassessment of your AI strategy.
The companies winning with AI right now aren't making a single bet. They're making a series of intelligent moves, each building on the last. Small optimizations that fund bigger experiments. Safer bets that create the option to make bolder ones later.
This isn't just theory. It's playing the game at multiple levels simultaneously while most teams are still stuck in planning mode.
Ready to Implement Your First Foundation Play?
DOWNLOAD NOW: The Foundation Play Finder
Stop theorizing and start executing. I've created a step-by-step implementation guide that walks you through exactly how to identify, evaluate, and launch your first AI Foundation Play in the next 30 days.
This free 6-page toolkit includes:
Detailed worksheets for identifying your highest-impact opportunities
Scoring templates to evaluate which plays will deliver fastest
Measurement frameworks to prove your success
Implementation checklists to make it happen while others are still planning
The Balance That Drives Real Results
The AI winners won't be the ones who bet everything on transformation. Or the ones who only make safe, incremental changes. They'll be the smart players who do both, starting with the foundation and systematically creating options for bigger moves.
In a world obsessed with either playing it completely safe or making wild bets, the advantage goes to those who can do both while everyone else is stuck in PowerPoint purgatory.
Adapt & Create,
Kamil
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