When do you buy a stock? Should you wait or plunge it all in now?
Timing the markets, as you know, is a fool’s errand; thus, many people dollar-cost average into positions they want.
So it goes with your firm’s tech stack and all things AI.
I know many businesses came out guns blazing on what they could do with AI. They redirected their technology teams and built some really cool features around OpenAI and other tools. I’m sure many did this in every sector.
What many have found out is that the ambitions of some of these tech companies are very general and very deep. They couldn’t care less about your roadmap and have what seems to be an infinite budget to launch whatever they want. In other words, many things that people have built have already been rendered obsolete, generalized, and commoditized in a hurry. What your team of six-figure salaried people built can now be had for $20 a month per person.
Did they waste their money? No, absolutely not.
Did they get the leverage they wanted? No, absolutely not.
However, an organization getting reps around building tools and learning when to build vs. buy is invaluable. This motion at work in your business allows it to think more entrepreneurially—an unlock that says, “This stodgy industry’s tools don’t have to be my plight; we can do something about it.” The victim mindset is a killer of culture and of any business (or person, for that matter) that wants to make a dent in the world.
If you sit on the sidelines thinking that one day some tool will show up on your desk made by some disinterested vendor in your tech stack wanting to solve all your problems… you may be correct… but on what time horizon? Will you be able to keep your best clients waiting for innovation to show up while others take shots on goal?
Dollar cost averaging into the future is about making bets today but keeping some powder dry knowing you are not smart enough to think 5 years out. Have a plan and budget for it.
By the way, ROI always shows up in the team contentment + attitude category before it finds its way to the balance sheet.
Cheers to building vs bitching!
