Your boss walks into your office, leans against the doorframe, and says the thing every leadership team is saying right now: “We really need to get some of that AI.”

It’s a fair instinct. AI is reshaping how companies operate, and nobody wants to be the last one to figure it out. The challenge isn’t the desire… it’s what happens next. Because without a clear plan, that enthusiasm tends to turn into what I call “Random Acts of Marketing”: five new subscriptions, a team buried in prompt experiments, and spending quietly bleeding into tools nobody’s actually using.

The enthusiasm is real. But left unchecked, it becomes shiny object syndrome… and that’s where the waste starts.

I work with mid-market CEOs and marketing leaders who are past the hype phase and ready to connect AI to actual revenue. In the first 30 days of a marketing audit, my clients typically uncover $87,000 and more in wasted spend across their existing programs… money going to leads that never convert, manual processes that add zero strategic value, and campaigns running on autopilot with no attribution. If you take that waste and just “automate it” with AI, you haven’t solved anything… you’ve built a faster drain.

The good news: moving past shiny object syndrome into a real growth strategy only takes four steps.

Step 1: Define the Problem First, Not the Tool

Don’t start by asking, “How can we use AI?” That’s a tool looking for a job. Instead, try this: “Where are we wasting time, energy, or money that AI could help recover?”

Before exploring any AI tool, take a forensic look at your marketing. Are you paying for leads that never convert? Is your team spending 20 hours a week on manual data entry that adds zero strategic value?

Most companies have what I call “profit leaks”… small, unnoticed gaps where potential revenue quietly evaporates. AI-powered analysis can surface these leaks fast, but only when you know which pipes to check. The first move is always to look for “activity” that isn’t leading to “attribution.” If you can’t trace how a dollar spent leads to a dollar (plus some) earned, that’s a friction point worth solving… and a clear place where AI can actually help.

Step 2: Prioritize by Impact… Follow the Money

Once you’ve identified ten things AI could do, the next question is: what delivers the fastest return?

Look at where the biggest drag is right now. Is it employee time… high-salaried marketers spending half their day formatting reports instead of thinking about growth? Is it missed opportunities… leads going cold because follow-up takes too long? Is it customer friction… your support team overwhelmed, trust eroding, churn climbing?

The AI implementations worth prioritizing are the ones with the shortest path to measurable ROI. I work in focused 90-day sprints rather than multi-year roadmaps. Every tool earns its place by contributing to a 10x return or a significant reduction in waste within that window. If it doesn’t, it’s out.

What is costing you the most today? Is it:

• • Employee Time? If your high-salaried marketing managers are spending half their day formatting reports instead of thinking about profit growth, that’s a massive waste of human capital.
  • Missed Opportunities? Are leads going cold because your follow-up process is too slow?
  • Customer Frustration? Is your support team overwhelmed, leading to churn?

Your business growth plan should prioritize the AI implementations that have the shortest path to ROI. We don’t do five-year roadmaps here. We work in focused 3-month sprints. This keeps the team agile and ensures that every tool we implement is pulling its weight in terms of revenue.

Step 3: Test Small, Learn Fast

One of the biggest stalls for mid-market companies is analysis paralysis. With thousands of new AI tools launching every month, it’s tempting to wait until a clear winner emerges.

Here’s the thing: the winner is whoever starts learning today.

You don’t need a multi-million dollar overhaul. You need one small use case. Try using AI to summarize your client discovery calls. Use it to analyze sentiment across your customer reviews. Set up a simple AI-driven lead scoring system to help your sales team prioritize outreach.

If you’re already experimenting with AI tools, great… this is about deciding what to double down on and what to cut. The goal is to move from activity to attribution: real profits showing up on the spreadsheet, not just AI-generated reports that look impressive but don’t connect to revenue.

By testing small, you protect your people from disruption and your company from risk… while still building the muscle that matters.

Step 4: Don’t Go It Alone

The AI landscape is noisy, fast-moving, and full of risk… from data privacy pitfalls to “hallucinations” that can quietly damage your brand’s credibility. Trying to navigate all of that while running a company is a recipe for burnout.

I’ve watched leadership teams lose months of progress because they assigned an intern to “figure out AI” or signed up for tools without a plan for integration. The companies seeing real results are the ones pairing strategic leadership with technical expertise… someone who understands both the technology and the people it’s supposed to serve.

Whether that means bringing in a specialist, partnering with a consultant, or building internal capability with your team, the principle is the same: treat AI adoption like any other strategic initiative, not a side project someone squeezes in between meetings.

From Shiny Object to Shiny Growth

The next time someone in your organization says, “We need some of that AI,” you’ll be ready. Not with a shiny object… with a strategy.

AI is the most powerful lever for profit growth we’ve seen in a generation, but it works when there’s a plan behind it. The companies winning with AI right now aren’t the ones with the most tools… they’re the ones who asked the hard questions about where their money was going before they automated anything.

If you’re ready to find the leaks and build a real growth sprint, let’s talk. At Upturn Coach, we use a proven system to identify the waste, align the strategy, and turn AI from a shiny object into a competitive edge.

Ready to stop the waste? Reach out and ask for an assessment.

– JL