The AI Workweek

Chapter 5 Maximize Efficiency Gains

At this point, you are probably feeling like things are moving at a good pace and that the hard part might already be behind you. A few automations are actually working the way they are supposed to. Time is showing back up on calendars that used to be completely packed. Inboxes are quieter than they have been in months, and follow-ups are getting cleaner without anyone having to chase them down. It feels like real momentum, and it feels earned—because it is.

This is usually the exact moment when people tell themselves to keep pushing forward because clearly this whole AI thing is working and the results are only going to keep getting better from here. This is also the exact moment when most people walk straight off a cliff they never saw coming, something I call the drop-off zone.

The drop-off zone is what happens right after your first real efficiency win, and almost nobody sees it coming because it disguises itself as progress. You find what feels like magic automation beans and suddenly every tool you come across promises to give you and your team even more time back than the last one did.

One promises to fix your meetings for good. Another claims it can completely rewrite your entire sales process from the ground up. A third one swears it will eliminate follow-ups forever so that nobody on your team ever has to chase anyone down again. You start grabbing them one after another because each one sounds just reasonable enough to justify, and ...