Why I don't have an AI stack

"What's your AI stack?"

It's the question I've been asked most over the past few months. On calls, in DMs, at the end of nearly every conversation about growth.

My honest answer? Stop looking for one.

AI is the most overestimated and the most underestimated thing in business right now.

People expect it to run their marketing overnight, and at the same time barely scratch the surface of what it can do for them today. Both come from the same place: starting with the tools instead of the work.

The problem with buying a stack

A stack is someone else's idea of how you should work. Lock yourself into one and a few things tend to happen:

• Prices go up once you rely on it
• Limits get placed on how much you can use it
• Costs quietly spiral as you grow
• Your process breaks the moment one tool changes or disappears

And worst of all, you end up bending the way you work to fit the software, rather than the other way round.

Start with the process, not the tools

What I've done instead is build my own tools around the way I already work. They take care of the repetitive admin, so more of my time goes into the bits clients actually pay me for: strategy, creative and thinking.

I didn't hire a developer to do it. AI wrote most of the code. That's the part I think most people underestimate. The gap between "I wish this was automated" and "this is automated" is smaller than it has ever been.

If you don't know where to start

Don't start with a list of tools. Start with your week.

• Step 1Pick one task you repeat every weekSomething boring, predictable and time-consuming. Reporting, summarising, reformatting, pulling numbers from one place into another.
• Step 2Spend an hour getting AI to help with itExplain the task like you would to a new starter. Show it an example of good. See what comes back.
• Step 3Keep pushing until it worksThe first attempt is rarely right. The learning is in the second, third and fourth.

Do that once a week and in a couple of months you'll have something far more useful than any stack you could buy, because it fits how you actually work.

What AI doesn't replace

It doesn't replace judgement. It won't tell you which angle is right for your brand, whether an offer will land with your customers, or when the numbers are lying to you. That still takes experience. What it does do is give you more time to use that experience well.

Learn by doing, not by courses

I haven't found many courses worth recommending. The tools change too quickly. The real learning comes from using them every day: testing them, pushing them, breaking them, and finding out what works for you.