Manifesto · 2026
Letpeoplebepeople.
Eight observations from working with small businesses. And why I think about AI differently than the industry I work in.
The wrong question
The whole AI industry is talking right now as if people were the problem. Too slow. Too expensive. Too emotional. Streamline.
That is the wrong question. And I think it is taking us all in the wrong direction.
I do not know a single business that has too many people. I know plenty where the people who are there are stuck in the wrong tasks.
They write proposals that barely differ from last week's.
They copy data between tools that do not talk to each other.
They answer the same email for the third time, because the system has no place where the answer lives.
The question is not “How do we replace this person?”
It is:
“Why are we letting this person spend their life on this?”
The right question
When I work with you on your business, the question is never “What can we cut?”
The question is:
“What should come back?”
Which conversations with customers have disappeared because there is no time?
Which idea has not had a quiet hour of attention in weeks?
Which evening has not been a real evening off in months?
AI is not the solution to having too many people.
AI is the solution
to having too little human
in the workday.
That is a big difference.
And it is the only direction of movement that makes sense to me.
The stance
That is where my work begins. Not with the staff. With the pendulum between routine and meaning.
I try to push it back toward meaning.
Which also means: if AI does not move that pendulum in your direction, I will tell you so.
It might be that the most honest answer at the end of an audit is: “Do nothing. This is a process problem, not a tool problem.” My approach allows for that. And honestly, I believe that would be the most valuable thing I could offer.
I am not here to ride the hype.
I am here so that at the end of the day, you actually want to walk back into your business.
So your team is not more efficient, but less exhausted.
So your business grows because there is more human in it.
Not less.
If this resonates
let's talk.