The DeMicco Digest
Grab your headphones and enjoy a mini-podcast version of this blog. Sit back and listen while we walk you through the key points!
It’s safe to say AI isn’t a trend – it’s a permanent change in how businesses work. But while the noise around AI gets louder, what most leaders need isn’t more hype. They need clarity and guidance.
The real question isn’t “Should we use AI?”
It’s “How do we use AI in ways that create measurable impact without wasting time, money, and energy?”
Here are some key principles business leaders should consider, adopt, and act on as we close 2025 and plan for a successful 2026 and beyond.
1. AI Is an Amplifier, Not a Fix
AI won’t fix a broken business model, an unclear value proposition, or a broken customer journey. It will magnify what’s already there.
- Strong processes scale faster.
- Weak processes fail sooner.
What to Ask Yourself as a Leader:
- Do we have core processes that are consistently delivering results?
- If AI doubled or tripled the speed of these processes, would that be an advantage or expose weaknesses?
- Are we disciplined enough to fix the inefficiencies before we try to scale them?
The biggest mistake a leader can make is to assume AI will deliver success. AI is only as good as the system it’s applied to.
2. Bring Your Team With You
Employees don’t fear technology; they fear being left behind. Too often, leaders introduce AI as a replacement, not as an enabler. The result is resistance, disengagement, or sabotage.
Instead position AI as a force multiplier for human capability. Communicate that while AI can speed up execution, the strategy, judgment, and quality control still rests with people.
What to Ask Yourself as a Leader:
- Am I presenting AI as a way to strengthen my team’s impact – or as a cost-cutting mechanism?
- Do my managers understand how to pair AI’s efficiency with human insight?
- Have I created a culture where using AI is encouraged as part of growth not feared as a step towards obsolescence?
Business leaders who succeed with AI adoption do so not through software rollouts but through leadership and communication.
3. Don't Chase Every New Tool
Every week there seems to be another AI product that claims to be a “game changer”. The reality is most of them won’t matter – and some will be gone in a year. For most companies, a single well-chosen general AI platform (such as ChatGPT or Claude) is enough to create significant efficiency. The real differentiator is not the tool but the strategy used to guide it.
What to Ask Yourself as a Leader:
- Do we fully understand what our existing AI tools can do?
- Are we disciplined enough to stop buying “new toys” and instead focus on results?
- Are we measuring AI initiatives against metrics that matter -revenue, profit, time saved, and quality improved?
Leaders who resist the urge to collect tools and instead double down on proven strategies will stay focused where it counts.
4. Focus on Small, Measurable Wins
Business leaders often fall into the trap of trying to transform their entire organization with AI in one move. That’s a recipe for confusion and wasted resources.
The smarter path is incremental: target a single growth lever and improve it by 10%. For example:
- Slightly improve the conversion rate on your best-performing landing page.
- Refine upsell messaging at checkout.
- Automate and sharpen referral requests.
What to Ask Yourself as a Leader:
- Where in our business would a 10% lift make a meaningful financial impact?
- Do we have a process for testing and measuring these changes quickly?
- Are we disciplined enough to pursue “boring” improvements that quietly compound over time?
Remember: consistent incremental progress creates competitive separation faster than flashy but unproven experiments.
5. Redefine Your Role as a Leader
AI changes the role of leadership. Instead of being the person who solves every operational problem, leaders must become the orchestrators of strategy and accountability.
AI provides scale and speed. Teams provide creativity, insight, and empathy. Leaders provide direction and clarity.
What to Ask Yourself as a Leader:
- Am I still too involved in tasks that AI or my team should handle?
- Have I defined clear decision rules so AI and people know when to escalate issues?
- Am I dedicating enough time to long-term strategy now that execution can move faster?
This shift -from “doing” to “directing” – is not optional. Those who embrace it will thrive. Those who resist will become bottlenecks in their own organization.
6. Use AI to Create More Human Connection
The goal of AI should not be to reduce human involvement but to redeploy it where it matters most.AI can take over repetitive, time consuming tasks – generating reports, scheduling meetings, handling basic inquiries -and free up your people to focus on building relationships, solving complex problems, and creating value in ways only humans can.
What to Ask Yourself as a Leader:
- Where is our team bogged down in repetitive work that AI could automate?
- How can we redeploy that freed up time into deeper customer engagement or higher value strategic activities?
- Are we clear on which tasks must remain human-driven because they require empathy, trust or nuanced judgment?
Leaders who balance automation with humanization will build businesses that feel more personal and more valuable in a world that often feels increasingly impersonal.
7. One Strategic Move for the Year Ahead
If you choose just one AI initiative this year, make it this: build a precision campaign for your best customer segment.
Not your broadest audience, not your easiest to reach -but your highest value buyer. Use AI to refine the messaging, personalize the outreach, and focus relentlessly on those who generate the most impact for your business.
What to Ask Yourself as a Leader:
- Do we know who our most valuable buyers truly are?
- Are we using AI to improve quality of engagement not just quantity?
- Can this focused campaign be a blueprint we replicate in other high value segments?
A single well-executed AI-enhanced campaign aimed at your best customers will deliver more than scattered attempts at “AI everywhere.”
A Final Thought
PLEASE remember that Artificial Intelligence is not a magic wand. It’s a tool -one that multiplies what’s already working and exposes what’s not.
The leaders who succeed in this new world won’t be the ones with the most software licenses. They will be the ones who:
- Fix what’s broken before scaling it.
- Lead their teams with clarity and confidence.
- Focus on practical, measurable improvements.
- Embrace their role as orchestrators, not doers.
- Use AI to deepen human connection, not replace it.
This is the practical power of AI -and the opportunity every business leader has right now.
Joseph DeMicco brings over 30 years of experience to his roles as founder and CEO of Amplify Industrial Marketing + Guidance, founder of Industrial Web Search, and instructor for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, specializing in data-driven marketing strategies.
