{"slug": "but-while-youre-here", "title": "But While You’re Here", "summary": "A consultant who helps executives adopt AI tools reports that hands-on 'do it with you' sessions are enabling leaders to build custom financial models and dashboards, with one CEO using them to pitch a $40 million marketing plan to his board. The approach creates low-cost prototyping environments that let executives make small bets and become advocates for AI, signaling that direct execution is an expectation.", "body_md": "# But While You're Here\n\nExecutives have to prioritize AI skill acquisition.\n\nEvery time a contractor comes to my house, my wife starts to find other little things they could potentially do that had nothing to do with the original call. I call it the “but while you’re here” portion of the meeting. I cringe when she makes her ask, but I’ve learned not to get in the way lest I catch a stray side-eye. The contractor will politely walk her through what might be done to remedy her concerns (“you know, your spouse could easily replace that roof in a weekend”), then try to wiggle out of being the one to commit to it.\n\nI’ve observed this “but while you’re here” phenomenon in my engagements. I typically get a call when there is some specific dysfunction. I’m good at dysfunction. I enjoy the pressure of finding a way to bring an organization out of chaos.\n\nI report to the CEO, CFO, or other leadership position about my gameplan, and nowadays that gameplan is heavily enabled with AI tooling. This is where the “but while you’re here” ask is made: *“Can you help me?”* Sure. I love to teach people.\n\n## The Anxiety Behind the Ask\n\nAt this level of leadership, you have somebody super smart, disciplined, and experienced. You also have somebody who has no capacity or time to acquire a new skill. I hear and feel their anxiety of getting professionally left behind. They are surrounded with the 0.1% stories of executives who have automated their entire life and now get to sit on the beach while their agent, Gary, runs their organization. I know they are smarter than to fall for that, but I can tell it is exposing a vulnerability in them. (To be fair, Gary’s just sent an invoice for a quarter billion dollars to meet his quarterly goals.)\n\n## The “Do It With You” Exercise\n\nInstead of trying to wiggle out of the task, I set aside time to do some hand holding. I set up a “do it with you” exercise for a few hours a week. The executive pitches me on some ideas and I help pick one that is feasible and that lets us create some infrastructure they can continue to leverage. The outcomes so far have been really rewarding.\n\nWith one CEO, we started with basic 1-on-1 setup sessions to pull in data from many different sources and give him the ability to format and publish his findings. Given a private space to experiment with real data, he ended up building custom financial models and dashboards that he used to validate and pitch a $40 million marketing play directly to his board.\n\nOr a founder who flat out told me she didn’t know what she wanted, but she wanted a place to experiment. We set up a secure prototyping infrastructure for her. She had struggled with hiring and had not been able to serve all of the potential clients on her waitlist. Within a few months, she had blown past the operational ceiling of her current team and was able to service her entire waitlist.\n\nThe successful recipe has been to create a low-cost prototyping environment. They can leverage the little time they have to make little bets and, utilizing their vast domain and experience, pick some that have legs.\n\n## What Changes When They Have an Opinion\n\nWith the context of how these tools work, they now have the pattern matching and the stamina to become advocates for the technology in the organization. A lieutenant will still come in, in good faith, with every downside of an initiative. Prior to having the experience, that list ended the conversation. Now the executive can weigh it against what they have built themselves, and they give it the green light. They don’t go in with the feckless argument of “everybody else is doing it.” They go in with an opinion. When a CFO presents a financial model she built herself, it proves the case and signals to her entire organization that direct execution isn’t just possible: it is an expectation.\n\n## An Acquirable Skill\n\nI keep circling back to this same point and I’ll say it again. AI is an acquirable skill. I am having so much fun watching the unlocks that happen with the people I work with. I used to enjoy the magic of revealing some software solution. Now my joy comes from watching traditionally non-technical folks do the same. So, “while you’re here”: absolutely.\n\n*This is a field note from the Urnicus practice. For more writing, visit the field notes.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-while-youre-here", "canonical_source": "https://urnicus.com/blog/but-while-youre-here/", "published_at": "2026-08-22 00:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-22 21:13:11.223178+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-while-youre-here", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-while-youre-here.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-while-youre-here.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-while-youre-here.jsonld"}}