2 days ago
AI Isn't A Revolution—It's A Productivity Engine
Stephen Wakeling is Co-Founder & CEO of Phobio and an entrepreneur with expertise in developing disruptive, technology-powered services.
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If you're waiting for a grand moment to launch AI at your company, you're probably already behind. According to McKinsey's 2025 Global Survey on AI report, 71% of organizations now "regularly use generative AI in at least one business function, up from 65% in early 2024." At Phobio, we approached AI not as a transformation to be orchestrated, but as a wave we had to learn to ride—quickly and deliberately.
AI success isn't about the underlying technology; it's about understanding its potential and empowering teams to explore it. That means removing fear, providing tools and giving permission to iterate.
Despite widespread interest, only 8% of organizations consider their AI initiatives 'mature,' according to a 2024 Enterprise Strategy Group survey. At Phobio, we choose progress over perfection. We didn't build custom LLMs or hire a fleet of data scientists. Instead, we prioritized accessible, well-guardrailed tools that anyone on the team could use— ChatGPT and NotebookLM for communication and analysis; Cursor and Gamma for our more technical and content-focused teammates.
Every customer conversation—such as email chains, agendas and meeting notes—is funneled into shared Claude projects. Anyone can ask, 'How would our customer respond to this idea?' and get a context-aware, insightful answer. The value is both immediate and practical.
It turns routine documentation into something closer to institutional memory—and transforms good ideas into better execution.
Our approach was deliberately simple:
• Start with education. We held team-wide sessions to demystify AI—what it is, what it isn't and where it fits.
• Create low-risk sandboxes. We encouraged experimentation without pressure or performance metrics.
• Foster internal sharing. We launched a Slack channel for AI wins and challenges. 'AI Show & Tell' became a biweekly tradition. By week three, people were sharing wins on Thursday nights.
• Use a simple framework: Analyze everything. Augment most tasks. Automate what you can (usually not much).
When people realized AI wasn't a threat but a tool to become fearsomely productive, they embraced it. In Microsoft and LinkedIn's 2024 Work Trend Index, 75% of employees reported that they're "already using AI at work." We didn't mandate adoption—we created space for it.
In a survey of 822 business leaders, companies reported AI-related cost reductions of 15.2% and revenue increases of 15.8%, according to Gartner's 2023 generative AI survey. We've seen meaningful returns from consistent micro-improvements across our teams.
It began small: halved meeting prep time, customer emails written in minutes instead of hours and documentation that gets done. These aren't headline-grabbing stats, but they compound daily across the organization.
More importantly, with advancements in AI memory, reasoning and multimodal capabilities, we're moving from tools to agents. At Phobio, we're actively piloting AI agents to manage routine inquiries and workflows, allowing our team to focus on high-touch, high-impact tasks.
One of the biggest myths about AI is that it demands a grand vision or massive investment to make a difference. It doesn't. PwC estimates that AI is increasing workforce productivity by at least 30%. But that increase isn't the result of moonshots—it's the outcome of thousands of small, strategic optimizations.
For companies still on the fence, here's the bottom line: Organizations that embrace AI for product development already enjoy faster speed to market, increased personalization and lower operating costs.
At Phobio, well-implemented AI hasn't just made us faster—it's made us sharper, more creative and more strategic. When routine tasks are streamlined, people have time to think deeply about customers, competition and innovation.
AI isn't coming to take your job. But someone who knows how to use it might.
As leaders, we have a responsibility not just to deploy AI but to democratize it. The productivity race won't be won by companies with the biggest models—it will be won by those with the best culture. The future belongs to organizations that empower everyone to use these tools effectively, safely and creatively.
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