There’s an economic principle that when the price of something drops to zero, people tend to overconsume it.
That’s exactly what AI has done to ideas.
Before AI, generating a strong business idea took effort. It required research, time, and a willingness to sit with a problem. You had to talk it through, think it over, maybe even sleep on it. That friction may have felt like a bottleneck, but it also served as a valuable filter.
Today, you can prompt your way to dozens of “strategic” directions in minutes. And if you’re wired like most entrepreneurs, especially those of us with a little ADD mixed in, that’s not a superpower. It’s a trap.
I operate several businesses, and I’ve never struggled to come up with ideas. If anything, that’s been the problem.
When AI came along, I was as excited as anyone. It’s incredible at brainstorming, strategy, and generating possibilities. I leaned into it hard. Too hard.
It didn’t take long to notice something. I was having these great conversations with AI, full of energy and opportunity, but very little was actually getting done.
The ideas were free, so I consumed them like they were free.
Idea. Idea. Idea. Idea. Idea. No execution.
Your brain feels productive because you’re exploring possibilities, but nothing compounds. Entrepreneurs are already prone to this. AI just poured gasoline on it.
The truth is, most businesses don’t fail because they run out of ideas. They fail because they run out of focus.
A few weeks ago, I took a deep dive into the numbers in one of our ecommerce subscription businesses: CAC, churn, lifetime value, and cohort behavior. I brought AI into that process, and the results were remarkable. Within seconds, it identified patterns I would have missed. It analyzed tens of thousands of data points faster and more efficiently than I ever could on my own.
That’s when it clicked.
The real value of AI isn’t in the ideas it generates. It’s in helping you measure and execute the ideas you’ve already chosen to pursue.
The question shifted from “What new things should we try?” to “How do we run better experiments on the lever we already know moves the needle?”
For us right now, that lever is churn. If we improve retention even slightly, it compounds quickly across thousands of transactions. A one-point improvement in churn can move the business more than launching an entirely new product.
Once I locked in on that, the role of AI changed completely. It stopped being a strategy generator and became something far more valuable: a COO, analyst, and project manager helping execute the strategy we had already chosen.
Instead of generating endless ideas, AI now helps us analyze cohorts, measure experiments, draft campaigns, test offers, and interpret results. It helps us move faster on the things that actually matter.
The structure I’m using is simple: one lever per quarter. Right now, that lever is churn.
So what does that look like in practice?
Instead of asking open-ended questions, I’ve given AI a job description. And with that comes one rule:
If AI suggests a new channel, product, or strategy that doesn’t support the current lever, I capture it and leave it alone. Chasing it now would mean abandoning the experiment already in progress.
Entrepreneurs like to think their superpower is coming up with ideas. But that game has changed. AI has made ideas abundant.
Discipline in execution is now the differentiator.
The companies that win aren’t the ones with the most ideas. They’re the ones who execute one idea long enough for it to work.
That might be the most important lesson AI has to teach us.
Jim Scano, Contributing Writer
Jim is the owner of Atomic T-Shirts and Signs, a local Celina business. He also serves as Chairman of the Greater Celina Chamber of Commerce and is a founding member of the Celina Local Business Alliance.
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