|
|
|
|
|
The weekly briefing from AI Up
The Upside
Human-led AI for the people who have to make the call. One big idea, one free playbook, every week.
|
|
|
| This week: Treading water. |
6 min read |
|
|
|
In this issue
Finding your starting pace with AI
Most business owners aren't behind on AI. They're treading water: working hard just to stay where they are. This week is about why that happens, and how to find a pace you can actually keep.
|
01
The big idea
Treading water isn't a skills problem. It's a pace problem.
|
|
|
02
The free playbook
The Starting Pace Plan: one week, five steps, your first lane.
|
|
|
03
The honest check
The Starting Pace Check: ten questions, two minutes.
|
|
|
|
A note from our founder
"You don't need to swim the whole pool. You need one steady stroke, then the next."
Hi there,
Thank you to everyone who ran the Missing Piece Map last week. A lot of you found your first fix sitting between two people, exactly where we said it would be.
This week is for a different reader: the consultant, the solo operator, the owner of a small team who is the admin department, the sales team and the IT help desk all at once. The word I keep hearing from you isn't "behind". It's "tired".
So we've built something for you. It's called the AI Architect Sprint, and it's the newest way into AI Up. More on that below. First, the idea behind it.
Bec
Bec Mason · Founder & Fractional CAIO / AI Architect, AI Up
|
|
|
This week's big idea
Treading water isn't swimming.
It keeps your head up. It was never meant to get you anywhere.
Ask any swimming coach what treading water is for, and you'll get the same answer. It's a survival skill. It keeps you safe in deep water while you catch your breath.
It's also surprisingly hard work. Arms going, legs going, and at the end of ten minutes you're exactly where you started.
That's how a lot of business owners describe their year with AI. Plenty of effort. Not much forward movement.
What treading water looks like
It rarely looks like doing nothing. It usually looks like being busy with AI, without it ever quite taking anything off your plate.
|
|
Treading water
Three subscriptions, one you use.
The rest were bought on a good day with good intentions.
|
|
|
Treading water
Every chat starts from zero.
So the output sounds like everyone else, and you rewrite it.
|
|
|
Treading water
Admin after dinner.
The proposal, the follow-up, the invoice. Again.
|
|
|
|
None of that means you're bad at AI. It means you jumped into the deep end without anyone helping you find a stroke.
|
Treading water isn't a skills problem. It's a pace problem. Nobody swims fifty laps on day one.
|
The gap between "using AI" and AI working for you
The time savings are real when AI is set up properly for the work. The trouble is that most people were never shown how to set it up, so they end up improvising.
|
|
~1 hr
a day saved on drafting, summarising and searching when AI is set up for the work.
|
|
|
36%
of Australian workers have had any AI training.
|
|
|
57%
have relied on AI output without checking it.
|
|
|
|
Put those together and you get the treading-water year. The promise of an hour a day is real. But without anyone showing you where to start, you buy tools, try things, trust outputs you shouldn't, and end up roughly where you began.
The fix isn't more effort. It's finding your starting pace. In the pool, that has three stages:
|
Stage one
Treading water
Lots of effort, not much movement. AI is something you try, not something you rely on.
|
| |
|
Stage two
Finding your stroke
Some rhythm, but patchy. Some days AI saves you hours. Other days you're back to doing it all by hand.
|
| |
|
Stage three
Swimming laps
A steady pace you can keep. A few systems do the repeatable work, every time, in your voice.
|
You don't move from stage one to stage three by learning every tool. You get there by building one steady stroke at a time: one system for the job that drains you most, then the next.
|
|
New at AI Up
The AI Architect Sprint: a third way in
Until now, working with us meant a three-month Fractional AI Architect retainer, or a Fractional COO + CAIO seat at the leadership table. Both are built for teams of 10 to 200.
The Sprint is for everyone who told us, "I'd love that, but it's just me." Four weeks. Four live 3-hour sessions, one a week. Your first three systems built with you, not handed over in a report.
| WEEK 1 |
Map and pick. How your week really runs, your three biggest drains, and a clean, safe tool stack. |
|
| WEEK 2 |
Build the core. Your knowledge, voice, offers and templates in one AI workspace, so every output sounds like you. |
|
| WEEK 3 |
Systemise. Onboarding, proposals, content and admin turned into repeatable processes, automated where it makes sense. |
|
| WEEK 4 |
Embed and hand over. Test everything, fix the gaps, cover privacy and safe use, and set your 90-day pace. |
|
|
Group of five
$990 + GST each
|
|
|
|
The rule we use
Find your stroke first. Then pick up speed.
AI doesn't fix chaos. It accelerates it. Three systems that work every time beat thirty tools you try once.
|
|
The Starting Pace Plan
One normal week, about ten minutes a day. By Friday you'll know your three biggest drains, which tools to keep, and the first system worth building.
|
| 01 |
Log a normal week (Mon to Thu)
At the end of each day, jot down every task that took more than 15 minutes. No judgement, no tidying. Just the list.
|
|
| 02 |
Circle the repeats
On Friday, circle anything that showed up more than once, follows the same steps each time, or lives only in your head.
|
|
| 03 |
Name your three drains
Pick the three circled tasks that cost you the most time or the most energy. These are your lanes. Write them on a sticky note.
|
|
| 04 |
Clear the pool
List every AI tool you pay for. Keep the ones you used this week. Pause the rest. Then check each one's privacy settings and switch off training on your data.
|
|
| 05 |
Write lane one down, once
Take your biggest drain and write the steps exactly as you do them today. Then add three things AI needs to do it well:
Context: who it's for, what you offer, how you sound.
Examples: two or three of your best past versions.
Checks: what a person must review before it goes out.
|
|
|
|
Good to know
That page you just wrote is the brief for your first system. It's also exactly where Week 1 of the Sprint starts. If you'd like help building it, bring your sticky note to a call.
|
|
|
|
Try this week · 2 minutes
The Starting Pace Check
Ten quick questions across your week, your tools, your know-how, your systems and safe use. You'll get:
| Your pace, scored out of 20: treading water, finding your stroke, or swimming laps |
| The area holding you back most, with one thing to do about it this week |
| Your first three lanes: the systems worth building first, based on where your week leaks |
|
The bigger picture
Small businesses don't lose ground on AI because they're slow. They lose it because they're spread thin, trying everything at once with no one to help them choose.
The ones that pull ahead over the next year won't have the most tools. They'll have a pace they can keep: a few well-built systems, a workspace that knows their business, and their evenings back.
|
Treading water keeps you afloat. A steady stroke gets you somewhere.
|
|
|
Bring your crew
Know four people treading water?
Swimming with a squad beats laps on your own at 6am. Gather five consultants or solo operators and you'll each do the Sprint for $990 + GST instead of $2,450. Same four weeks, everyone building for their own business, and a crew keeping you accountable. Got two or three keen? We'll help you fill the group.
Or simply forward this issue to someone who comes to mind. I'll take good care of them.
|
|
Ready to find your starting pace?
There are now three ways into AI Up. Most businesses start with one:
AI Architect Sprint · for consultants, solo operators and small teams
Fractional AI Architect · for teams of 10 to 200 with a bottleneck to fix
Fractional COO + CAIO · for leadership teams who need operations and AI in one seat
Not sure which fits? Book a free 30-minute call and we'll tell you straight.
|
|
|
Sources
~1 hour a day (self-reported): Digital Transformation Agency, Australian Government trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot, evaluation findings.
36% and 57%: KPMG and the University of Melbourne, Trust, attitudes and use of AI: Global study 2025, Australia snapshot.
|
| |
| |
| AI Up |
| Fractional AI Leadership |
Know someone who should read this? Send them this page, or to subscribe here.
ai-up-today.com · BecAIUP@outlook.com
AI Up · Human-led AI · Australia
The Upside is a weekly briefing from AI Up. Subscribe free · To stop receiving it, email BecAIUP@outlook.com with "Unsubscribe".
|
|