Put your AI on probation

Most business owners trust AI in exactly the wrong way, and I see both versions of it every week.

Some hand over client-facing work on day one, and the first bad draft goes straight out the door with their name on it. Others never let AI near real work at all, so it saves them nothing. Both groups end up deciding AI doesn't work for them.

There's a better approach, and you already use it with people. Put the AI on probation, the same way you would a new hire.

Give it one real job. Drafting your quotes, summarising enquiries, writing the first pass of your weekly report. At the start, check every single piece of work it produces before it goes anywhere, and keep a simple score of right and wrong.

When it has been right ten times in a row, drop to spot checks. If the quality slips, it goes straight back on supervision.

I run every new AI job in my own business through the same cycle. Some earned their way off full review inside a few weeks. Others are still on spot checks, because they haven't put the streak together yet.

You'd never hand a stranger the keys to the shop on their first morning, and you'd never keep a proven employee on trial forever. AI deserves the same judgement in both directions.

Trust it once it has a track record you can point to, and not a minute before.

Pick the one job you'd most like off your desk and start its probation this week.