The 1 question to ask if you want to grow with gen AI

“How much time will AI save me?” is the wrong question. But it’s overly popular.

When I got my first washing machine, I knew I had finally solved the dreaded Saturday. “More time for fun stuff,” so I thought.

But I was wrong. Like many people, that was short-lived. Not that I should revert to handwashing. Not that washing machines don’t save time. If you have a family, aren’t your Saturdays still consumed by laundry?

The time savings are real. But something fundamentally changed that’s easy to miss.

Society’s standards about cleanliness increased dramatically as washing machines became household items.

Even daily showering became the norm. It historically wasn’t the case.

Should we avoid gen AI? Yes. Should we use gen AI? Yes. There are good reasons for both. And for weeks, I was trapped, caught in both scenarios.

‘Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way.

— Søren Kierkegaard

Whether you agree with Kierkegaard or not, each option has trade-offs. It sounds grim. I know. But it’s also liberating to know that you have a choice. So I chose.

I love tech. Prompting Claude and ChatGPT and getting a response is exciting. Many people stay at this stage — using LLMs as a glorified search engine. Looking for ways to automate stuff.

However, if you join the time-and-cost-savings game, you may soon realise this. Finishing a report 3 hours earlier doesn’t mean you get 3 hours free. Instead, it’s 3 more reports you must complete within the same time. If that hasn’t happened yet, wait until everyone has a washing machine.

So, I shifted.

And that made a huge difference.

What can AI enable me to do that I couldn’t previously do, or that wasn’t economical to do?

Instead of trying to save time, that’s the question that opens the possibility to create new value.

I built ProvenStreet and went through the entire opportunity discovery process for less than $400. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time to help improve transparency in Ghana’s property market. This wouldn’t have been possible without gen AI.

I don’t wake up thinking about what in my job I could automate because of the trap. I’m concerned about the additional value we can create. How could I help improve property development practice and investment strategy for others?

📍That’s where the durable advantage lives — not in doing the same things faster, but in doing things that weren’t on the table at all.

Do you remember that most middle-income homes had domestic house helpers in the past? But they’ve mostly disappeared. Their employers took over many of the roles they played. Sometimes it’s KFC that replaces it. The time savings from using generative AI are real. But they’re unlikely to be yours to keep.