I have been building companies for seventeen years, across four continents, in sectors ranging from education to trade facilitation to technology. In that time, I have learned a few things about what makes ventures succeed — and what makes them fail.
The AI moment has not changed these fundamentals. It has amplified them.
AI Is Infrastructure, Not Magic
The best founders I have worked with — and I have worked with hundreds — treat AI the same way they treat any other infrastructure decision. They ask: What problem does this solve? What does it cost? What are the risks? Who maintains it?
The worst founders treat AI as magic. They believe that adding AI to a broken business model will fix it, that AI-generated content is a substitute for domain expertise, or that AI automation eliminates the need for human judgment.
Technology amplifies what already exists. If your business model is sound, AI will make it more efficient. If your business model is broken, AI will help you fail faster.
The Founder’s AI Checklist
Before integrating AI into any venture, I ask five questions:
- Does this solve a real problem for a real customer?
- Can I explain how this system works to a non-technical stakeholder?
- What happens when this system fails — and who is accountable?
- Does this reduce or increase my dependency on external providers?
- Would I be comfortable if this system’s decision-making process were made public?
If the answer to any of these questions is unsatisfactory, the AI integration is not ready.