I don't use AI as a feature — I use it as a team member. From handling client outreach to running operations, here's what happens when you treat AI like your first hire instead of your last resort.
Most people think about AI in business as a feature — something you bolt onto an existing product to make it smarter. A chatbot here, a recommendation engine there. AI as a seasoning you sprinkle on top.
I think about it completely differently. In my ventures, AI is the employee. It's not a feature. It's the workforce.
When I say that, people either get excited or skeptical. Let me be specific about what that actually looks like in practice.
In JetSuite, AI handles the full client lifecycle for local businesses — automated outreach, follow-ups, scheduling, reporting. It's not assisting the business owner. It's doing the work. The business owner reviews and approves, but the AI is the one showing up every day, sending the emails, tracking the responses, and flagging what needs attention.
That model changes how you think about building a company. When AI is your first employee, you design the entire operation around what it can do consistently and well. You build workflows, not job descriptions. You create systems, not org charts. And you — the founder — become the manager, not the doer.
This doesn't mean AI replaces everything. There are decisions that require human judgment. There are relationships that need a real person. But for the 80% of operational work that's repetitive, predictable, and time-consuming? AI should be handling that. Not someday. Right now.
The biggest lesson I've learned: AI as your first employee works best when you design the whole business around that premise from day one. Retrofitting AI into a human-first operation is hard. Building AI-first and layering in human oversight where it matters? That's where the magic happens.