Dear CEO,
If your last brush with AI was a headline about ChatGPT or a slightly overzealous presentation from your strategy team, this letter’s for you.
You see, I’m not here to impress you with jargon or try to make you feel behind. I’m here to give you the clearest, calmest take I can on what AI actually is, what it isn’t, and how you might want to think about it—without needing to know how to code or read a research paper from DeepMind.
Think of this as your onboarding session. No slides. No pressure. Just a friendly download.
So… what actually is AI?
AI is a broad umbrella term, but right now, the part everyone’s buzzing about is something called Generative AI. That’s a fancy name for tools that can create things—text, images, code, even video—based on patterns they’ve learned from vast datasets.
The rock stars of this show are Large Language Models (LLMs)—like GPT-4 (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), Mistral (Europe), and others. These models are trained on oceans of internet content and can write fluent text, summarize documents, answer complex questions, write code, and even hold conversations.
Imagine the most versatile junior employee you’ve ever hired—but this one works instantly, never sleeps, and costs the equivalent of a sandwich a day.
“But wait, wasn’t this invented, like… last year?”
Not even close. OpenAI was founded in 2015. The core ideas behind modern AI—neural networks, deep learning—have been evolving since the 1980s. What changed? The models got good. And thanks to better chips, cheaper cloud computing, and intuitive interfaces, they got accessible.
ChatGPT didn’t invent the tech—it just opened the front door to it for the rest of us.
Hype? Bubble? Both. And that’s okay.
If this feels like the dot-com boom, you’re not wrong. Back in the ’90s, everyone slapped “.com” on their name and called it innovation. Most crashed. But out of that frenzy came Amazon, Google, and the foundations of modern commerce.
AI is in a similar phase. Venture money is flying around. Startups are racing to bolt AI onto anything that moves. Job titles are changing overnight – like Chief AI Officer i.e.
Will some of this crash? Absolutely. But long-term, AI is not a passing fad. It’s infrastructure. Like electricity or the internet. The trick is knowing how to ride the wave—without getting soaked.
How you can actually use AI (today, not hypothetically)
You don’t need to be building AI tools to benefit from them. Here’s how companies are already applying off-the-shelf AI in practical ways:
• Customer Service
Use ChatGPT/Gemini or Claude to draft support emails, create knowledge base articles, or handle Tier-1 support via bots.
• Marketing & Content
Generate first drafts of blog posts, newsletters, or product descriptions. Create visual assets using tools like Midjourney or Adobe Firefly.
• Sales Ops
Summarize CRM notes, generate outbound messaging, analyze call transcripts or prep account briefs from multiple data sources.
• Productivity
Use AI built into Office 365 or Google Workspace to summarize meetings, draft emails, and automate reporting.
• Recruitment
Parse hundreds of resumes quickly, extract key candidate data, or generate customized interview questions.
These tools aren’t replacing your best people—they’re amplifying them. They let your teams do higher-value work instead of drowning in busywork.
But before you do anything… Clean your data house.
There’s a golden rule in AI: Garbage in, garbage out.
You cannot just slap AI on top of a digital mess and expect magic. If your internal data lives in a graveyard of outdated SharePoint folders, nested Excel sheets, and tribal knowledge locked in employees’ heads—you need to fix that first.
This means:
• Building or cleaning up your data warehouse
• Structuring a usable data lake for unstructured content
• Consolidating, tagging, and organizing knowledge bases
• Defining clear data governance
AI is only as effective as the data you feed it. Think of it as a gourmet chef: if all you give it is canned beans, it’s not serving you filet mignon.
This is a marathon, not a sprint.
You don’t need to overhaul your company overnight. AI adoption should reflect your business model, your people, and your capacity.
If you’re not in the business of building AI tools, you’re not late—you’re in exactly the right position to leverage the work others are doing. Let OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic spend billions training models. You just need to focus on applying the right ones thoughtfully.
This means pacing yourself:
• Start with one or two use cases that offer low risk but high learning potential.
• Assign small, cross-functional teams to run pilots.
• Avoid big-bang transformations. This isn’t ERP 2.0.
• Focus on adoption, not just implementation.
And remember: there’s no gold medal for fastest AI rollout. Only long-term competitiveness.
Oh, and one more thing: take care of your people.
AI can feel threatening to your teams. The headlines talk about jobs being replaced. The fear is real.
But here’s a more balanced truth: AI is not here to eliminate humans. It’s here to help companies grow with fewer additions. That distinction matters.
In a world where Western populations are aging and workforce growth is slowing, AI offers a way to keep growing GDP without needing to constantly hire more people. That’s not about cutting—it’s about scaling smartly.
Your job as CEO isn’t just to adopt AI. It’s to create psychological safety as you do. To communicate clearly. To involve employees early. To show that AI is a tool for empowerment, not a pink slip machine.
In summary: no panic, no passivity.
AI is here. It’s moving fast. But you don’t need to be first—you just need to be in the game.
Start learning. Play with the tools. Ask dumb questions. Build internal champions. Watch the space.
Because if you take anything from this letter, let it be this:
You don’t need to understand how AI works. But you do need to understand what it can do—and how to lead your company through it.
With respect, curiosity, and a quiet belief in your leadership,
A Friendly Observer from the (Still-Human) Side of the Singularity
Kris
