You're already using AI. You already know it works. But here's the real question: can you prove it?
"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion." (W. Edwards Deming)
Last week, a woman walked up to me before I started teaching Part 2 of my AI Beyond The Hype workshop. She'd attended Part 1 a year ago. She grabbed my hand, shook it, and said, "Thank you for helping me make so much money!" Then she walked away before I could even ask her a follow-up question.
Her business crossed a million in revenue last year. That's a real win. But it made me wonder something.
How much of what people credit to AI is actual new revenue, and how much of it is a feeling?
The Scoreboard Problem
Picture a basketball team. Five players. Running up and down the court. Hustling. Sweating. Giving it everything they've got.
But there's no scoreboard. No clock. No score.
After the game, they look at each other and say, "I think we played well today."
That's most small businesses with AI right now.
"Vibes don't show up on a P&L. A scoreboard does."
QuickBooks recently surveyed 34,000 small business owners. 77% said they use AI regularly. More than 4 in 10 said it grew their revenue. They claimed a 74% productivity boost.
Sounds great, right?
Here's the problem. Most of those numbers are self-reported. Nobody pulled up a spreadsheet. Nobody showed receipts. They just felt like it was working.
Feelings are great for motivation. They're terrible for decision-making.
Three Columns That Change Everything
Building a scoreboard isn't complicated. You don't need a dashboard. You don't need a data analyst. You need three columns.
Column 1: Minutes saved per workflow. That email you used to write from scratch? The report that took two hours? Track the before and after.
Column 2: Dollars saved or earned. Did AI help you close a deal faster? Did it replace a tool you were paying for? Put a number on it.
Column 3: Outcomes shipped you couldn't have shipped without it. That proposal you wouldn't have had time to write. That follow-up sequence you never would have built. Those count.
Most business owners need just three numbers to go from "I think it's working" to "I know it's working."
Try This Right Now
Open your favorite LLM or your AI agent and paste this prompt:
"Look back through my history, memories, projects, agents, and any other sources you have to help me determine how much money AI has made for me in my businesses. I am trying to attribute ROI to AI. Also show me more opportunities where AI could help me gain tangible efficiencies and/or increase revenue and profit."
You might be surprised at what comes back. And if the answer is "not much," that's actually the most valuable answer. Because now you know where to focus.
The ROI You Can't Measure
Here's where it gets interesting. Some of the biggest returns from AI aren't in the spreadsheet.
On this week's episode of King Moves, we unpacked a reel from Jason Pargin about how in every movie, the hero waits for their life to get blown up before they finally go on the adventure. We talked about agency. Permission. Post-traumatic growth. And the idea that you don't have to wait for the explosion.
My King Move this week: build a future version of yourself as a custom AI. I call mine "Elder Ethan." It's a version of me with 30 more years of wisdom, built from my values, my experiences, and the decisions I want to make. When I'm stuck, I ask Elder Ethan what he'd do.
The greatest AI ROI might not be a dollar amount. It might be a single good decision that changes everything.
But you'll never know unless you start keeping score.
Watch the full episode: King Moves Ep. 133: Stop Waiting for Permission to Live Your Best Life
Leave a comment