8:00 AM — Client emails: 'We need AI.' 8:05 AM — I ask: 'What problem are you solving?' 8:06 AM — Client: 'Our competitors have AI.' The unsexy version of AI consulting that actually ships.
Let me walk you through what an actual day looks like. No motivational platitudes, no "crushing it" energy. Just the real thing.
018:00 AM
Client emails: "We need AI."
028:05 AM
I ask: "What problem are you solving?"
038:06 AM
Client: "Our competitors have AI."
048:07 AM
I start typing "That's not a problem statement" then delete it and write "Great, let's explore the opportunity space."
This is consulting. The art of saying what needs to be said in a way that doesn't get you fired.
0510:00 AM
Interview their support team. Discover they spend 40 hours/week copy-pasting between two systems. Nobody asked for AI to fix this. AI will fix this.
The best AI implementations aren't the ones that make the keynote. They're the ones that eliminate soul-crushing manual work that nobody thought to question.
062:00 PM
Present three options. Client picks the one I didn't recommend. Tale as old as time.
But here's the thing — sometimes the client is right. They know their business better than I do. My job is to make sure all three options are defensible, so whichever they pick, we can ship it.
074:00 PM
Build a prototype that works. Cost: $47 in API calls. Client's previous vendor quoted $300K for the same thing.
This is the Apptivity difference. We're not trying to maximize our billing hours. We're trying to solve problems efficiently. Turns out that's better for business long-term anyway.
085:00 PM
Remember I forgot to eat lunch. Again.
This is what we do at Apptivity every week. The unsexy version of AI consulting is the one that actually ships.