WhyOnly
One?
Blessing Richardson
Tech Strategist & Engineer · Sayla
The automobile wasn't a better carriage.
It was so much better —
it changed everything.
That's where we are
AI is not the next IT upgrade.
It's not something you bolt onto a business.
But this isn't my first time in a shifting landscape
The Magazine
A faith-based magazine for women and girls. I became creative director for all things digital.
People were on a digital highway
And we were still riding the buggy
on a dirt road.
We Were Late
The highway was being built.
We missed our exit.
The Gap
The Gap Is Already Here
What happened to the magazine is happening to tens of thousands of small businesses. Right now.
AI is only "magical" when...
Your data problems are solved
You have communication protocols
You have reliable business processes
If not — AI becomes a magical time and money pit.
They Should Question It
The hype is exhausting.
If you're pumping the brakes —
you're asking the right questions.
People Haven't Changed
Our basic needs have not evolved.
There is no shortage of problems to solve.
Exposure Changes Everything
You Don't Get Vision
Without Access
Every Step Built Understanding
I Was Singular
in Every Room
No shared language. No shared understanding.
My Grounded Imagination
This thing is going to be real.
I'm going to act as if it already is.
The Shift
AI Is Fundamentally Different
Before
We upskill. We configure. We deploy. We train.
Now
Software has never just done things on its own — all of a sudden, it can.
The Shifting Bottleneck
Specification
The new bottleneck is the ability to know what is worth doing — and to articulate why it matters.
If you can't specify your intent, AI generates the wrong outcome. Faster.
The Productivity
J-Curve
U.S. Census Bureau, CES-25-27, April 2025
The Tools Are New.
The Processes Are Old.
Small business owners are trying to use futuristic tools with outdated mindsets.
The Businesses Winning
Did the Foundational Work
Data has to flow through systems.
Data in motion is what precedes real value from this technology.
The Close
From Chat to Orchestration
Yesterday
Asking Questions
Tomorrow
Orchestration & Workflows
Every Knowledge Worker
Is Becoming
a Manager
This year
Delegating workflows.
Next year
Overseeing outcomes.
The New Leverage:
Judgment
When the cost of doing work drops to zero, the value is in our ability to steer it.
Accurate?
Compliant?
Ethical?
Strategic?
We Are Responsible
AI can produce the work.
We are responsible for the consequences.
Let's go back to
2022
November
ChatGPT launches.
This Is the End.
I'm done. Tech consulting is finished.
It wasn't good
at writing an email.
I'm going to have a job for life.
AI takes the shape of the people who use it. It needs to be led. It needs to be trained.
For computers
to do computer things.
For people