77% of small businesses use AI. Almost none can prove it works.

"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion." — W. Edwards Deming

🔑 This issue at a glance (30-second summary)

Most small businesses say AI is working. Almost none of them can prove it. Here's how to start.

Can you tell me what your AI is worth?

I was recently about to start teaching part 2 of my AI Beyond The Hype workshop to a group I had taught part 1 to last year. Right before we started, a woman walked up to me, huge smile on her face, and said, "I was at your workshop last year. Thank you for helping me make so much money!" She shook my hand and bounced back to her seat before I could ask her any details.

Two things hit me at the same time:

↳ I should probably increase my speaking fee 😉

↳ I wish I'd asked: "What did you build? How is it making you money?" Not to be nosy. I'm just genuinely fascinated with how people implement what I teach them.

I know her business crossed a million in revenue last year. She was one of the people recognized in the room. So the win was real, and it felt incredible to witness.

But it also got me thinking: How much of what people credit to AI is actual new revenue, hours back, opportunities they closed because they had the bandwidth, versus a feeling that things are going better?

That's the question almost nobody in small business is asking yet.

Picture a basketball team running up and down the court with no scoreboard. No clock. No score. Just five people working hard and saying, "I think we played well today." That's most small businesses with AI right now.

QuickBooks just 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. Most of those numbers are self-reported. They feel faster. They feel like it's working. That's the whole report. Vibes.

Vibes don't show up on a P&L; a scoreboard does. And a scoreboard isn't complicated. Three columns. Minutes saved per workflow. Dollars saved or earned. Outcomes shipped you couldn't have shipped without it. That's it. Most owners don't need a dashboard. Usually, you just need three numbers. These KPIs may be different for your business, but keeping it simple is key.

Next time someone walks up to me at a workshop and tells me AI made them money, I want to be the guy who asks the follow-up. How much? How? What did you build? I'm working on quickly and clearly articulating those answers for myself too. So should you. Here's how...

Winners take action

I wrote you a full playbook on exactly how to find your AI ROI. It walks through the eight places ROI usually hides (direct revenue, cost avoidance, time reclaimed, quality and risk reduction, capacity and scale, customer-side signals, lead gen, and the hidden stuff most owners never measure). It also tells you where to pull the data from systems you already have.

Read it here: How to determine your ROI from AI

Then do this: copy that blog post into your favorite AI tool, make sure it knows context about your business, and ask it to find where AI has already made you money, and where it could make you more. Your AI scoreboard, built by AI. That's the play.

The tools you need

Most owners put off building a scoreboard because they think it will take days. Not anymore. It takes one prompt and ten minutes.

The AI-Built Scoreboard Play:

Problem: You're using AI every day, but you don't know what it's actually worth to your business. Without a number, you can't double down on what's working or kill what isn't.

System: Stop trying to design the scoreboard yourself. Have AI build it for you, customized to the workflows you actually run. Then fill in three columns over the next two weeks and you'll know more about your AI ROI than 99% of your competitors.

Try this in 10 minutes:

  1. Open your favorite LLM (or your Hermes or OpenClaw agent)

  2. 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. Please ask me any questions you have, or tell me what I should connect you to, to fill gaps in your knowledge."

This week on the pod

This week on King Moves (Ep. 133: Stop Waiting for Permission to Live Your Best Life), Justin and I unpack a Jason Pargin reel that's been living rent-free in my head. The premise: in every movie, the hero waits for their life to get blown up before they finally go on the adventure. Why do we do that in real life too?

We get into agency, permission, post-traumatic growth, and the story of how I lost my job because the venue I worked at got raided on the news while I was getting dressed for my shift. True story.

Toward the end, I share my King Move: build a future version of yourself as a custom AI. I call mine Elder Ethan. He's me, 25 years from now, with a knowledge base full of where I want to be. When I have a tough decision, I ask him. He answers like he's been there.

Tying this back to today's issue: one good decision can change everything. That might be the greatest AI ROI of all.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Listen on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Stop playing life on hard mode. Automate your success.

Until next time,

Ethan King signature

Ethan King
A.I. Automation for Business Growth
Keynote Speaker | Author | CEO | Strategist
ethan@ethanking.com

Ethan King

P.S. If reading this got you thinking, "I genuinely don't know what my AI is worth and I need help figuring it out," that's what the AI Automation Accelerator is for.

It's a private implementation session where I work with your team to find the ROI opportunities sitting inside your business right now, and seize them in real time. Not theory. Not another workshop. We build the scoreboard, we wire it to your systems, and we measure what's working before I leave.

One prerequisite: you have to have attended one of my workshops first. That's the foundation. The Accelerator is customized to your organization once the foundation is set.

If that's you, learn more here.

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P.P.S. If you want to catch me live, here are some upcoming public events where I'll be speaking:

Here are a few more private events that recently got locked in:

My speaking calendar is filling up fast, so if you've been thinking about booking me for an event, let's lock it in. To book a private session for your forum, chapter, company, or association, reply to this email and let's talk.

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One more thing: The next OpenClaw + Hermes Agent installation and strategy sessions are open. Two options so you can pick the format that fits your schedule:

This is the small-group online session where we set up your AI agents and put them to work on your actual business. Now you have time to grab a dedicated Mac now so you don't get left behind.

Spots are limited. Join the waitlist for the date(s) you prefer here: youropenclawstrategy.com

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