Why AI tools failed your business: you need specialized agents (we built one)
I've gone to lots of conferences about AI, trying to find something that works for my business. And your project is the first that seems to work.
That's what a prospect from a company with 3000+ employees worldwide said about Charlie, our AI Agent.
What a relief hearing this. Finally, we have a product using AI that is actually delivering value.
It got me thinking: Why? What makes Charlie different from other AI products? The answer: it's a specialized agent working on a specific workflow.
Let's talk about the levels to AI return on investment and how to make the most out of this AI wave.
So we're all doing AI now?
ChatGPT came out in November 2022. Right away, most business leaders wanted to get in on the wave. Nobody wanted to get left behind. But nobody knew what this meant.
Companies rushed to buy AI licenses and training programs. They spent millions of dollars. The hype made all of us think AI will change everything.
But after a few years, only 26% of those companies that adopted AI feel they have real value from their investment (source).
Most companies are doing AI wrong. They buy generic tools like ChatGPT. They buy basic training. And they hope their employees figure it out.
But that's not cutting it.
We know this works because we built one. Charlie is our AI agent that helps create price quotes. What used to take an expert 3+ hours now takes 15 minutes.
The technology isn't the problem. How you use it is.
The truth is, they're using AI the wrong way. As we've built Charlie, we've figured out the true way to get value from AI: there are levels to this game.
The way to get the most value out of implementing AI in your business is to build specialized agents assisting experts in specific processes, allowing their users to have higher output and increase the quality of their work.
But specialized agents are the most advanced form of AI implementation, so let's go through each level for now.
Level 1: Licenses for everyone
Every company starts here.
Buy enterprise licenses of Claude, ChatGPT, or whatever the latest model is. Give everyone access. Hope for the best.
This is definitely better than taking the chance of having employees use non-enterprise versions and running legal and security risks. But that's not the story for this article.
Sometimes bigger companies build their own custom platform to have more control over how employees use those models.
But the result is always the same: users get access to 1 or more models.
And then... people are lost.
For the past year, I've worked as a freelance AI trainer. I taught hundreds of working professionals how to use these generic tools.
Here's what I learned: without training, some people do really well. They get a lot of value. But they're the ones who are already curious about technology and tried these tools on their own first.
The vast majority of people don't know: (1) What to use those tools for (2) How to use them
The result? Some people get some value. But most are lost.
And it's difficult to measure the return on investment.
Companies spend millions on licenses. Then they wonder why nothing happened.
That's where Level 2 comes in.
Level 2: Training for everyone
So companies realize people need help.
They buy training programs. Sometimes it's open to anyone who wants it. Sometimes it's targeted - train this department on how to use ChatGPT.
As a freelance trainer, I did both. Mostly stuck to the basics.
Our training sessions were about reducing the fear of AI and introducing the fundamentals of prompting. How to get value from these tools without breaking anything.
The result is much better. People start using the tools more often.
But here's the problem: most use cases are still anecdotal.
Take email writing. The thing people jump to because it takes so much of their day. The numbers prove this desire: 75% of people want to use AI to write emails.
But only 26% actually use AI for their emails (source).
Why?
I believe email writing isn't a good use case for AI. Each email needs specific context that's unique to that conversation. You still have to review everything before hitting send.
Most times people conclude it's faster to write the email themselves.
That's not the jaw-dropping ROI companies expect after investing millions in AI.
The issue with Level 2? It still relies on individual employees to figure out where to use AI in their work.
Some tech-savvy folks do well. Most people are still stuck with occasional, surface-level tasks.
Companies train everyone. A few people become power users. Most people use it sometimes for basic stuff.
Still not the transformation executives hoped for.
Level 3: Specialized agents
This is where the real value lives.
After building Charlie and seeing what levels 1 and 2 deliver, I can tell you: if you want actual ROI from AI, you need specialized agents.
What used to take our customers 3+ hours now takes 15 minutes. That's a 92% time reduction. Those are the jaw-dropping results companies expect after investing millions in AI.
So what are specialized AI agents?
Charlie is our specialized agent for creating price quotes from trade show booth proposals. It knows the ins and outs of this specific process. It includes 7 years of my co-founder's expertise baked into its instructions.
But here's the key difference from generic AI: Charlie doesn't replace the expert. It assists them.
Easier return on investment
The inputs and outputs are clearly defined. We can measure exactly what Charlie delivers.
Before Charlie: 3+ hours to create a price quote. After Charlie: 15 minutes.
Try measuring that with "people are using ChatGPT for emails." Good luck.
Process gets documented
Most businesses Charlie works with had never documented how they create price quotes. The knowledge lived in experts' heads.
That creates problems:
- Expert goes on vacation? Knowledge unavailable.
- Expert leaves the company? Knowledge gone forever.
- Different experts do it differently? No consistency.
- Want to train someone new? Takes expert time to explain everything.
Charlie solved all of this. The process is now documented in the agent's instructions. Management can see exactly how quotes get created. New team members can learn from the agent instead of taking expert time.
More accessible for users
The difference in "AI skills" matters much less.
If you can chat with someone, you can use Charlie. The agent knows the process and walks users through each step. Even people who struggle with prompting ChatGPT can interact with Charlie easily.
One of our customers said: "Your AI is the only one that seems to work."
That's because we're not asking users to figure out what to use AI for. Charlie knows its job.
How Charlie actually works
Charlie starts with the same inputs an expert would use: a trade show booth proposal.
It follows the usual workflow:
- Identify elements on floor plans
- Write the line items
- Get prices for those line items
- Provide the complete quote
The user doesn't need to tell Charlie this workflow - it knows it. But if they want to deviate slightly, they can. It's conversational.
The output isn't just text or CSV. Charlie creates an actual document that both the agent and users can modify. Like another team member collaborating in Google Drive.
And we close the loop: Charlie exports the final quote as PDF. The expert gets the final product without extra conversion steps.
But here's the crucial part: the expert stays in control. They review, modify, and approve everything. Charlie assists - it doesn't replace.
It benefits the business too
Sales people can use their freed-up time for actual selling. More outreach. More customer conversations. Better relationships.
When executives ask "What did we get from our AI investment?" you don't say "Well, people use it for emails but it's hard to measure."
You say: "We've run the workflow 155 times with our specialized agent and saved X hours for Y users."
Clear. Measurable. Valuable.
Just like building electrical machines when electricity came out - it's an investment at first. But once you have them running, they're incredibly powerful.
The difference between Level 3 and the first two levels? It's like the difference between street lighting and powering entire factories.
Key insights
So why did our customer say Charlie was the first product he saw that ever worked and that could bring value?
Well because it's a specialized agent.
We can only hope for all businesses that were disappointed in AI to embark on this journey.
Specialized agents do not replace generic tools, but they're a necessary part in a business' toolset.
Those are the tools that bring the game-changing results every business has been hoping for.
So what do you say? Ready to build your agent?
Get in touch at this address if you want to chat about how your business can implement specialized agents: will@willgyt.com