Spraying GenAI Everywhere? Try This First
Why scattering AI initiatives without identifying bottlenecks wastes effort — and how a Theory of Constraints lens helps you aim GenAI at the right problems before you automate.
Click image to open full size Everyone’s asking: How can we use GenAI to grow faster? Sell more? Keep customers longer?
Here’s the thing—rolling out GenAI across your business isn’t just about flipping a switch. It’s messy. There’s uncertainty. You’ll try things that don’t work. You’ll learn. You’ll adjust.
In other words, it’s precisely the kind of challenge that benefits from an agile, experimental mindset—not just for building products, but for building how your company operates.
I see too many companies spraying GenAI around like fertilizer, hoping something sprouts. A better approach? Slow down.
First, take a hard look at the bottlenecks in your business—the critical processes that waste time, drain energy, or block growth.
Those are the areas where AI might actually move the needle.
Eliyahu Goldratt, the creator of the Theory of Constraints, made the point bluntly: an hour lost at the bottleneck is lost by the whole system. An hour saved away from the bottleneck may not matter at all.
But even when focusing on the bottleneck, don’t rush to plug in a shiny AI tool.
First, implement some basic process improvements. Tighten things up. Clarify how the work should flow. Once you’ve got something stable and sensible, then you can ask, “How might GenAI help us do this faster or better?”
Example: sales team busywork
For example, maybe you notice your sales team spends hours each week copying data between systems—CRM, spreadsheets, proposals. It’s tempting to jump straight to “Can GenAI automate this?”
But first, ask: Do we really need all these handoffs? Maybe you can rework your process so one system is the single source of truth. Maybe you can delegate approvals.
Try that first. Let people live with it for a few weeks. See what changes. Once you’ve simplified, then bring in GenAI - maybe to draft proposals or summarize meeting notes.
Example: customer support shortcuts
Or take customer support. Perhaps your team wants GenAI to respond to all incoming emails. But if your help center articles are outdated and your processes are inconsistent, the AI will just give faster wrong answers.
GenAI can be powerful. But it’s smarter to aim it at the right places, get ready for it, and steer it with old-fashioned human judgment.
Practical thinking on turning AI pilots, adoption, and portfolio work into business impact - by finding the constraint, changing the work, and proving value as you go.
Yuval Yeret helps product and tech leaders move from agile theater to evidence-informed delivery. Work with Yuval →
