How to Tell If AI Is Making a Difference in Your Company

Advancements in AI technology make our personal and work lives easier and more efficient. Or so they say. From search engines to customer service chatbots to athletic facilities, AI platforms are being introduced at a rapid pace. However, does AI make everything better or more efficient within your company? It depends on who you ask.

As a competitive adult tennis player, I enjoy following professional tennis, especially the top men and women players. The 2026 professional tennis season begins in mid-January with the Australian Open. What I enjoy most is behind-the-scenes footage and documentaries on how players train and prepare for the intense season. More importantly, the latest professional technology is also helping amateurs like me improve their game.

Technology is essential to practically every business. While I love experimenting with the latest AI and software advancements, the reality is that human involvement and buy-in remain vital to our company’s success.

Professional tools for pros and amateurs

AI-generated tennis technology brings an entirely new dimension to the court. Tennis, much like golf, is a skill sport. Upon learning the basics, such as what size racquet or club is needed, how to hold or grip it and the fundamentals of the swing, countless hours must be invested to move from beginner to novice.

Most tennis and golf players wanting to rapidly improve their game will invest in clinics and/or private lessons. After all, “repetition is the mother of skills,” or so the saying goes. While there is no shortage of new technologies to advance our skills, AI-generated technology is replacing humans when it comes to scoring and making line calls.

If you’ve followed the major tennis tournaments for the past few years or so, you may have noticed that most have replaced human line judges with automated line-calling technology. The French Open, played on red clay courts, is the lone exception.

To my delight, French Open officials recently announced human line judges would continue in 2026, citing tradition and the ability to see ball marks on the clay surface. I suspect that tradition will end in the coming years, so I’m enjoying the last crumb of traditional tennis. Just imagine if automated lines were available during the 1970s and 80s when the legendary John McEnroe famously berated umpires and line judges.

I play a lot of competitive adult tennis, and just like the friendly game at your local courts, each side is responsible for calling long or wide shots. Sure, we all make mistakes and erroneously miscall the occasional shot.

Unfortunately, a small minority of players seem to call balls out for their own benefit. I’ve lost plenty of points I felt I should have won due to what I consider unsportsmanlike conduct. Even if you don’t play tennis, I’m sure you have encountered coworkers or associates who continuously operate “outside the lines.”

A couple of months ago, Elliott McDermed, the KCUT Academy Director, invited me to play at the Overland Park Racquet Club near Kansas City. The club recently installed the new PlayReplay technology that not only makes accurate line calls but also allows players and instructors to see vital shot information, such as ball speed, height and placement. As an assistant coach for a local private high school, the teaching and instruction component impressed me the most.

Most of my fellow CEOs are avid golfers, and there is certainly no shortage of AI-generated gadgets and systems designed to lower their score or handicap. Yet one question I frequently ask myself involves the overall perception of AI in the workplace. In other words, do frontline office workers believe that AI is improving their productivity? According to at least one recent survey, the answer is no.

Frontline versus C-suite

A recent Wall Street Journal survey of 5,000 white-collar workers indicates that C-suite executives are far more excited about the benefits of AI than those on the ground floor. For example, approximately 75% of top executives are excited about their AI investment. However, that number drops significantly as only slightly more than 30% of workers express excitement over AI.

So where is the disconnect? I believe implementation remains the largest hurdle for most office workers. Non-management employees said they saved less than two hours per week when using AI, compared with more than 40% of executives who said they saved at least eight hours per week. The discrepancy in these numbers leads me to believe that executives aren’t using AI tools as much as their ground-floor staff.

Employees say that AI doesn’t save nearly as much time as their bosses think. Plus, many of those same workers feel overwhelmed by how to incorporate AI tools into their daily routine. The bottom line is that executives seem to have blinders on when it comes to AI’s efficacy. Nonetheless, companies are spending small fortunes on AI tools to boost productivity at every level.

Where the rubber meets the road

As the founder and CEO of a transcription company, I enjoy discovering and learning about new software solutions that can potentially improve productivity and our bottom line. In addition, I made the decision several years ago that incurring the time and expense to stay current on the latest tools and technology is critical to my company’s success.

My experienced, trained human transcriptionists still outperform any AI-generated transcription tool on the market today. Using human transcriptionists allows me to extend a 99% accuracy guarantee to our clients. If I relied on AI transcription platforms, I would lose money with that same commitment.

I think we can all agree that AI technology continues to advance rapidly. And yes, there will come a time in the not-so-distant future when AI platforms will deliver the same accuracy and efficiency as our human transcriptionists deliver today. However, I also believe that new AI advancements should come from those on the front lines who are the most knowledgeable about real-world implementation.

Listen to the front line

As CEOs and top-level executives, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing we know what is best for our company. The one lesson I recognized from The Wall Street Journal survey I referenced above is that listening to and learning from frontline employees is essential.

Fortunately, our company is small, so that isn’t an issue. Yet I sense that many of my colleagues in larger organizations are out of touch with frontline staff.

Here is my challenge to each of you (including myself). Walk around your office and ask employees how they use the tools they have access to. Here are a few questions to consider:

• Which software systems do employees use the most and why?

• Do employees feel the organization provides enough training when new software or hardware is introduced?

• Are more seasoned employees intimidated by new AI technology, and what can be done to alleviate their concerns?

• Are younger employees too dependent on AI platforms at the expense of understanding the basic tenets of your business?

Some business experts worry that AI or new technology will remove our human touch. I’m confident that we can implement new tools while still maintaining positive contact with customers and employees alike. However, understanding how our frontline employees view our decisions will ultimately benefit everyone.

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Advancements in AI technology make our personal and work lives easier and more efficient. Or so they say. From search engines to customer service chatbots to athletic facilities, AI platforms are being introduced at a rapid pace. However, does AI make everything better or more efficient within your company? It depends on who you ask.

As a competitive adult tennis player, I enjoy following professional tennis, especially the top men and women players. The 2026 professional tennis season begins in mid-January with the Australian Open. What I enjoy most is behind-the-scenes footage and documentaries on how players train and prepare for the intense season. More importantly, the latest professional technology is also helping amateurs like me improve their game.