𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗺

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗺

Well, hello and happy holidays.

I decided to give the Humpty Dumpty Chronicles a short holiday break. Don’t worry, they’ll be back in the new year, rested, ripe, and ready to cause trouble. For now, I wanted to pause and unpack a few things that have been rattling around in my head, and what better place to do that than with my small, but mighty, reading audience.

Let’s start with what I keep hearing from dealers when the topic of AI comes up.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗺 #1: “This is a young person’s game. I’m not going to be able to compete with them.”

Fair enough. But usually, not five minutes later, I hear: “This younger generation doesn’t want to work anymore.”

So just so I understand, (and I’m on my 8th cup of coffee), You can’t compete with people who, in your words, don’t want to work? That’s not a skills gap. That’s a logic gap.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗺 #2: “AI is fine, but this will always be a people business. Service is what matters.”

Agreed. Completely. So I ask a simple follow-up question: When was the last time you did customer service training?

That’s usually where the room goes quiet. If people truly are the differentiator, why aren’t we investing time, energy, and structure into developing them? Calling it a “people business” doesn’t make it one. Training does.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝘂𝗺 #3: This one comes mostly from designers: “I don’t want AI designing for me. I want to spend time with my customers.”

I did some quick math. Let’s say a designer sells a $40,000 project and spends 40 hours on it. How much of that time is actually with the customer? Six hours? Maybe less?

Most designers spend the majority of their time on administrative, repetitive, energy-draining tasks. Ordering. Checking acknowledgements. Fixing preventable mistakes. AI doesn’t replace creativity. It gives it back with a bow.

Which brings me to 1999.

Back then, we were told computers might end the world. Instead, they quietly rewired it. 2026 feels like that moment again, except this time it’s AI deployment.

To mark it, (because we are all about AI and using it to move things forward) we’re doing something symbolic.

𝗞𝗔𝗕𝗦 𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 $𝟯,𝟬𝟬𝟬. 𝗪𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 $𝟭,𝟵𝟵𝟵. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲, 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 $𝟵𝟵 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘁.

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵: 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝗯𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟯𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟵. 𝗜𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗽𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗱. 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲.

𝙒𝙚’𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙨. 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙨𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩.