Here's what nobody talks about.
The smarter the model, the higher the expectation.
A year ago, a 2-page memo took a week. Today it takes 20 minutes. And now they want 10 of them, with sources, by Thursday.
The unlock is real. So is the new ceiling.
I love every door AI opens. More leverage, more reach, more output than I could have produced in a decade of selling. But the math is brutal. The tools got faster. The data got bigger. The review cycles didn't shrink, they multiplied. We're not running one race anymore. We're running ten of them, parallel, every day.
AI didn't replace the work.
It replaced the waiting.
And waiting was where most of us caught our breath.
The leaders who win this cycle won't be the ones using the most AI. They'll be the ones who protect their thinking time like it's the last scarce resource.
Because it is.