AI x Business #1: Adoption Metrics, Not Usage Metrics
A fifty-minute session that nobody wanted to end. People apologizing for having to leave because their next meeting was starting, but clearly wishing they could stay. That’s how the first AI x Business went.
What this was
AI x Business is a new online series organized by Bülent Duagi and Leonard Alexandru under the Product Makers umbrella. Twenty minutes of presentation from someone doing real AI work inside a real company, followed by thirty minutes of Q&A. No pitch decks. No roadmap slides.
The first edition featured Dragos Barbulescu, VP of Technology at Sameday, talking about how they actually use AI. Actual implementations, with the scars to prove it.
The stuff that stuck
Adoption metrics vs usage metrics. Don’t measure how many people opened the tool. Measure how many people changed their behavior because of it. Usage is vanity. Adoption is signal. This distinction alone is worth the price of admission.
Small fixes that cascade upstream. Small efficiency gains in sub-processes that ripple upward and improve entire workflows. I’ve seen this play out in every eCommerce project I’ve worked on. You fix something small, like how returns are processed, and suddenly the whole customer service team breathes easier, which makes the operations team’s life better, which eventually shows up in the numbers management cares about. The trick is having the patience to start small and the faith that the cascade will happen.
Removing gatekeepers, not people. The best AI implementation inside a company doesn’t replace people. It removes the barriers between them and the work they want to do. People who previously needed someone else’s permission or expertise to get things done can now just do them. That’s the promise worth chasing.
The innovation-speed tension. You need to innovate, but you also need to move in a timely manner. Every engineering leader I’ve worked with lives in this tension daily. Hearing someone from Sameday acknowledge it openly felt refreshing.
Why the chat mattered
In most online events, the chat is an afterthought. This session was different. People were building on each other’s ideas in real time, pushing the discussion further than the presentation alone could have gone. Someone pointed out that adoption metrics can be demonstrated through a POC or MVP, after which the conversation naturally moves to ROI. That’s a pragmatic take that cuts through the measurement paralysis companies feel when trying to justify AI investments.
What I take from this
For me, the adoption vs usage distinction is the one I’ll carry forward. It reframes how I think about AI implementation in the projects I work on. Stop counting logins. Start counting changed behaviors.
First AI x Business session. Based on the energy in the room, it won’t be the last. Thanks to Bülent and Leonard for organizing, to Dragos for the transparency, and to everyone who made a fifty-minute Zoom call feel like it ended too soon.