The Productivity Firehose and Economic Value

Greg Shove describes a growing gap between individual and organizational AI adoption. A small group of employees are already using AI effectively, while most companies are still early. AI is generating real productivity gains, but those gains are not being captured at the company level. Instead, they are absorbed by individuals who use AI to work faster, often without changing team outputs or structures — raising a central question: if AI creates time, where does that time go?

The conversation explores why enterprise AI adoption remains uneven. Many organizations lack a clear point of view on AI, and workflows take time to adapt, making it difficult to turn individual gains into coordinated results. At the same time, AI is breaking capability boundaries, allowing people to take on work across roles while companies remain structured around existing ways of operating.

From a leadership perspective, Greg emphasizes that the challenge is not just efficiency. AI creates capacity, but without clear direction on how to use it, that capacity disappears. Leaders must decide how to reinvest the time AI creates if they want to capture real business value.

Key Takeaways: 

• AI’s ROI is leaking, not missing
  Companies are generating value from AI, but it’s being captured by employees rather than the organization.
• A small group drives most of the impact
  Roughly 10–15% of employees adopt AI early and use it effectively, creating an uneven distribution of gains.
• AI is breaking capability boundaries
  Individuals can now take on work across roles, but organizations are still structured around fixed responsibilities.
• Most companies lack a clear point of view on AI
  Without direction from leadership, adoption becomes fragmented and employees are left to figure it out themselves.
• Leaders must decide what to do with the time AI creates
  Efficiency gains alone don’t create value. Organizations need to define new, higher-value work or the gains disappear.

Greg's LinkedIn: linkedin/gregshove
Section LinkedIn: linkedin/company/sectionai
Section AI: sectionai.com
Prof AI: prof.ai

00:00 Intro: Entering the Era of AI Chaos
00:31 Meet Greg Shove
01:32 Enterprise AI Is a C Minus
01:51 AI’s ROI Is “Leaking” to Employees
03:04 When Individuals Outrun the Organization
05:44 When AI Breaks Workflows
06:47 Disposable Software and New Ways of Building
09:10 Cut vs Create
12:01 Using the Calendar as a Lever
16:24 Why Enterprises Don’t Move
17:32 When Customers Force Change
21:31 AI Breaks Capability Boundaries
25:44 The Productivity Firehose
27:49 Who Actually Captures the Value
28:45 Why Everyone Needs Good AI
32:00 Adoption Beats Buying More Tools
40:17 Teaching the 90 Percent
43:48 Where Humans Still Matter
48:09 The Debrief

📜 Read the transcript for this episode: greg-shove-on-why-most-companies-are-not-seeing-roi-on-ai-yet/transcript

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Show edited by Emma Cecilie Jensen.