What AI capability really looks like in high-performing teams

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Apr 26, 2026

Neo Applin, Head of Inventium AI who trains organisations to embed AI into workflows. He breaks down why licence counts lie and adoption metrics can be vanity. He contrasts AI literacy with true AI leverage. He warns that poor AI use can harm productivity and explains training, agents, and workflow redesign as the path to real capability.

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INSIGHT

Adoption Metrics Are Vanity Metrics

Adoption counts (licenses, onboarding, percent using AI) are misleading because they don't measure whether AI improves outcomes.
Neo warns that poor use creates 'AI slop' that buries teams in mediocre output and can reduce productivity.

ANECDOTE

AI Overuse Creates Information Overload

Neo describes teams that overuse AI to auto‑generate lots of documents and get buried in information.
He compares one‑size usage to his grandma using a microwave for only defrosting soup to show limited application.

INSIGHT

Literacy Versus Leverage Distinction

Distinguish AI literacy (what tools are, responsible use) from AI leverage (re‑engineering work to gain real benefits).
Literacy is foundational but leverage is where faster or better customer outcomes appear.

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Your organisation hit its AI adoption target. Eighty percent of staff have a licence, onboarding is done, and the usage dashboard looks great. So why does the work feel the same, or worse? Hitting an adoption target and actually getting value from AI are two completely different things, and most organisations are confusing one for the other.

The truth is that a team using AI badly can actually perform worse than one not using it at all. Buried in mediocre output, drowning in documents nobody reads, and no closer to a better result for their customers.

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I dig into what actually separates high-performing AI-augmented teams from the average ones, and why so many organisations are measuring the wrong things.

Neo and I cover:

Why adoption metrics are almost always vanity metrics, and what to measure instead.
The difference between AI literacy and AI leverage, and why teams need both but rarely get past the first.
How poor AI training can actually make teams less productive.
Why slotting AI into an existing process is only ever an interim step, and what it looks like to genuinely re-engineer workflows.
The role of AI champions within functional teams, and why workflow architecture is a distinct and critical skill most people do not yet have.

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

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If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits: Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

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