While most businesses are still waiting for the “right” moment to adopt AI, their competitors are already learning, testing, and gaining ground. There’s no perfect tool or guaranteed ROI but the longer you wait, the further behind you fall. Start small, start now.
While everyone’s talking about AI, far fewer are actually doing something with it. The reason? Most businesses are still waiting. Waiting for the perfect tool. Waiting for clear ROI. Waiting to see who else moves first and whether it pays off for them.
But as our CIO, Mark Probert recently put it, “That’s the problem.”
Because while you're standing on the platform waiting for the "right moment", your competitors are already on board. They're heading up the mountain, collecting learnings, testing solutions, and building internal momentum. And by the time you decide to move, they'll be three stops ahead.
And that’s exactly why you need to move now.
We’re in a unique phase where the biggest barrier to AI adoption isn’t technology, it’s uncertainty. Yes, we’re building AI-powered systems across industries like insurance, logistics, and climate innovation. But no agency (or business, for that matter) can point to 18 months of long-term ROI data yet. It’s simply too early.
That lack of "proof" is creating a false sense of safety: “If we wait a bit longer, we’ll know what works and we’ll do it better.”
But here’s the truth: It’s not just about what you build, it’s about when you start building.
There’s a reason Mark keeps using the metaphor of a train journey. Getting ahead in AI doesn’t happen with a single project or tool. It happens through iterations, lessons, testing, and internal capability-building.
In other words, if you’re not on the train, you’re not collecting the learnings that will make you faster and smarter down the line. You won’t magically catch up by copying what others did because you won’t have travelled their route.
This doesn’t mean you need to launch a full-blown AI product tomorrow. Start small.
Whether you’re an SME or an enterprise, AI doesn’t have to be expensive. But doing nothing? That will be.
If you’re still on the platform, this is your sign. You don’t need all the answers. You just need to start. At New Icon, we help organisations take their first confident steps into AI with the tools, the thinking, and the prototypes to prove what’s possible.
Let’s get on the train together. Book a free 30-minute discovery call.
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