Tim Bond, founder of CogniScale.com, helps ambitious revenue teams to build and scale their AI workforce. With over two years leading AI transformation that started with his own agency, he shares why the shift from "Go-kart AI" to "Formula AI" will be fundamental for companies to thrive in the next era of work.
Unlocking exponential growth with AI requires a fundamental change in mindset. Right now, whilst most organisations tinker with ChatGPT and wonder about ROI, a few are operating at 2-3x their previous capacity, team wide. They've crossed from experimentation to transformation, from prompting to orchestrating, from incremental gains to exponential leverage.
This isn't speculation. It's happening today in companies that have made the leap from what I call "Go-kart AI" to "Formula AI" and the gap between these two groups is widening every week.
The cognitive ergonomics revolution
Think back to the 1990s, when office furniture was revolutionised. Suddenly, chairs and desks were engineered to fit the human body. What we're experiencing now is cognitive ergonomics, optimising not for physical comfort, but for mental effectiveness and productivity.
But here's the challenge: whilst the technology has arrived, most organisations are stuck in Go-kart mode – tinkering with ChatGPT, getting outputs that need heavy editing. They're using a Formula One engine with a Go-kart steering wheel.
Meanwhile, the Formula AI organisations are seeing transformative results. At SimCorp, where we are supporting a marketing AI transformation programme, teams are experiencing 70-90% time reductions on numerous tasks. As Heajun Phan, Head of Global Content Strategy at SimCorp, puts it: "For me, the AI consultant is my best friend now.. I can see it will be a big part of our future, and the future is now."
The great misconception
The biggest myth about working with AI? That AI simply does everything for you. The opposite is actually true, initially, it's harder work. You need to collect the right data, build proper context, and learn to orchestrate rather than execute.
At TechPros.io, my content agency, we experienced this firsthand. Moving from human copywriters to an AI-augmented content production process wasn't instant magic. We had to discover which models produced the most natural outputs (Claude, as it turned out), build agents with rich context, and fundamentally reimagine our workflows.
But once you cross that chasm? Tasks that consumed days compress into hours. Quality improves whilst speed increases. We're freed from drudgery to focus on strategy and creativity.
Digital colleagues, not digital tools
The shift from Go-kart to Formula AI isn't about better prompting, it's about a fundamental mindset change. Stop thinking of AI as a tool you command. Start thinking of it as a teammate you collaborate with.
This means building Claude projects (or custom GPTs in OpenAI's world). It means treating AI like an intelligent intern who needs proper briefing but can then deliver extraordinary results.
One of our training participants compressed eight hours of personalised C-suite email creation into just 100 minutes, a 79% time reduction. Another transformed industry interview write-ups from a multi-day process to hours, achieving 92% time savings whilst improving quality. These aren't outliers; they're the new normal for teams operating in 'Formula AI' mode.
The early-mover advantage is real – and fleeting
Microsoft's latest research shows 82% of businesses plan to hire "AI digital colleagues" this year. The question isn't whether this transformation will happen – it's whether you'll lead it or scramble to catch up.
On a recent Enterprise Thought Leadership Podcast episode, Maria Liw (Global Head of Marketing, SimCorp) described how team adoption shifted from 'push to pull': once the first cohort experienced results, colleagues actively requested to join the next training.
Organisations embarking on this journey now aren't just gaining efficiency. They're building a sustainable competitive advantage through:
Employee retention: Top performers seek employers who invest in best in class enterprise AI platforms and upskilling. As AI literacy becomes career critical, training becomes essential - retaining your top performers who see their future value increasing.
Market differentiation: Whilst competitors remain constrained by manual capacity limits, AI-first teams respond to opportunities faster, maintain brand consistency at higher volumes, and engage more buyers with greater personalisation.
Compound value: Agents become reusable assets that raise team wide performance. Shared libraries of these digital colleagues deliver scalable infrastructure with measurable ROI.
Your Monday morning mandate
If your marketing team is still tinkering, some using AI, others exploring different tools, no unified approach, you're not alone. But it's time to move from individual adoption to team wide capability building.
SimCorp didn't just train their content team. They moved systematically through regional marketing, ABM, and sales enablement, each cohort building on the last.
The future of work isn't about humans versus AI. It's about humans orchestrating AI to achieve what neither could alone.
Ready to map your transformation journey? Start with the AI Acceleration Report, a quick team survey that maps priority workflows, time saved, and ROI. It's free for a limited number of B2B Live attendees with teams of six or more. Visit https://cogniscale.com/ai-acceleration-report and enter promo code B2BLive.
Want to hear the full SimCorp story? Listen to Eps. 76 of the Enterprise Thought Leadership Podcast - SimCorp's marketing AI transformation success with Maria Liw, Global head of marketing
Connect and follow Tim Bond - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tngbond/