The AI paradox: Why waiting for perfect is costing you

The numbers tell the story

Let’s have an honest conversation about where we are with AI in 2025. The numbers are stark. When the University of St Andrews studied nearly 10,000 UK SMEs, they found efficiency gains of 27 to 133 percent once AI was embedded in daily work. That’s not a typo—productivity gains of up to double.

Meanwhile, techUK’s analysis suggests that if laggards simply matched today’s digital front-runners, we could add £232 billion to the UK economy within the decade. That’s roughly the GDP of Portugal left on the table through hesitation. Perhaps most tellingly, Cisco’s 2024 benchmark revealed that companies banning generative AI are already seeing 8 percent slower year-on-year revenue growth. In today’s economy, that’s the difference between thriving and just surviving.

The great British dithering

Here’s what I’m hearing in boardrooms across the country:

• “What’s AI actually for?”
• “How do we measure ROI?”
• “Where’s the budget coming from?”
• “Have we done the risk assessment?”
• “What about our policies?”

These are all sensible questions. But while organisations draft the perfect 47-page AI governance document, competitors are already using AI to respond faster to customers, surface hidden insights, and free their teams from repetitive admin. The reality is that AI is evolving so quickly that policies written today will be outdated before the ink dries. What AI does now, it will do better in three weeks. In six months, it will do things we can’t yet imagine.

The perfection trap

Waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect policy, or the perfect understanding of AI is like waiting for perfect weather to learn to sail. You’ll be stuck on the shore while others are already out navigating the waters and learning as they go.

What matters is drawing that line in the sand: saying, “We’re confident in this policy for now. We’ve assessed the risks as best we can. We’ve surveyed our staff, identified their pain points, and chosen AI solutions that fit our budget and deliver real improvements.”

The organisations seeing results aren’t the ones with flawless strategies. They’re the ones who started, learned, and adapted. They understood that practical experience beats theoretical perfection every time.

Starting where you are

Every day you delay adopting AI tools that could automate invoicing, streamline routine queries, or generate reports is another day your team spends on work that doesn’t need their unique human expertise.

Your staff didn’t join to spend hours formatting documents or collating survey responses. They joined to make a difference, apply their skills, build relationships, and solve interesting problems. AI can give them that time back.

Moving from theory to practice

This is where gecco’s AI Assistants make the difference. Rather than expecting organisations to become AI experts overnight, we provide pre-built, tested assistants that slot into existing workflows. Think assisted intelligence, not artificial intelligence—your team stays in control, while the heavy lifting gets done in minutes, not hours.

With documented time savings of 40 to 70 percent on routine administration and annual financial savings often exceeding £800,000, the ROI question quickly answers itself. More importantly, organisations can start their AI journey without paralysis. Live deployment happens in weeks, not years, with data secure and teams empowered, not replaced.

The best time to start

The competitive landscape isn’t waiting for the perfect AI strategy. Neither should you. The best time to start was yesterday. The second-best time? Today.