How WBN Is Becoming an AI-First Company
Most companies treat AI as an efficiency play, bolt it onto existing workflows and hope for faster output. Rob Levin went deeper. After recognizing AI's potential in early 2023 and spending two years experimenting, he made a pivotal decision: transform WorkBetterNow into an AI-first company. This isn't about doing the same work faster; it's about redesigning workflows from the ground up where AI does the heavy lifting and humans design and oversee the process.
Episode Highlight
"Any workflow that can be done by AI, any process that can be done by AI will be done by AI. It's not about evolving an existing workflow, it's about building that workflow from the ground up where AI is doing the work and humans are designing and overseeing the process."
Actionable Insights
1. Recognize that AI-first requires a fundamental mindset shift, not incremental tweaking: Rob spent the first two years of AI's emergence running show-and-tell sessions and encouraging experimentation. The breakthrough came after a hands-on AI course where he built an actual business concept and website using AI in two hours. For your team: stop thinking about "how do we do our current work with AI?" Start asking "what workflows would we build from scratch if AI existed?" This distinction unlocks 10x impact rather than 10% efficiency gains. [02:26]
2. Hire or reallocate for AI oversight, not AI replacement: Rob's commitment on day one was clear: no layoffs. What's necessary instead is retraining people to move from "doing work" to "managing AI that does work." WorkBetterNow's IT department showed exactly how this scales: they built an AI chatbot for first-level IT support, which freed the team to focus on automation and integrations—higher-value work. [04:53]
4. Document and share your AI journey so your clients level up too: Rob is doing something rarely seen: instead of hoarding competitive advantage, WorkBetterNow is documenting every AI workflow transformation and publishing it for clients and the broader market. They're also retooling their WBN Academy to include AI enablement. [09:44]
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Author and Co-Founder
Rob Levin is the Co-Founder of Work Better Now and the author of the bestselling The New Talent Playbook.
He helps small and midsize businesses build scalable teams by modernizing how they hire, retain, and lead talent, including through remote recruiting.