The Cheapest AI Pilot Costs Nothing

When owners ask me what an AI pilot costs, they expect a number with a few zeros. Here's my answer: it can cost nothing.

A pilot isn't a purchase. It's a question with a deadline. Pick one task, pick one willing employee, give them two weeks and a free-tier tool, and agree in advance on what success looks like. "If this saves Rosa two hours a week on invoicing summaries, we keep going. If not, we stop."

That framing does two things. First, it caps your downside — the most you've spent is a few hours of one person's time. Second, it forces you to define success before you're dazzled by a demo. Vendors are very good at demos. Demos are not results.

At the end of two weeks, do the math out loud with your team: hours saved, errors caught, headaches removed. If the numbers work, then you talk about paid plans. If they don't, you learned something cheap.

Small businesses win by being careful with money, not by spending big on experiments. Let the pilot earn the budget.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.