The Two-Hour Rule for AI Experiments

Here's a simple rule that keeps AI experiments from eating your week: no experiment gets more than two hours before it has to show something.

Two hours is enough to learn whether a tool fits your task. It's enough to run a real example through it, show the output to the person who'd use it daily, and ask: does this help? It's not enough to get lost in settings menus, watch twelve tutorial videos, or rebuild your whole workflow around a maybe.

If two hours produces something useful, the experiment earned more time. Give it two weeks of real use and measure the result. If two hours produces nothing but confusion, stop. That's not failure — that's a cheap answer to an expensive question.

I like rules like this because they replace vibes with decisions. Small businesses don't have innovation labs or R&D budgets. What you have is judgment and limited time, and a two-hour cap protects both.

Set a timer. Run the experiment. Trust what the two hours tell you.

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