AI
Solution Builders, Your Technology Partner
RISE · E is for Evolving

Your AI journey, by the numbers.

A data driven walk from the first prompt to a business that runs faster, safer, and smarter, and a team doing things it never did before. Scroll, and watch the numbers come to life.

Start the journey ↓Or skip ahead and book an AI readiness review →
01
Chapter 01 · Where you are

AI is already in the building.

Whether you planned it or not. Nine in ten organizations use AI somewhere, small businesses are adopting faster than anyone, and more than half of your employees are probably using tools nobody approved.

0%
organizations use AI regularly in at least one business function
McKinsey State of AI, 2026
0%
of small businesses used generative AI in 2025, up from 23% in 2023
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 2025
0%
of U.S. employees use AI tools their employer never approved
Cybernews, 2025
0%
of U.S. workers now use AI at work, nearly double two years ago
Gallup, 2025
Adoption, year over year
The fastest climb in business technology history.
0%25%50%75%100%2023202420252026 55%78%88%90%23%40%58% All organizations (McKinsey, Stanford) Small businesses using gen AI (U.S. Chamber)
02
Chapter 02 · The promise

What happens when it works.

Not opinions. Controlled studies and surveys of thousands of small and midsize businesses. The gains are measurable, and they show up in weeks, not years.

0%
of SMBs using AI say it boosts revenue
0%
see improved margins
0%
say AI helps them scale operations
0%
say AI improved their personal productivity
Salesforce SMB Trends 2025 · McKinsey State of AI 2026
Measured productivity gains
Controlled studies, real teams.
Marketing teams, task throughput (Stanford, 2026)
up to 72%
Developers, coding task speed (GitHub, 95 person study)
55% faster
New support agents, issues resolved (NBER, 5,179 agents)
+34%
Support and dev teams, typical range (Stanford, 2026)
14% to 26%
Try it with your own team
Hours back, every year.

The average worker using generative AI saves 2.2 hours a week (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2025). Slide to your headcount.

25
2,860
hours returned to your business per year
357
working days
1.4
full time equivalents
$100K
at $35 per hour
03
Chapter 03 · The fork in the road

Managed, or unmanaged.

Same tools, two very different outcomes. The difference is not the technology. It is whether anyone is governing it, securing it, and measuring it.

+
Managed AI
The gains.
0%
of AI using small businesses reported higher sales, 84% higher profits, 82% grew headcount
0%
of AI users spend more time on high value work, 58% produce work they could not a year ago
0%
of organizations report a positive EBIT contribution from AI
0x
year over year growth in active AI agents inside Microsoft 365
!
Unmanaged AI
The costs.
$0K
added to the average cost of a breach when shadow AI use is high
0%
of organizations with an AI related breach lacked proper AI access controls
0%
of breached organizations have no AI governance policy, or are still writing one
0%
of enterprise gen AI pilots show no measurable profit impact
U.S. Chamber 2025 · Microsoft Work Trend Index 2026 · McKinsey 2026 · IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025 · MIT NANDA 2025
04
Chapter 04 · The path

Four steps, in order.

Select, govern, implement, manage. This is the Managed AI Blueprint we run with every client. Skip a step and you land in the 95%. Follow them and AI becomes a system your business can count on.

01
Step 01 · Select

Pick the right AI for the job.

Start with Copilot for everything that lives in Microsoft 365, because it is grounded in your data and your team is already there. Add a specialist tool only where the job calls for it.

  • Map the top 10 tasks that eat your team’s week
  • Match each task to the tool that does it best
  • Business grade licenses only, never free public tools
67%
success rate for vendor bought AI tools, about three times the rate of internal builds
MIT NANDA, 2025
02
Step 02 · Govern

Guardrails before the first prompt.

A one page AI policy, identity based access to every tool, and a shadow AI audit remove most of the risk on day one. Governance is what keeps customer data out of a public chatbot.

  • Write the policy: what is allowed, what never leaves the building
  • Turn on access controls and data loss prevention
  • Bring the AI already in use under the tent
97%
of organizations with an AI breach had no proper AI access controls
IBM, 2025
03
Step 03 · Implement

Roll it out the right way.

A license is not an implementation. Tenant readiness, clean data, prompt workshops by role, and a champion in every department turn a license into a habit.

  • Copilot readiness: tenant, permissions, data hygiene
  • Pilot with 10 to 20 people, measure, then expand
  • Automate one real workflow end to end with an agent
2.2 hrs
saved per week by the average worker using generative AI
St. Louis Fed, 2025
04
Step 04 · Manage

Measure it, tune it, prove the return.

Monthly metrics on hours saved and work shipped, 24/7 AI powered security monitoring, and a quarterly roadmap keep the gains compounding instead of fading.

  • Track hours saved, work shipped, dollars returned
  • Shadow AI discovery and security monitoring, always on
  • Retire what is not working, scale what is
67%
of the difference in AI impact is explained by organizational factors, not individual talent
Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2026
05
Chapter 05 · The transformation

A Tuesday, before and after.

This is what empowered staff looks like. Same people, same jobs, with the busywork handed to AI and the thinking handed back to them.

Morning inbox triage
45 min
10 min
Writing a client proposal
60 min
20 min
Meeting notes and follow ups
30 min
5 min
Pulling a report from the data
50 min
12 min
Researching a prospect
40 min
8 min
Drafting the SOP nobody wrote
55 min
15 min
BeforeWith managed AIIllustrative times, typical of client rollouts
0%
of AI users say it lets them spend more time on high value work
Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2026
0%
say they now produce work they could not have a year ago
Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2026
+0%
improvement for new support agents, the biggest lift goes to the newest people
NBER, 5,179 agents
90
Chapter 06 · Your first 90 days

From first prompt to measured return.

Here is how the journey runs when Solution Builders runs it with you. Enterprise grade security, small business pace, and numbers at the end you can show your board.

Days 1 to 30
Select and govern.
Discovery, task mapping, AI use policy, access controls, shadow AI audit, tool selection.
Days 31 to 60
Implement.
Copilot readiness, pilot group, prompt workshops by role, first automated workflow live.
Days 61 to 90
Manage and scale.
Metrics dashboard, AI powered security monitoring, department rollout, roadmap review.
Ready to evolve?

Thirty minutes, no pressure. We map where AI fits in your business, what to govern first, and what your 90 days would look like.

Book my AI readiness review →
Or explore AI consulting at www.solutionbuilders.com