Devin Karpes 🧠's Linkedin Analytics

Don’t start with tools. Start with goals. Most founders make the same mistake when building their AI strategy: They ask, “What should I automate first?” They hunt for tools. They chase trends. And chaos follows. No clear priorities Scattered actions Overwhelm at every turn If AI feels like a burden instead of a breakthrough, this is why. The real shortcut? Start with business goals first. When you align AI to your core strategy, something powerful happens: Complexity melts away Your next steps become obvious Action becomes fast (and stress-free) Here’s the 7-Day Shortcut to building your AI Playbook: ☑ Day 1-2: Clarify your #1 business goal for the next 90 days. ☑ Day 3-4: Identify bottlenecks slowing you down. ☑ Day 5: Map 1-2 areas where AI could drive faster results. ☑ Day 6: Select only essential tools to support that focus. ☑ Day 7: Create a simple, 3-step action plan. Notice what’s missing? → Endless research. Random automation. Wasted energy. Use AI to start with Strategy. Tools will follow. That’s how founders go from overwhelmed to unstoppable. Catchphrase close: "Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch." Want help building your AI Playbook? Comment 'Playbook' and let’s chat.

Hiring a Chief AI Officer won’t save you. Especially if you don’t even know what you want them to do. But hey, sure, toss “CAIO” into the org chart right next to your Head of Vibes and VP of Unclear Titles. Lately, I’ve seen founders rushing to hire for a role they don’t fully understand because someone on LinkedIn said, “You need a Chief AI Officer or you’ll be left behind.” Let me tell you about a founder I spoke to recently. Series B startup. Smart product. Great team. But suddenly they’re convinced they need a CAIO. Why? Because investors were asking, “What’s your AI strategy?” So they panicked. Started recruiting ex-FAANG engineers with “LLM” in their bio. Spent weeks in interviews. Finally, they called me. Here’s what I asked: “Cool. What’s the problem this CAIO is supposed to solve?” Crickets. They had no idea. No roadmap. No internal buy-in. Just the fear of falling behind. That’s the problem with chasing titles before clarity: You risk hiring someone expensive… to lead something undefined… using tools you don’t understand. You don’t need a Chief AI Officer. You need to think like one. That means: → Knowing what AI can (and can’t) do → Spotting where you're leaking time, money, or brain cells → Designing for scale, not for show → Saying “no thanks” to shiny tools with no strategy AI isn’t some wizard you hire to sprinkle magic dust on your ops. It’s a mindset shift. A leverage layer. A business advantage if you understand where to point it. And here’s what I’m seeing from the founders who are actually getting results with AI right now: They’re not hiring for strategy. They’re outsourcing strategic support so they can lead it themselves. Because real leverage doesn’t come from handing off responsibility. It comes from building the confidence to own the roadmap. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch. Feeling the pressure to “do something with AI” but not sure what that something is? Let’s fix that together. DM me “STRATEGY” and I’ll show you how to lead with clarity (not just add another title to your org chart).

Founders, stop stacking AI tools like Pokémon cards. You’re not catching them all — you’re catching a headache. Everyone thinks more AI tools = more success. Wrong. Dead wrong. Here’s what actually happens: → You burn cash on subscriptions. → Your team gets whiplash from new systems. → No one fully masters anything. This is the Magic Solution Fallacy in action: Thinking the next shiny AI tool will "transform" your business overnight. (It won’t.) Spoiler: AI is a process, not a silver bullet. Let’s get real: Founders don’t need more AI tools. They need 1 strategic partner — and guess what? You already have it: ChatGPT. When you learn to treat ChatGPT like your business co-founder (not a writing companion) → Strategy becomes sharper. → Decisions get faster. → Overwhelm vanishes. One tool, fully integrated into your strategy > 10 random tools duct-taped together. Always. → Nail the fundamentals before chasing shiny objects. → Master the tool you already have. → THEN add with intention (if you even need to). ☝️ Master this first. Then (and only then) start adding tools with a purpose. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch. Ready to ditch the overwhelm? DM me "GPT" Let's go!

In 12 months, AI will either be your biggest advantage (or your biggest regret) Most founders and CEOs don’t fail with AI because of lack of effort. They fail because of random effort. New tools. New ideas. New distractions. No clarity. No measurable wins. I built the AI Audit Action Plan to change that. It’s the same 5-step system I use to help business leaders: → Cut through AI noise → Focus on real business outcomes → Turn AI into a competitive advantage (not a chaotic distraction) Here’s what the plan walks you through: → Set crystal-clear AI goals → Audit your current AI usage → Create a simple AI vetting system → Run strategic 30-day pilots → Build a sustainable review habit It’s simple. It’s fast. It works. Want the full Action Plan? Drop "AUDIT" below and I’ll send it to you. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch.

BREAKING: Small businesses using AI the right way outperform competitors! (But you knew that) And they're just using simple tools like ChatGPT and Claude. The secret? They stopped seeing AI as complex technology. They saw it as a strategic partner, as easy to use as their smartphones. The myth keeping most small businesses away from AI: ❌ "We need a tech team" ❌ "It costs too much" ❌ "It's too complicated" ❌ "We're too small to benefit" The reality: ✅ ChatGPT and Claude require zero coding ✅ Basic plans start at $0-20/month ✅ You can start in minutes, not months ✅ The smaller you are, the faster you can implement Here's how I have helped founders use these tools: → Creating strategic quarterly goals and execution plans → Building custom business operating systems → Stress-testing business decisions to eliminate bias → Developing multiple scenarios for challenging situations → Finding blind spots in your strategic thinking The businesses winning with AI aren't asking: "How do we implement artificial intelligence?" They're asking: "What strategic challenges could AI help me solve today?" That's the mindset shift that changes everything. What's the one business decision you'd like an AI strategic partner to help with?

REVEALED: The AI strategy used by the top 1% of small businesses. (And it's not what you think.) While most struggle with complex AI implementation, elite small businesses focus on 3 strategic applications: → They use ChatGPT to eliminate decision fatigue → They leverage AI to systematize their operations  → They employ AI as their strategic "red team" According to recent McKinsey research, businesses using AI strategically see 40% higher productivity. Yet 76% of small businesses still use AI only for basic tasks. The difference? Top performers don't ask AI to DO the work. They ask AI to THINK about the work. Here's what this looks like in practice: → Instead of "Write me an email to a client" → They ask "What factors should I consider before making this decision?" → Instead of "Create a social post" → They ask "Analyze why my last 3 offerings didn't sell well" → Instead of "Summarize this article"  → They ask "Create a strategic framework for evaluating new opportunities" The elite 1% use a simple process: 1. Start with strategic questions, not tactical tasks 2. Build systems, not one-off solutions 3. Challenge their own thinking, not just automate it One founder told me: "AI became valuable when I stopped treating it like a tool and started treating it like a thinking partner." The best part? This approach works with free tools you already have. What strategic question will you ask AI today? Follow Devin Karpes for more actionable AI frameworks for Founders & CEOs

The Harsh Truth: AI Doesn’t Fix Chaos It Amplifies It Imagine you’re handed the world’s finest ingredients: Truffles. Kobe beef. Saffron. Everything you could possibly need to create a masterpiece. But there’s one problem: You don’t have a recipe. No plan. No method. No clear vision. You start throwing things into the pan at random. Moving fast. Hoping something extraordinary will happen. The result? An expensive disaster. This is exactly what most founders are doing with AI right now. They’re rushing to "cook" without knowing what they’re making, or why. AI promises speed, efficiency, and scale. But if you point it in the wrong direction, it doesn’t solve your problems, it magnifies them. Here’s the real playbook: → AI gives you premium “ingredients” — data, speed, automation. → Strategy is your recipe — it tells you what to create and why. → Without a clear recipe, AI just helps you burn through time and money faster. The good news? Strategic AI doesn’t slow you down. It accelerates clarity. It focuses your creativity. It aligns every action to meaningful business outcomes. When founders take the time to define the right goals first, AI becomes their unfair advantage. It stops being a shiny object, and starts being a growth engine. The businesses winning with AI right now aren’t the ones moving fastest. They’re the ones moving the fastest, the smartest. AI can create a 5-star business. But only if you plan the menu first. If you’re ready to stop guessing and start building a real AI strategy, let's connect. Devin Karpes 🧠

Last month, a founder came to me almost in tears. “Devin, I thought AI was supposed to make things easier. Instead, my team’s drowning.” He wasn’t alone. Like a lot of CEOs, he did what everyone says to do: → Bought the hottest AI tools → Signed up for "game-changing" automation platforms → Hired freelancers to "AI-ify" his ops The result? → Team confusion. → Slower decisions. → Zero measurable growth. All because he made the hidden AI mistake: He layered AI everywhere without asking: 👉 “Where’s my real bottleneck?” I showed him a different playbook: → Identify ONE choke point in the business → Use AI surgically to solve that specific problem → Ignore everything else In his case? → We found his customer onboarding was clunky and manual → We automated just that → His team got 20% of their week back → Revenue is on track to hit 24% increase this month. No flashy tools. No overwhelm. Just targeted AI, exactly where it mattered. The truth: ➔ AI isn’t a magic bullet. ➔ It’s a scalpel. ➔ Use it precisely, or don’t use it at all. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch. If this hit home, let’s connect. Helping leaders cut through AI overwhelm is what I do best. 🤝

You use Google every day (but still search poorly). Don't make the same mistakes with AI. Think about it: Google has been around for 26 years. You use it daily. But you still type vague questions, skim random answers, and waste time finding what you think is right. You never learned how to search properly. And it didn’t seem like a big deal, until now. Because you’re doing the exact same thing with AI. And this time, the cost is much bigger than wasted time, it’s missed opportunities, bad decisions, and broken systems. Here’s the real problem: → Using AI ≠ thinking strategically → Automation multiplies broken systems → Random tools slow you down The real advantage: You master how to harness AI, starting with ChatGPT. When you get this right: → Multiply your output → Accelerate your strategy → Gain a 24/7 nonbiased advisor Hidden AI skills you overlook: → Asking better questions → Thinking before you automate → Building SIMPLE systems that scale Founders who win with AI aren’t the ones stacking the most tools. They’re the ones who think the clearest. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch. Want to master AI thinking? I coach founders on building strategic AI systems, not just stacking tools. DM me ‘AI Clarity’ and let’s talk. Follow Devin Karpes to learn how to simplify AI.

AI isn’t the problem. Random adoption is. If your team is overwhelmed, you're not alone. They hear about new tools. They experiment. But very few stop to ask: → Is this actually working? Let’s fix that — in 5 minutes. Here’s a quick AI Audit you can run right now: 👇 Answer YES or NO: 1 - Are your teams using more than 3 AI tools regularly with clear outcomes? 2 - Can you clearly name one business process that’s faster today because of AI? 3 - Do you have a simple system to vet new AI tools — or is adoption random? 4 - Is AI saving your team time... or adding more noise to their day? 5 - Can you measure clear ROI from any AI implementation you've made? ✅ 4-5 YES = You’re leading AI like a pro. ⚠️ 2-3 YES = You’re dabbling without direction. 🚨 0-1 YES = AI is overwhelming your business. Not happy with your score? You’re not stuck. And you're definitely not alone. 👉 Comment "AUDIT" and I’ll send you a free action plan tailored to help you lead with clarity.

Most CEOs think buying a few AI tools means they have an AI strategy. (It doesn’t.) It’s like hiring a team before you even know what problem you’re solving. Right now, a lot of founders are stuck in what I call the "AI dartboard phase." They’re grabbing every shiny new tool they hear about, tossing them at their business, and hoping something sticks. What do they get instead? → Confused teams. → Wasted budgets. → Zero results. → And a growing sense that AI is more hype than help. But here’s the thing: AI isn’t the problem. The problem is thinking tools are the strategy. The leaders who win with AI do it differently. They slow down before they speed up. They start by asking one simple question: “What real business problem am I trying to solve?” When you do that, everything changes. → You stop chasing every new app. → You stop overwhelming your team. → You stop burning time and money. Instead, you pick the right solution for the right problem, and sometimes, it’s not even AI at all. Here’s what I tell every founder I work with: Tools aren’t strategy. Problems are. If AI is overwhelming you, you don’t need more tools, you need better questions. Start with problems. Let the tools come later. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch. If you want a simple framework to build a real AI strategy (without the chaos), drop “AI” in the comments and I’ll send it over.

Your AI rollout failed because you have no spine. Not because the tools suck. Not because the team is lazy. But because leadership rolls it out like it’s a suggestion in a group chat. “Hey team, just added this new AI tool. Totally optional. Poke around when you have time!” Time? Let me translate what your team hears: “Here’s another shiny object you’ll ignore until I forget I mentioned it.” AI adoption isn’t a tool problem. It’s a leadership problem. And here’s the thing: It’s not just about asking your team to use AI. It’s about giving them a reason to. If you haven’t mapped out: → What problem this tool is solving → Where it plugs into an existing workflow → Who owns it → And how success will be measured... ...then congratulations, you’ve just started a ghost project. You’ll talk about it once in Slack, and it’ll haunt your Notion forever. Here’s what actually works: Start with strategy. Lead from the top. Because when leadership isn’t using the tools, nobody else is either. When leadership can’t explain how this fits into the bigger picture… The team won’t care. Your people don’t need permission to experiment. They need clarity on: → What to use → Why it matters → What “done right” looks like → How it connects to business outcomes AI adoption isn’t a vibe. It’s a system. And yes, that system has to be pushed top-down. Not with micromanagement. With direction. With clear guardrails. Clear workflows. Clear outcomes. Being polite about AI isn’t leadership. It’s avoidance. This isn’t a tool rollout. It’s a culture shift. And it’s not about making your team “more efficient.” It’s about making your business more intelligent. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch. If you’re a founder tired of AI fluff and ready for clarity that actually scales. Follow Devin Karpes 🧠 for sharp strategy, zero overwhelm, and a lot less “explore when you have time.”

Your thinking sucks! Stop blaming the tools. And that’s why your AI experiments aren’t failing. Founders keep telling me: “Yeah we played with some tools but they didn’t really do much.” Let me guess: → No real use case → No one owned it → No process, no metrics → Just a Slack thread and good intentions AI didn’t fail you. You just gave it zero direction and expected a standing ovation. Here’s the fix: Stop asking “How can we use AI?” Start asking “Where are we bleeding time, money, or brainpower?” Find the leak. Then plug it with the right tool. I don’t start with prompts. I start with problems. → Is your ops team drowning in manual tasks? → Are client updates a game of telephone? → Is your team busy instead of effective? That’s where AI becomes leverage, not decoration. When it clicks: → Your team runs smoother → You get your time back → Execution doesn’t bottleneck at you Founders stop being tech firefighters, and start leading again. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch. DM me “STRATEGY” and let’s fix your AI chaos. Follow Devin Karpes 🧠 for more!

A founder DM’d me last week: “Do I need a prompt engineer?” I asked, “What are you trying to do?” He said: “Not sure. But I saw a post about how prompt engineering is the next must-have skill, so…” And there it is. The Prompt Engineer Panic has begun. Founders scrambling to hire people who can “talk to the model” …without knowing what they want the model to do. Here’s my hot take: Prompt Engineers are the new Life Coaches. → Mysterious titles → Questionable results → And a lot of “I’ll unlock your full potential” energy The internet is now full of prompt threads that look like spiritual rituals: “Use assertive tone, emotional intelligence, role-based authority, and end with a 7th-grade metaphor.” Meanwhile, the business? Still confused. Still slow. Still duct-taped together with Airtable and hope. Here’s the truth: Prompt engineering without strategy is just performance art. And yeah, refining prompts can be powerful. But if you don’t have: → A defined outcome → A clear workflow → A reason why this even matters… Then your clever syntax is just dressing up dysfunction. Founders don’t need to hire someone to “prompt better.” They need to think better about how AI fits into their business. Here’s what actually works: → Start with the bottleneck → Build a flow that solves it → Plug in AI where it amplifies → Then optimize the prompt in context The best prompts come from the best systems. And the best systems start with a clear business goal. (Not a $497 prompt template) You don’t need a guru. You need a strategy. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch. Tired of optimizing prompts and still getting mediocre results? Let’s build a strategy that actually moves the needle. Follow Devin Karpes 🧠 for more!

Most founders use ChatGPT like Google. But the smart ones? They use it like a rehearsal room. Last week, a founder I coach was about to pitch a major enterprise client. Big deal. High stakes. One shot. She came to me stressed, stuck on messaging. Instead of giving her a slide deck template, I had her do something different: We dropped the pitch into ChatGPT... and told it to act like the skeptical buyer. Every objection. Every hesitation. Every awkward pause. We rehearsed the whole thing. In real-time. With AI. What happened next? → She tightened her value prop → Anticipated 3 objections she hadn't thought of → Walked into that meeting 10x more confident She didn’t just "use ChatGPT." She trained with it. She practiced in it. She up-leveled through it. Here’s the shift: ChatGPT isn’t a search engine. It’s a simulation machine. Most founders type in questions like it’s Google. But elite founders? They use it to: → Roleplay a negotiation → Rehearse a tough team convo → Test multiple versions of their offer → Practice saying “no” to the wrong investor → Simulate how different buyers will react to pricing That’s not search. That’s strategy. That’s leverage. If you only use ChatGPT to get answers, you're leaving its real power untouched. Use it to think. To rehearse. To grow. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch.

Stop guessing what your customers want. Start stealing insights directly from your competitors' customers. Here’s my 5-step method to extract gold from public reviews (with prompts included): Step 1: Auto-collect reviews across platforms Prompt: Deep Research mode “Collect up to 100 English-language reviews for [Competitor Product/Service] from platforms like Amazon, Reddit, Google, and their official website. Include both praise and complaints. Organize into a platform-based table: Positive | Negative.” Why this matters: → Captures raw, unfiltered customer voice → Reveals praise + pain in one view → Forces GPT to mine multiple sources, not just one Step 2: Extract emotional pain points Prompt: “Analyze these reviews and identify 5 recurring customer pain points. Include real quotes and rate the emotional intensity (1-10).” Why this matters: → Emotional language = marketing gold → Filters out one-off rants → Prioritizes based on what customers feel most Step 3: Find the gaps no one’s solving Prompt: “Create a matrix showing unmet needs across all competitors. Highlight the most glaring market gaps.” Why this matters: → Exposes blind spots in the market → Compares multiple players → Spots real whitespace, not just noise Step 4: Validate before you build Prompt: “Generate 5 survey questions to test these unmet needs with my audience.” Why this matters: → Cheap way to de-risk ideas → Keeps research laser-focused → Helps you build what people actually want Step 5: Rank by ROI potential Prompt: “For each opportunity, estimate: revenue impact, dev complexity, time to market, and competitive advantage duration. Then rank them.” Why this matters: → Turns insights into action → Balances speed + strategy → Helps you make smart, fast moves Want help customizing this for your product or market? Drop what you're working on in the comments.

I just can’t stop! I asked ChatGPT this prompt 👇 "Create an action figure character based on my professional identity. Include a heroic name, 3 special powers related to my expertise, a back story, a catchphrase, and package design details. Format it like a collectible toy description." Once the description is done have it create the image (Using Chat GPT 4o) This is what it created for me: DEVIN KARPES: THE AI WHISPERER Origin story: → Once a founder drowning in the AI tsunami myself → Discovered how to transform AI complexity into business momentum → Now on a mission to ensure no entrepreneur faces that storm alone Complete with: 💡 CLARITY VISION "Simplifying complexity" 🧘‍♂️ ZEN MODE "Turning chaos into calm" 🧠 AI WHISPERER "Supercharging with ChatGPT" Catchphrase: "Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch." Signature move: "The Time Unlock" Giving founders back 10+ hours weekly and the mental clarity to scale. Try the prompt yourself - what would YOUR action figure look like? (Share your results in the comments!)

One of LinkedIn’s biggest creators just followed me and asked to connect. We’d never spoken. Never exchanged a comment. No tags. No DMs. And yet… He replied to my message with this: “Been seeing you for years now.” That line hit me. Because I don’t teach LinkedIn strategy. I don’t sell content courses. I use this platform to grow my AI consulting business. And this moment, this connection, is truly an honor Jasmin Alić. It proves something I tell my clients all the time: → People are watching, even when they don’t engage → Your content works in silence, long before it works in public → LinkedIn isn’t about going viral — it’s about being visible This wasn’t AI. This wasn’t algorithm hacking. This was a real human connection. And that’s what LinkedIn is actually about. → Strategy helps → Consistency compounds → But humanity converts So if you're posting and wondering if anyone even cares… They do. Just keep showing up. Happy Friday. And to whoever’s silently watching you, they might just surprise you soon.

Over the past two months, I’ve watched founders scramble. Every day, a new AI tool drops. Every day, another headline warns: "Adapt or die!" Most leaders panicked. They poured money, time, and attention into chasing every shiny AI object they could find. → Automate this. → Integrate that. → Build faster. → Move faster. → Spend faster. But that’s not how I work with my clients. When the AI noise hit its peak, I coached one founder to do something radical: → Slow down. → Tune out the hype. → Move with precision, not panic. Instead of asking, "What tools should we adopt?" We asked a better question: "What problems are actually worth solving right now?" Not every inefficiency deserves automation. Not every workflow needs a chatbot. Not every decision improves with an LLM. We built a simple filter: → If AI directly improves customer experience, we explore it. → If it drives measurable business outcomes, we prioritize it. → If it’s just "cool," we leave it alone. In a world obsessed with doing more, we chose to do less, intentionally. We ignored 99% of the noise. We made two strategic moves. That’s it. Twelve weeks later: Margins are up. Team energy is up. Customer satisfaction is up. Stress is down. Meanwhile, their competitors… the ones who tried to "AI everything" are now buried under complexity they can’t manage. → Bloated tech stacks. → Burnt-out teams. → Confused customers. Here’s the truth no one talks about: AI isn’t a race to see who can build faster. It’s a race to see who can build smarter. The leaders who win aren’t the ones trying 50 tools. They’re the ones who see clearly, move intentionally, and act strategically. Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch. If you're ready to build a quiet, unshakeable edge with AI (and actually sleep well at night) let's talk.

The $100,000 AI mistake founders keep making? They try to automate what’s broken. Sales isn't mapped Ops are manual Customer experience is inconsistent But instead of solving those problems, they throw AI on top and hope it magically fixes everything. Spoiler: it doesn't. In fact, AI makes it worse. Because AI is a force multiplier If your systems are messy, AI just scales the mess If your team is unclear, AI just creates faster confusion If your data is trash, AI just gives you garbage insights—faster, and with more confidence I’ve seen founders spend 6 figures on AI tools, consultants, and internal build-outs Only to end up right where they started, plus a layer of chaos they now can’t explain Not because the tech was bad But because the foundation was broken AI isn’t the starting line. It’s the acceleration lane But here’s the twist You can use AI to help build the strategy first That’s what I do with my clients We use AI to analyze workflows, surface bottlenecks, model scenarios, and design lean, scalable systems before we automate a single thing It’s AI as a strategist. Not just an assistant Before you implement AI, you need: ↳ Clear workflows ↳ Defined decision points ↳ A simple strategy aligned to growth Not another “ChatGPT SOP” Not another shiny automation nobody uses And definitely not a $2,000/month tool collecting dust The founders I work with slow down, get clarity, and use AI to think better, not just move faster Then we plug it in, and everything scales smoothly This is how you go from overwhelmed to in control This is how you make AI a multiplier of growth, not regret   Overwhelmed by AI? Not on my watch I’m Devin Karpes and I  help founders turn AI from a buzzword into a business advantage If you're scaling and don’t know where AI fits. Let’s talk!