The AI problem inside most PE-backed and ambitious service businesses is not lack of interest.

It is too much choice.

Too many tools.
Too many internal experiments.
Too many people saying "we should probably be doing something with AI."

For founders and Management teams, that makes it easier to delay than to choose. The problem with too much choice is that it pushes teams into tool decisions before they have made a value decision.

I spoke recently to a leader at a PE-backed businesses, and they put it plainly. The conversation is moving on from: "Can we make the team 1.2x more efficient?" to: "Can this change the quality and value of the business?"

I've put that question to three founders in the last fortnight, and each time it reframed what they were actually trying to buy.

Because "we saved the team 200 hours" is only half an argument. The real question is what those 200 hours became. If the honest answer is "more meetings", nothing much has been created. The cost base is slightly more efficient and the business is worth roughly the same.

That's why Set-Piece we use an AI Value Creation Audit rather than a tool-first AI roadmap. It asks:

Where does manual work leak margin every week?
Where is quality still dependent on a few brilliant people?
Where are senior people trapped in low-value workflows?
Where could a service become a repeatable system or asset?

The answer to too much choice is not another tool. It is a better question. Not "which AI tools should we use?" But "where is value trapped in the business, and could AI help unlock it?"

George Wiscombe and I are opening up five AI Value Creation Audits in June for PE-backed and ambitious service led businesses.

If you want a clearer view on where AI could improve margin, quality, scalability or enterprise value in your business, send me a DM or comment below.