AI vs Reality
Over the last few weeks, I've been talking to fractional CFOs across the country. I run Rima, an applied AI company focused on helping small businesses increase their equity value, which ultimately builds wealth in the communities they serve. My goal was to learn from the professionals who handle financial stewardship for these businesses, to understand why so many struggle with cash flow and where the real opportunities lie.
One question I've been asking everyone is; what AI tools do you use today in your work, and how valuable do you think AI is in that regard? The responses shocked me across every age group. Almost everyone confirmed they've heard about AI, but they still don't understand what AI actually is or what it can do for them. Many of these fractional CFOs told me they trust Excel more than AI and wonder whether AI can really be trusted with forward looking financial analysis and decisions.
This is fascinating because while many technologists believe AI is already better than any single accountant at certain tasks, the people on the front lines of Main Street are saying "not so fast." We forget it's only been two years since this technology crashed onto the scene, yet we expect every boardroom, Main Street business owner, school district, and hospital to fully understand it and start deploying it immediately.
That disconnect I'm seeing isn't just about one conversation; it reveals a messy tension between AI's grand promises and operational reality. Things are moving incredibly fast, with everyone scrambling to build the next shiny AI tool that will supposedly transform business forever. The only problem is that many businesses aren't buying the hype - yet.
It's not that folks are opposed to AI, they just don't know what it can actually do. To most people, AI still looks like nothing more than a sophisticated chat bot with a search engine that can spit out information on demand. They haven't seen evidence that it's anything beyond that.
The people I talk to are wrestling with three basic questions: I don't understand what AI is, what it can actually do for me, and if I can trust it with important work? Part of this is simply a gap in awareness. One fractional CFO I spoke with was amazed when he recently found out that ChatGPT could take an Excel file, understand what was in it, run analysis, and answer basic questions about the data. Once he discovered that one use case, he never looked back.
This series isn't for AI optimists or skeptics - it's for pragmatists. Those on the front lines building the future on mainstreet who are curious about AI but genuinely don't understand it or know what it can really do. People who want to separate fact from fiction and make sense of the gap between AI claims and what actually works in the real world.
Every week, we'll take one specific AI claim or capability and have a grounded, educational discussion about its merits and practical value.