Above The Noise

AI adoption doesn't automatically translate into business results. So where is AI actually delivering a return, and what should leaders consider before investing?

Tom Petro, a two-time CEO and author on AI governance, joins Rob Wonderling and Sana Ahuja to discuss how businesses can turn AI investment into measurable results. Drawing on research by 1867 Capital Partners examining 153 major companies that buy AI, Tom highlights four areas where AI can affect business performance: cost, capital efficiency, pricing, and risk. He shares examples from UPS, Costco, John Deere, and Travelers to show how companies are applying AI in practice.

The conversation also explores how to identify the right business problems before choosing AI tools, why individual productivity gains don't necessarily translate into company-wide returns, and how leaders should weigh the risks of building AI capabilities in-house versus relying on vendors. For mid-market businesses deciding where to invest, Tom offers a perspective on the opportunities available today and why some of the capabilities creating an advantage now could become industry table stakes within 18 months.

Above the Noise is produced by Arena Strategic AI for leaders of privately held and multi-generational businesses.

00:00 Intro

09:00 From Banker To AI Founder

11:05 Ask What Should Change, Not Where

13:00 The AI Readiness Assessment

18:34 AI Strategy Must Be Top-Down

20:12 Generative AI Hype Vs Real Value

24:18 Study Of S&P 500 AI Buyers

26:07 Capital Efficiency: Costco’s AI

28:30 New Revenue: John Deere’s AI

29:47 Lower Risk: Insurance Loss Ratios

32:33 AI Lets Small Firms Compete Big

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Your ERP could take years to replace. AI is changing by the month. On episode 4 of Above the Noise, Rob Wonderling, Aaron Cohen, and Upasna Ahuja take on the question sitting in that gap: does a mid-market business have to finish its tech modernization before it can start on AI?

Aaron makes the cost of delay concrete, including why a system that's been running a year beats the one you'd start today. Upasna takes apart the technical objection, which is usually scoped far wider than the work requires. A pilot needs the data that one business problem touches, with guardrails around that use case, and governance that matures alongside it instead of blocking the start.

Rob brings in a conversation with a construction CIO whose C-suite wanted the dashboard to beat all dashboards, and Aaron counters with estimating, where a full day of an estimator's work runs in 20 to 30 minutes on a well-trained system. The episode ends on Upasna's distinction between an employee getting faster at a task and a business process actually changing.

Above the Noise is produced by Arena Strategic AI for leaders of privately held and multi-generational businesses.

00:00 Intro

02:00 Months, Not Years or Millions

03:30 Start With the Problem

06:00 Build a Small Business Case

07:00 Start Small, Then Scale

08:30 Estimating: Days to 30 Minutes

10:00 Data Governance First

11:00 Your First 30 Days

16:30 Calculator vs. Slide Rule

19:00 The 90/10 Problem

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Executive AI strategy sounds different coming from someone who ran a transformation before any of these tools existed, and Bill Hankowsky spent a decade moving Liberty Property Trust out of office buildings and into warehouses.

When he took over, 70% of the revenue came from office buildings and there was no strategy behind it, so he spent a year on the analysis and it told him to get out of office entirely. Over the next decade Liberty sold $5 billion of real estate, built $6 billion more, cut headcount from 750 to 350 and tripled in value, while office REITs that stayed where they were lost 80% of theirs.

Rob Wonderling and Aaron Cohen asked what AI would have changed. He says the year they spent on strategy could have been a lot shorter, and the market calls sharper. On culture, he makes the point that AI doesn't create it, and that the ultimate creativity is still in the human mind.

Above the Noise is produced by Arena Strategic AI for leaders of privately held and multi-generational businesses.

00:00 Intro

06:05 CEO Succession After Sudden Death

06:33 Starting Portfolio: Suburban Office Real Estate

08:16 10-Year Real Estate Strategy Review

09:32 Office Demand Decline Pre-Pandemic

11:07 Amazon Effect on Industrial Real Estate

12:40 Pivot to Warehouse Real Estate

14:11 REIT Shift: 95% Industrial, 5% Office

15:05 AI in Real Estate Decisions

17:33 Tripling Real Estate Company Value

21:20 Office vs. Warehouse CapEx

22:15 Real Estate Growth: Adapt or Stall

24:48 Office Real Estate Downturn & Layoffs

27:20 Data Centers: New Real Estate Asset

32:10 AI and Future of Office Space

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Executives running manufacturing, construction and food processing companies keep hearing that AI is coming for the workforce. The cuts so far have landed somewhere else, mostly at the big tech and financial services firms making headlines, and the workforce problem in traditional industries runs the other direction.

On this episode of Above the Noise, Rob Wonderling, Aaron Cohen and Upasna Ahuja get into what actually changes inside a job when AI shows up, why 95% of AI pilots return nothing measurable, and how to decide which work is worth moving first. The aging trades workforce is the constraint no model solves.

Above the Noise is produced by Arena Strategic AI for leaders of privately held and multi-generational businesses.

00:00 Intro

00:33 Debunking the myth: this year's actual layoff numbers

01:05 Why "big tech" headlines miss where most people actually work

01:52 Welcoming listeners to the episode

02:37 What AI actually replaces: manual, rule-based, repetitive work

03:15 The sectors seeing real cuts: tech, banking, finance, insurance

03:42 AI as a fix for an aging workforce, not a job killer

05:04 The real shift so far: tasks change, jobs rarely disappear

07:09 The stat: 25% of construction workers are over 55, and AI can't lay pipe

08:02 Bridges inspected by thousands of data points instead of two eyeballs

10:26 The "digital buddy" concept for jobsite decisions

11:51 A steel-mill father's fear of automation, decades ago

12:51 The real risk isn't AI, it's a haphazard rollout

13:55 The MIT stat: 95% of AI pilots show no financial return

15:07 Jobs vs. tasks: why AI rarely replaces the whole job

18:47 It's not about knowing ChatGPT, it's judgment and expertise

19:21 Why CFO, HR, and IT all need to be in the room

20:40 The real line: "you'll be replaced by someone who uses AI"

23:26 Survey says: leadership and change management top the training list

25:50 Crystal ball: adoption speed depends on how repetitive the task is

27:03 The advice: start small, target the most repetitive tasks first

28:27 Closing analogy: embrace it, or get left behind

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Most executives in traditional industries say the same thing when AI comes up: not yet. The reasons have little to do with the technology. Nobody knows which platform survives, nobody wants to hand over control of company data, and everyone remembers a software integration that ran for years and cost seven figures.

In this episode of Above the Noise, Rob Wonderling, Aaron Cohen, and Upasna Ahuja take that objection apart. They make the case for scoping AI like a hire, starting with discovery before any purchase, and choosing one business problem worth understanding first. If you’ve been waiting for the picture to clear before you commit budget, this is the episode that tells you what to do in the meantime, and why the companies still waiting a year from now will be the ones explaining themselves.

Ready to figure out where AI fits in your business? Start here: arenastrategic.ai

Above the Noise is produced by Arena Strategic AI for leaders of privately held and multi-generational businesses.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Intro

01:39 The real problem: confusion, fear, and a lack of predictability

02:23 The stat that proves 75% of AI adoption is just for show

03:55 The Betamax vs. VHS fear that's stopping leaders from picking a platform

05:30 Stop calling it software: why AI should be treated like a new employee

07:07 The first step before buying any AI tool: discovery, not shopping

09:15 Why AI adoption looks totally different by industry and generation

10:45 Is waiting on AI actually the safe move? The real risk explained

11:57 The competitors you can't see yet

13:20 Why zero legacy costs give AI-first companies a brutal advantage

14:55 The early signal AI is already changing the labor-to-output equation

16:25 The 90-day plan: how to structure your first real AI pilot

18:32 Where AI adoption will be by the end of this year

21:11 The 3 final takeaways: don't wait, start small, watch for competitors who don't exist yet

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Stop guessing which AI tools to buy. Start making profitable business decisions.

Welcome to Above the Noise. The show for executives at traditional,

multi-generational companies. We cut through the Silicon Valley noise to focus on

high-stakes leadership, operational strategy, and real ROI.

Hosted by Aaron Cohen and Rob Wonderling, we provide the executive playbooks

you need to evaluate, deploy, and scale technology that actually moves the needle.

New episodes every other week. Subscribe to gain your competitive

advantage and secure the future of your business.

Learn more about Arena Strategic AI

Connect with Aaron Cohen on LinkedIn

Connect with Rob Wonderling on LinkedIn

Connect with Upasna Ahuja on LinkedIn