Cities are now buying AI cooperatively — pooling resources to vet vendors, share risk, and only adopt what actually works.
That's smart. And small business owners deserve the same protection.
You bo
Cities are now buying AI cooperatively — pooling resources to vet vendors, share risk, and only adopt what actually works.
That's smart. And small business owners deserve the same protection.
You bought a tool. Your team ignored it. $200/month quietly disappeared. That's not you being tech-stupid — that's a vendor selling a solution before understanding your problem. It happens to the smartest operators I know.
Here's what cities figured out that most businesses haven't: procurement strategy matters more than the tool itself. Before they spend a dollar, they define the problem, agree on success metrics, and decide what "working" actually looks like. The tool comes last, not first.
That single shift changes everything. When you start with a specific, measurable problem — not "we need AI" — you stop buying hype and start solving things.
One thing you can do this week: write down the one business task that costs you the most time or money. One sentence. That's your AI brief. Every tool gets evaluated against that single problem only.
No ripping apart systems. No team overhaul. Just clarity before commitment.
What's one AI tool your team was supposed to use — but quietly abandoned?
