The Shift to Being "AI-First"

⏱️ Your Morning Brief (TL;DR)

Welcome back!

AI-first isn’t hype, it’s the new baseline.

AI-native firms like Mercor and Bolt are hitting $40M+ in annual revenue with 30 people or less, and they’re doing it less than 2 years.

BCG’s latest Executive Perspective distills lessons from 2,000 enterprise transformations and how AI-First companies will win.

The message? Incumbents that move fast and scale smart will own the future.

In today’s brief

• 5 traits every established company must adopt to be AI-first

• 4 trends rewriting cost and growth for AI-first incumbents

• 7 hand-picked read to keep you ahad

Let’s dive in 🤖

 💡 This Week’s Deep Dive

The rise and rapid adoption of AI is transforming how businesses operate, lowering barriers to entry, and enabling smaller, focused teams to scale quickly.

💡 What “AI-first” looks like

Five traits separate incumbents merely experimenting with AI from those fundamentally wired around it.

1. Wider Moat, Stronger Brand. Trust and proprietary data beat sheer scale. Your brand equity becomes the filter customers rely on to separate authentic insight from AI noise, while exclusive datasets continuously sharpen your models in ways competitors can’t copy-and-paste.

2. Reshaped P&L with Tech. AI-first companies are spending 12-14 % of revenue on technology, compared to 3-5% by traditional firms. Technology shifts from cost center to growth engine.

3. IT owns the rails; business units build the trains.
   Using enterprise-wide AI platforms and agents maintained by IT, business are given autonomy to own and deploy AI solutions with speed.

4. Agent-Led Ops. Create workflows where agents handle the repeatable 90 % and people step in for edge-case judgment.

5. Specialized, Scalable Talent. Organizations will be leaner, but specialized talent will command 1.5–2× pay for being AI natives. Teams will be built around product managers fluent in prompts, full-stack ML engineers, and domain experts who can translate strategy into agent logic.

🔄 Four Trends Driving AI-first Firms

GPTLDR Takeaways

Kick-start momentum with initiatives you can roll out in the short term without derailing existing priorities.

• Role-Model Usage. Leaders must visibily adopt AI tools to set culture.

• Map Workforce Impact. Upskill for judgment and AI collaboration, don’t over-index on headcount cuts.

• Prove, Then Scale. Pilot 2-3 high-value use cases, publish the data, replicate quickly.

• Fund the Winners. Plow savings into the next AI flywheel to keep momentum visible.

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Find your fuel

📚 Interesting Reads

• Microsoft: 2025 Responsible AI Transparency Report (Link)

• Exploring MCP, A2A and ACP (Link)

• Capgemini shares AI Transformation Blueprint (Link)

• Bain: AI Pods-as-a-Service (Link)

• Microsoft: Implementing an AI Center of Excellence (Link)

• Lovable: From $0-$10M in <60 days (Link)

• Productivity Gains Using AI (Link)

🤔AI Thoughts

GPTLDR’s take - The grace period is almost over. AI fluency will be as mandatory as a laptop. Upskill your team now or watch productivity (and relevance) evaporate.

P.S. We recommend starting with communities like Ben’s Bites, with simple tutorials using AI.

 ➜ Until Next Week

AI-first companies aren’t on the horizon—they’re already eating market share. Incumbents that pivot now will unlock margin, out-innovate disruptors, and secure durable advantage.

Stay curious,
The GPTLDR Team