Define the metric before the tool
This week's play isn't technological, it's about judgement. And I'm stealing it from Huang himself, even if he doesn't put it this way: if you can't measure the milestone, it doesn't exist.
Apply it to your business. Before you drop in an AI agent, an automated flow or the model of the month, answer three questions: which specific metric do I want to move, in what timeframe, and how will I know it was the AI and not something else?
If you can't answer all three, you aren't implementing AI. You're doing theatre for LinkedIn.
I see it every week: founders boasting about "having AI in the flow" and, when you ask what they've saved or what they've gained, uncomfortable silence. This week's Telefónica-Meliá alliance is exactly that: 250 hotels, AI, cloud, cybersecurity. Sounds good. The real question is which specific KPI of efficiency per employee or guest NPS they'll commit to moving. That's where you see whether it's strategy or a press release.
My framework for this week: one sheet, three columns. Tool I want to try. Metric that should move. Verdict date. If the metric hasn't moved in 30 days, it's out. No drama.
What I learned
My lesson this week is uncomfortable to admit: it's easier to try ten AI tools than to define one metric properly.
Trying is dopamine. Measuring is work. And deep down, when you jump from tool to tool with no metric, what you're doing is procrastinating dressed up as innovation.
My rule, and I apply it to what I build: if I can't write in one sentence what should happen when I put this AI into the flow, then I don't have it clear. And if I don't have it clear, the model isn't going to solve it for me.
AI amplifies what you already know how to do. If your process has no metric, AI will only make you fail faster.
On the radar
- Jensen Huang says Nvidia has already reached AGI for many tasks, but questions the value of the milestone without a verifiable metric. The most important CEO in AI is telling you the headlines are worth nothing. Listen to him.
- Telefónica partners with Meliá as technology provider for 250 hotels across AI, cloud and cybersecurity. The big players no longer buy AI, they buy integrators. If you're a solopreneur, there's plenty of vertical room there.
- CaixaBank enters the global top 10 in investment banking, alongside Santander and BBVA. Three Spanish banks at the top. A reminder that the country brand does move deals when there's execution behind it.
- GFT Technologies grows with 462 million in revenue and adjusted EBIT of 32.6 million in the first half. Tech consultancies growing with healthy margins: the signal is that companies are paying to implement, not to be advised.
The actionable advice
Take the last three experiments you ran with AI in your business (new tools, automations, prompts, agents). Next to each one, write which specific metric should have moved and whether it did. If you can't answer for any of the three, you have a judgement problem, not a technology problem. And that's the one to fix this week, not whichever model ships next.
Behind VIVIO
In influencer marketing exactly the same thing happens as with AI: everyone talks about campaigns, content and collaborations, and very few dare to define the real metric before signing.
My product rule for VIVIO is this: a serious influencer marketing platform has to force the user to define what they're going to measure before launching. Not after. Not halfway through. Before.
Because if you start the campaign without a clear metric, any result will look good or bad depending on Thursday's mood. And that's exactly where the whole sector loses credibility against classic performance marketing.
My bet: the next wave in influencer marketing won't be won by whoever has the biggest creator catalogue, it'll be won by whoever best connects each activation to a verifiable metric the CMO actually cares about.
This is a version of what I send every week, unfiltered, in my newsletter "Eso no fue suerte". If you want the rest, subscribe for free.