Hi Reader,

I've studied 200+ companies going through AI transformation. One thing is very clear: you need one AI builder for every 20 people.

Most companies have zero.

Which is why the licenses sit there like unused gym equipment.

What an AI builder actually is

A posture before it's ever a job title.

They reach for AI first— on the task they know how to do, and the one they don't.

They've moved past the chat box. They work in Cowork, Claude Code, Codex, IDEs, scripts, etc.

They build things the rest of the team actually uses. Agents. Skills. Scripts. Workflows.

They teach as they go. They field the questions. A de facto AI help desk.

Most people know who this is at their company. Or they know that it's nobody.
​
A lot of you reading this are that somebody by default (you're here reading, and learning. That's a signal).

Let me paint the pictures:

What zero builders looks like

AI is a pile of licenses nobody fully uses.

Everyone has "tried ChatGPT," mostly like a search engine. Nothing changed.

The tools sit there like gym equipment. Bought because of who we wanted to be. Left untouched because of real life.

What 1-in-20 looks like

One AI builder per twenty turns small wins into company-wide processes.

Builders make the other nineteen faster.

That's the point. Let AI take your job— the parts of it that were never the point.

The ROI on the role starts slow, but it's measured in AI maturity across the firm. I've seen a 10% capacity increase in six months at firms that resourced this role correctly.

(think about what that could do for your company)

What this means for Professional Service and AEC firms

If you lead 20+ people at an engineering or construction firm and can't name your AI builder, you likely don't have an AI strategy that's going to work.

It's the pattern across 200+ AI transformations I've coded into Pacemark (the Dan Cumberland Labs AI maturity model). Built from 97 firsthand operator interviews, cross-referenced with MIT CISR, PwC, BCG × Harvard × MIT, Bluebeam, and Unanet.

Firms moving up the curve have a builder. Firms stuck don't.

What it takes is a person. Or persons. Titles. Resources. Platforms. Time.

Find them. Resource them. Give them the hours.

If your team is smaller than 20 and you're reading this— that person is probably you.

What advisory actually looks like

I work with firms on exactly this— finding the builders inside your team, leveling them up, and building the AI strategy around them.

I sit alongside the builders, coaching them, and transforming the ord.

One hour a week.
Your actual workflows.
Your proposals.
Your RFPs.
Your project files.

If you lead an AEC firm and the AI conversation has gone quiet— let's talk.​

Keep building,

-Dan

P.S. Last week I wrote that the AI tools work fine— it's the ideas that run out. The builder is the one with the ideas. Same problem, different frame.​

P.P.S. Today on LinkedIn I'm posting Part 2— the five habits that turn somebody on your team into the AI builder. The posture is the hardest part. The tools are easy.