Humans Make You an AI Winner: Know Your MVPs
It seems like every week there's a new article about AI winners and AI losers. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the phrase. Success with AI isn't that black and white. But some organizations are clearly getting more value from AI than others, and the difference is rarely the technology.
It's the people.
At least at this point, AI is still in the tool stage. It generally falls into two categories: assistants and copilots that amplify human capability, and agents that automate work with varying degrees of autonomy.
Most companies have access to the same models and tools. So why are some seeing meaningful results while others are generating expensive demos?
Since it's baseball season, let's play ball.
Most teams have equipment, a field, fans, coaches, and a playbook. But that is not what determines the standings.
The players do.
The same is true with AI. Success depends on whether you have the right MVPs in the game.
In baseball, you need players who set the tone early and players who can close out the game. You need both. It is not impossible to win when you are behind most of the game, but those comeback stories are rare for a reason.
In AI, most companies already know they need their closer MVPs: the engineers, developers, data scientists, and AI gurus who can build, test, and deploy the tools.
But the game changers are often the starter MVPs: the people living the work every day.
They know where the process breaks.
They know where the bodies are buried.
They know why that "simple" workaround has existed for 15 years.
They know what customers actually care about.
They know what looks good on paper but will explode in real life.
They know which problems are worth solving and which ones are just noise.
AI does not know your customers, your history, your politics, your culture, or why something has always been done a certain way.
Your people do.
So who are your starter MVPs?
They are the people who:
Understand the work and can clearly articulate the pain points, friction, and opportunities for a better process.
Turn implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge by explaining the context, history, exceptions, and unwritten rules.
Identify meaningful AI opportunities, not just the biggest, loudest, or shiniest ones.
Exercise judgment about when to trust AI and when to trust a human.
Know which strategic assets should not be casually outsourced, including customer relationships, brand reputation, institutional knowledge, proprietary expertise, and organizational culture.
Understand the competitive landscape and know what actually differentiates the business.
Can quickly distinguish between good work and bad work.
Are willing to stop a deployment if the value is not there. Don't be afraid to fire your AI agent. Technology should earn its roster spot too.
Use AI themselves, so they are not just sitting in the stands yelling at the robots.
Have not outsourced their critical thinking to the technology.
Act as change champions and evangelists for process improvement.
These are the people who keep you from falling for trendslop: AI-generated recommendations based on buzzwords, fashionable ideas, and generic best practices instead of your actual context.
Because here's the thing: everyone may be using the same model, but not everyone is asking the right questions, solving the right problems, or putting the right people in the room.
So what do you do next?
Think like an owner and a coach. Know your roster.
Identify your MVPs for every position and every stage of the game, with special attention on your starters.
In most cases, these players are already on your team. Some are hidden gems. Some need a little more coaching. Some are ready to be brought up to the majors.
Make sure your coaches are paying attention to team dynamics, too. AI work often creates new relationships between business teams, technical teams, operations, leadership, and change champions. Those relationships matter.
And remember, this is a build-up season. Small wins now create the fundamentals for bigger wins later.
The companies that win with AI will not be the ones that simply buy the best tools.
They will be the ones that know their MVPs, put them in the game, and let people and AI play the right positions.
Let's play ball.
Go Brewers. ⚾
“Trendslop” was coined in the 2026 Harvard Business Review article, “Researchers Asked LLMs for Strategic Advice. They Got ‘Trendslop’ in Return,” to describe AI recommendations based on managerial buzzwords, fashionable ideas, and cultural tropes regardless of context.