The fastest way to waste money on AI
What is the fastest way to waste your money on AI? Automating a bad process.
That is the whole warning in this Fargo Walks clip. It is a cheap mistake to avoid and an expensive one to make.
A bad process automated is the same bad process, faster, with a subscription attached.
Faster is not fixed
You are not going to fix a bad process by making it faster.
If a process has four steps that exist because of a tool you no longer use, a handoff nobody questioned, and an approval that never changes the outcome, AI will run all of them beautifully. You will pay for the speed and keep the waste.
Cut first, then automate
1. Write the process as it actually runs
Not the version in the manual. The version that happens. Every step, every handoff, every wait.
2. Mark the steps that waste your time
Look at the steps in that process that are wasting your time. Duplicate entry. Approvals that never change anything. Reports nobody reads. Handoffs that exist because two people never talked.
3. Cut them
Remove the step, not the person. If a step cannot justify its existence in one sentence, it goes.
4. Then let AI handle the rest
What remains is the real work. That is what you hand to AI: the drafting, the sorting, the follow-up, the reporting that actually gets read.
5. Measure the time, not the tech
The question is not whether the automation runs. It is whether the process takes less of your time and produces the same or better result.
How this connects to the sent folder
The sent folder audit tells you what repeats. This is the filter you run before you automate any of it. Repeating work is a candidate. Repeating waste is a cut.
What this does not mean
It does not mean wait until every process is perfect. It means do the cheap step, the cut, before the expensive one, the build.
The decision
Before you automate anything, list the steps, cut the waste, and then hand AI the process that deserves to be faster.
Sources
- Jeff Fargo, Fargo Walks: The Fastest Way to Waste Money on AI in Your Business (recorded August 2026)
- Jeff Fargo, Fargo Factor Insight: Your Sent Folder Reveals What AI Should Automate (August 2026)
- Jeff Fargo, Fargo Factor Insight: Before You Deploy an AI System, Run a Pre-Mortem (August 2026)
Transcript
Verbatim from the Fargo Walks clip, as recorded.
What is the fastest way for you to waste your money on AI?? It's automating a bad process. Look at the steps in that process that are wasting your time. Cut them and then let AI handle the rest. You're not going to fix a bad process by making it faster. I'm Jeff Fargo, and I can help streamline and scale your business with AI. Go forth.
Jeff Fargo is the founder of Fargo Factor and host of Fargo Talks. Fargo Factor advises established businesses on AI Search Authority, AI Decision Systems, and selective AI-enabled implementation.
WHEN THE DECISION MATTERS
Cut the waste before you automate it.
Fargo Factor helps established businesses map a process as it actually runs, remove the steps that do not earn their place, and decide what AI should handle in what remains.
