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The 5 AI Shifts That Will Separate $10M-$100M Operators From Everyone Else in 2026
The Death of the Keyboard
Jean-Michel Van
December 28, 2025
Hello AI Builders,
Alright, last post of the year! What a great year full of opportunities - even though most business owners and leaders I talk to aren’t worried about AI.
They’re worried about time. About feeling like the business keeps getting heavier, even when revenue is growing. About adding more tools, more people, more meetings… and somehow moving slower.
That’s what this piece is about.
Not hype. Not “AI will change everything.”
But the five very real shifts already happening that are quietly separating the companies that scale cleanly from the ones that grind.
Inside, I break down:
Why voice is replacing typing (and why that matters for sales)
How chat is becoming the new operating system
Why building your own internal tools is suddenly possible
Where AI actually fits inside revenue and decision-making
And what delegation to AI really looks like in practice
If you’re running a $10M–$100M business, this will change how you think about leverage.
THE ISSUE
Why You Should Care (Right Now)
If you’re running a $10M–$100M business today, here’s the uncomfortable truth:
You’re probably bleeding time, margin, and momentum-not because your strategy is wrong, but because your operating system is outdated.
According to Harvard Business Review, executives lose 23 minutes of focus every time they switch tasks. The average leader does this over 1,000 times per day. That’s not a productivity issue-it’s a structural one.
And in 2026, that gap won’t close.
It will explode.
The top 1% of operators are already building unfair advantages using AI-not in theory, not in pilots, but embedded directly into sales, decision-making, and execution.
Below are the five AI shifts that will quietly decide who scales and who stalls-and more importantly, how to implement each one yourself.
🔊 Shift #1: The Death of the Keyboard (And Why Sales Leaders Win First)
Typing is slow. Talking isn’t.
Average typing speed: ~50 WPM
Average speaking speed: 150–170 WPM
That’s a 3x input advantage, instantly.
Why This Matters for Revenue
Sales leaders, founders, and execs don’t lose leverage because they lack ideas-they lose it because ideas get stuck in their heads.
Voice-first workflows allow you to:
Dictate follow-ups, deal notes, and strategy instantly
Feed AI richer context (tone, nuance, intent)
Eliminate “I’ll write this later” altogether
How to Implement (This Week)
Install a voice-to-text tool (desktop + mobile).
Use voice for:
CRM notes
Deal debriefs
Prompting AI for proposals, objections, or scripts
Commit to one full workday voice-only to build the habit.
Winners speak their thinking into systems.
Losers keep bottlenecking execution with their fingers.
💬 Shift #2: Chat Becomes Your Business OS
If your team lives in Slack, Gmail, Notion, your CRM, and five dashboards-you don’t have a stack.
You have fragmentation.
In 2026, high-performing operators will run their business from one chat interface.
Why This Matters for Execs
Every app switch is a tax on focus. Centralized chat interfaces eliminate:
Context switching
Duplicate work
Lost institutional knowledge
Sales teams especially benefit when:
CRM updates
Email drafts
Forecast reviews
Pipeline analysis
…all happen in one place.
How to Implement
Choose one AI chat interface as your “command center.”
Connect:
Email
Calendar
CRM
Docs
Identify one recurring workflow (weekly pipeline review is perfect).
Turn it into a reusable chat-based process.
The goal isn’t novelty-it’s operational compression.
🛠️ Shift #3: Vibe Coding = Executive Leverage
Here’s the quiet revolution no one’s telling CEOs:
You no longer need engineers to build internal tools.
You just need clarity.
Why This Matters for $10M–$100M Companies
Every mid-market business runs on:
Custom spreadsheets
Manual handoffs
“Temporary” processes that became permanent
AI-powered “vibe coding” lets you:
Replace clunky tools
Build internal dashboards
Automate handoffs between sales, ops, and finance
How to Implement (No Tech Team Required)
Write down a painful internal process.
Describe it in plain English to an AI builder. (eg. n8n)
Test → refine → deploy internally.
Kill one SaaS subscription you no longer need.
The new literacy isn’t code.
It’s articulation.
