I almost gave up on building an AI culture until I changed how I looked at things. In this post, I share the simple shift that helped our team go from struggling to getting things done much better.
The Reality Nobody Talks About
A lot of the advice on AI culture rests on assumptions that made sense five years ago. The world has moved on.
The first thing to understand is that customer feedback is the only metric that matters. I've seen this play out across dozens of companies. The pattern is unmistakable.
Many teams spend months on the wrong path before realizing that your team matters more than your technology. Once they make the switch, everything changes.
What I've Learned From 68 Companies
A few patterns in AI culture come up again and again.
The founders who handle AI culture well understand that simplicity beats complexity every time.
The AI Angle
Any discussion of AI culture in 2026 has to include AI. As someone who's invested in Anthropic, OpenAI, Scale AI, and Hugging Face, I have a front-row seat to how AI is transforming this space.
The short version: AI makes good practitioners better and bad practitioners worse. It's an amplifier, not a replacement.
Some teams use AI to get far more out of AI culture. Others spend heavily on AI that solves the wrong problem. The difference comes down to understanding what you're actually trying to achieve.
This connects to broader themes around AI performance reviews, async communication AI, hybrid work AI that I've been thinking about a lot lately.
The Bottom Line
None of this is rocket science. But it does require intentionality, consistency, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
If you take one thing from this article, let it be this: start now, start small, and iterate. The founders who win at AI culture aren't the ones with the best strategy on paper. They're the ones who execute, learn, and adapt faster than everyone else.
Companies that take AI culture seriously tend to pull ahead of the ones that don't.
If you're working on something interesting in this space, I'd love to hear about it. Drop me a line.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:Can these results be replicated?
The specific numbers will vary, but the underlying patterns and principles are transferable. The key is understanding the context behind the results, not just copying the tactics. Every company has unique constraints that shape what works.
Q:What would you do differently looking back?
I'd move faster on the things that were working and cut the things that weren't sooner. Most founders, myself included, hold onto failing strategies too long because of sunk cost. Speed of learning is everything.
Q:What was the biggest challenge in this case?
Almost always, the biggest challenge is people and alignment, not technology or strategy. Getting the right team focused on the right problem is harder than any technical challenge I've encountered.
Q:How long did it take to see results?
Most meaningful business results take 3-6 months to materialize. Anyone promising overnight success is selling something. The companies in my portfolio that grew fastest were the ones that stayed patient and consistent.