Playbook AI Partners
Welcome to Playbook AI Partners Podcast—the show that turns AI from overwhelming into actionable.
Your host Sandy Kibling, is the Chief Playmaker, helping business owners and teams stop chasing shiny tools and start using AI in a way that actually moves the numbers—saving time, reducing busywork, and driving growth.
Each episode features industry experts and real-world tactics providing clear “do-this-next” plays,” simple AI workflows, and practical guardrails so you can use AI safely, execute with confidence, and get results.
Let’s run the play.
Playbook AI Partners
Episode 21: AI Isn’t a Shortcut: What Businesses Need to Get Right First
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Businesses are under pressure to adopt AI—but simply purchasing a tool or telling employees to “start using AI” does not create meaningful results.
In this episode, Sandy Kibling talks with Ryan Drumheller, fractional CIO and founder of Stellarhorn Group, about the disconnect that often exists between technology teams and business leaders—and why AI can magnify those communication gaps and operational problems.
Ryan explains why businesses may need to take a step back before moving forward with AI. The conversation explores how to identify realistic quick wins, establish governance and security practices, provide role-specific training, and keep humans responsible for AI-assisted work.
You’ll also hear why chasing every new platform can create vendor risk—and how businesses can make thoughtful AI decisions based on their goals instead of the latest hype.
3 Key Takeaways
- AI magnifies operational weaknesses. If a business has unclear processes, communication gaps, or broken workflows, adding AI may make those problems more visible rather than solve them.
- Successful adoption requires more than a tool. Businesses need a clear plan, governance, security, practical training, feedback loops, and someone responsible for supporting employees.
- Choose tools based on business needs—not online excitement. Evaluate what each platform does well, consider costs and risks, and avoid becoming unnecessarily dependent on one vendor.
Resources:
In your own specific uh company, find those quick wins, find the long-term uh you know situations that you want to get to and identify the different roles that you have in your business and give them specific advice. I see a lot of, hey, there's a mandate that we need to use AI. So start using AI. And it's like that's that's not gonna give you the return on value there.
SPEAKER_03What would you do with five, ten, or even fifteen extra hours each week? Maybe spend time growing your business, finally finishing that project, or maybe just closing the laptop before dinner for once. At private AI partners, we believe that AI should give you time back, not give you one more complicated thing to figure out. That's why we created the AI Solution Locker, a growing collection of practical, five-sized solutions designed to help you solve real problems quickly. In 20 minutes or less, you heard right, 20 minutes or less, you can learn how to streamline those repetitive tasks, create content faster, organize information, build simple automation, and get more accomplished without becoming a technology expert. And here's a bonus: no inlets or outdated courses, no confusing tech talk, just open the AI solution locker, choose the solution you need, and put it to work. And here's another bonus. You don't have to do it alone. And in this current wave of AI, I don't think you should. Inside the Huddle August playbook AI Partners community, you'll connect with other curious business owners and professionals who are learning, experimenting, and building with AI. Join live sessions, quarterly training boot camps, ask questions, access helpful resources, and get the support you need to move from AI overwhelm to confident action. So stop spending those hours trying to piece everything together on your own. Get the solution. Let's run the play together and get your time back. I would love to have you join the Huddle and get to meet you and help you on this journey. So visit Playbook AI Partners and step into the AI Solution Locker and the Huddle today. And now on with the show. Welcome to the show, cutting through AI Hype and Building What Actually Works. AI is everywhere right now, but not every tool trend or shiny promise leads to real business results. It's time to cut through the AI hype and have a get real conversations about what actually works. To help us get into this topic, I have Ryan Drumheller on the show. Ryan is an extroverted IT leader, a fractional CIO, and founder of Stellar Horn Group, where he helps businesses cut through the noise of technology and AI to drive real, measurable results. With over 20 years of experience in IT and leadership, Ryan has led large-scale initiatives including major mergers and acquisitions, cybersecurity programs, and enterprise transformations while building and mentoring high-performing teams. He's also the host of the Decline Invite podcast, where he brings real conversations and direct insights on leadership, AI, business, and personal growth. Welcome to the show, Ryan.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for having me, Sandy. It's great to be here and I'm looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_03Oh, likewise. Well, let's get into it. Uh, why don't you start off by telling us a little bit more about your journey and what you're doing today and in the world of AI?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So uh kind of covered a little bit of it, but over 20 years now. Um I consider myself like a little over halfway through my career, hopefully. I have worked for various places, a bunch of different industries, which has uh uniquely led me to be very adaptable, uh be able to help pretty much any uh business that comes along the way, especially when we're talking about AI right now, uh, because there's some common challenges and common issues that I'm seeing that I'm sure we'll touch on. Uh, but that's led me to uh creating Stellarhorn Group, which is something that uh I finally am doing on my own. Uh stepped out of the corporate world and am now working uh on my own journey, uh-huh, my my own accord. And uh yeah, where it allows me to help uh businesses at a fraction uh uh of a cost and uh give them real world leadership on otherwise uh places where they wouldn't be able to afford somebody at that kind of talent level, that kind of uh experience level, that kind of journey for some of these small mid-sized companies.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's good. Well, congratulations on going out on your own because it's not always easy to do that. But you know, with such a shift with AI coming on, and I think shifting corporate America in general, it's always nice to take a different path, which considering your great experience, seems like the right thing to do for sure. Now, you talk about you that you bring a different perspective in that you bridge both sides, technology and the business and leadership side, that is often missing. Tell us more about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think most uh people in the technology side worry about the technology, they worry about learning singular track. Uh, where a few years back I I were sitting in a room, sitting in conversations and noticing what was going on and just noticed the struggle of understanding the terminology on both sides. So, like understanding from a business perspective technology and as a technology individual, understanding the why with the business. Uh so I made a big pivot. I decided to go ahead and get uh a bunch of business education and got a couple of business degrees, uh, a bunch more leadership education and experience, and uh now I'm typically the individual who ends up being the translator uh for both sides and what I call tech to English or tech to business and vice versa, and start training both sides into we're all one team and the technology individuals from the why do we have to do this to the okay, I understand. Let's get creative on solving this now, and the business getting happier because we're we're able to take a lot of uh stress and worry off their shoulders and be able to actually give them a bunch of options and explain to them things that they can understand.
SPEAKER_03So give me an example of this. So I'm picturing you're in a conference room, you've got the technology people on one side, the business and leadership on another, and there you are the referee with a whistle. I mean, it almost seems that way, right? Because they are at various times, they can be on very different pages. But I guess a two-part question, why is that the case? And what do you do to get the two sides to work together?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a great question. And uh when you've seen it unfold, it's like uh very much everybody's doing what they do. They're in their own track, they're in their own silos, so to speak. Um, so uh as a technology individual, especially younger uh, you know, people coming into the industry now, I very much encourage them because the first thing they're always asking me are technical. They're they're always like, Well, what skills do I need to learn and you know what certifications or what things I need to do? And there there is definitely a trap for that that's important. But the first thing I'm going over is typically meet with your business partners, meet with individuals in marketing, sales, whatever. Um, because typically those kinds of individuals when they spend time with the IT team is normally when something's broken or not working and they're stressed out, they're mad. Um, and the IT teams normally take that the wrong way, and it's like it's not out on you, it's it's out on like the frustration of what's happening. So I saw that situation play out time and time again. Or like in a meeting we're talking about a project, and it's like, well, why can't you guys just do this? Um, or you know, why is it so hard? Or and it'd be hard to explain that as what I would see. So I would take it upon myself now to go, okay, so you want to you just want to get to here, right? Awesome. Um in our case, we need to have the following things, and maybe those things like describing them in detail that I would see happen time and time again are not important. The important part is you want to get to here. I need the following in order to get to here. And here's a couple options we could consider along the way, if any of those help you get to there, and starting to kind of translate that and find common ground with them where they'd be able to understand. And you could just see the reactions on their face, they'd be so much more calmer and appreciative and like, oh, okay, well, that's reasonable. You have a job to do, we have a job to do, and you're just trying to do your job. And if we can come together, we'll be able to accomplish that goal for us. So uh I took it upon myself to get educated on their side of the fence, get educated on business speak, their worlds, spend time with them, and bring that back to teams that I was leading on my side. So uh those would be examples that happen, but still happen every single day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's so important because I think two things come to mind. One, if somebody's just having that third person that's gotten neutral person come in, deflates that frustration or um, oh, you're on your side or we have our side kind of thing. And you hate to think that exists, but it still does. But you come in as that third party to do that, which really helps. So the second thing that comes to mind too is there's two sides not really seeing things in the same way. Things get stalled, and uh a stall in a project or initiative, whatever it is, costs money. And I think that's uh gets lost somewhere in between. Would you agree?
SPEAKER_01Oh, very much so. Uh I mean, uh if we're not thinking ourselves as teammates to uh we all have different lanes, maybe, but we're all one big team, and I know that sounds cliche, but I'm a big believer in technology being a partner to the business and supporting the business. And if we're actually listening to the business, we're listening to their stressors, their concerns, and we identify things that maybe they didn't even see, that's how we can change the the technology side from being a cost center to a cost maker at that point because now we're able to keep those individuals working better, faster, smarter, all of that. If we if we enable and support them and take away things that knock them down, keep them from being able to work and you know just cause them stress. They're not their best versions of themselves throughout the day. That's how I look at it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, we can't not talk about our favorite topic of AI because you already have, let's say, in an organization, and I'm sure in your wealth of experience, you've seen this with those complications exist. Now we layer on AI, and it's not just a new technology, it is moving fast, and so many tools, and I'm almost tired of hearing myself AI here say AI with overwhelm, but it really kind of is because it's moving so fast and there's so many different tools and options. It really is a wave, I don't think we've experienced before. But now you layer this on with a business that uh may be already struggling with projects and teams uniting and working together. So, what would you say, kind of considering that and then some, but what are businesses getting completely wrong about AI right now?
SPEAKER_01Uh there's two flashing lights that come before me when I hear that. And uh the first one is that they think it'll just handle everything. Uh you can just set it and forget it, it's good to go. And I I don't know about you. I mean, from your voice right now, it already sounds like you've had your struggles with AI. I know I've sat and asked the same question 18 times and still trying to get what I needed to get out of it. Um, so to think that it can just do everything is completely not where we're at yet. Um, it can do a lot of things great, but not everything it can do great. Um, and the other thing is they're just deploying this and with no training, no like looking into the business of their their own businesses and figuring out what it can, you know, be deployed against, what can you use it for in your own specific uh company, find those quick wins, find the long-term uh situations that you want to get to and identify the different roles that you have in your business and give them specific advice. I see a lot of hey, there's a mandate um that we need to uh use AI. So you start using AI. And it's like that's that's not gonna get you the return on value there.
SPEAKER_03No, that's for sure. And you know what comes to mind, everything you said, I agree. But the other thing is I I always worry about this and is also the data security and governance side of things too. We we put in a tool, we use it, we implement it, we think it's gonna do, um, you know, minimize or take or shave off that 15 to 20 hours, whatever it is, and that is possible. But I I especially if you're in depending upon what industry you're in, is adding in that layer of data security, keeping that security safe and governance, of course, that protocol that exists. And I think in the excitement or overwhelm or new tool or whatever it is, or quick win, let's get it now, and that piece of it also gets missed as well. So it's something I always worry about that side of it. I guess I I come from the healthcare industry. So it is an industry where that's a high risk, but um, but I see people you know missing that as well. Do you agree?
SPEAKER_01Oh, very much so. Like my my process normally um stuns companies because I'm I'm looking to take them backwards before we go forward. Um, and by backwards I mean look to actually identify some of those things I described, like make a proper project plan. The next part of that is governance, which is we we actually make a governance committee. We actually find the individuals who are going to be responsible on that governance committee. Uh, I educate them on, hey, the the governance committee can be a great thing because you can set it up in such a way that your employees who are actually boots on the ground, able to come there, bring you what's really happening, ideas for what AI could be used for. You have an early conversation with the employee at that point, and then you guys can decide how to get a handle on what you want to do. And then we go into the security component of that, uh how are we gonna secure whatever it is we're gonna go ahead and green light, make sure that we deploy that, and then we get to training, which is not just a PowerPoint, it's it's literally a training that's gonna work for your audience, and then again, the they're kind of stunned where I'm like, and assign somebody to that. So if somebody watches it, they still have questions, they can go, oh Bob is uh you know, assigned to this. Hey, Bob, you have like 10 minutes, I can ask you a question, and now you have feedback loops throughout this, and the employees no longer are you know worried about AI, they're no longer fearful of AI, like they're getting multiple loops of conversation feedback and training. So it's a completely different game changer, and those organizations that do all of that typically have the best success in the end instead of the ones that uh we're seeing with just, hey, we got AI and good luck.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I love what you said, and you you see you take them backwards a little bit, but because it's so important, processes and SOPs, you know, don't go out the window. And I know people know that, but sometimes we get on this quick fix routine. I'm no different, right? But you can't forget those layers that need to be put in play. With that, do you have the client or case study that you have to give us something that people can um get their head around that you know, person had X problem and this is how we resolved it to help people better understand what you do?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I think that uh a lot of the AI problems are pretty common at the moment. Um, so which is which is a good thing for businesses out there that are like, we have no idea what we're doing. Don't worry. We we kind of all don't at the moment. Yeah. We're kind of in the experimentation phase of AI, really. We're all trying to decide the best deployment methods, the best, you know, governance methods, the best, you know, how many people should be over top of this, how many people do we need for these kind of things. Um so uh the good news is is it's it's everybody, and when we come in, we kind of have to identify all of that. We have to identify, you know, what is it that your business actually does, what is it that uh you can identify as a very quick win, what's very manual in your business. You know, AI is really great at manual automation for data flows at at the moment. It's really good at you know, summarization. It's it's really good at a lot of things. And then some of those things that we're still kind of experimenting with are okay to go ahead and build towards. So do not leave them completely alone, or you become one of the horror stories of those articles that everybody is reading about right now because the real. Uh, and that tends to be a human problem of of allowing AI to drift and become what it becomes. And that's not where you want to be. You have to have responsibility, you have to have a human over top of these things and have responsibility still. And that's one of the biggest kind of things that the businesses struggle with, in addition to the speed of AI. Because most businesses aren't reactive to how fast the AI is, they don't move that quickly, and AI is forcing them, kicking and screaming to have to to speed up and get better. And it really is exposing a lot of the things you're talking about, right? Like if your business operations has cracks, it's gonna magnify with with AI. It's not gonna get better until you put the effort into fixing those cracks, and then AI can help you get better with that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so well said on that for sure. And not to mention the swiftness of it, this um tool happy is maybe is what I want to say. It's like the big debate is oh, leave Chat GPT now and go to Claude. And it's one example is wearing my business hat. I think, yeah, okay, we've implemented this tool, we're using it, we've embedded it in our data, our governance, our SOPs, or standard operating procedures, and now I need to knee-jerk and go to another tool. And sometimes it can be a good transition or easy, but you I guess you don't always have to knee-jerk and go to a different tool. You know, right now I'm like, I put things in chat GPT, I put things in Claude because I use both. And because everybody's like, oh my God, make the switch now. And I'm like, okay, well, sometimes I like Claude's response versus chat GPT. I'm just gonna jump and abandon. I'm gonna look and evaluate it what's best for my current needs in my business. And so I think it's just weaving in that part of it too, so people don't get tool happy as well. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_01I think that's highly intelligent at the end of the day, and you're kind of hitting on a point that I I was hoping would come up, which is you get in that vendor trap. Typically, all vendors along the way wanna be able to find some way in order to keep that you know the clients and make it kind of hard to move. And we're getting closer and closer to that. It's gonna get hard to actually move everything you build out as a business inside of an AI model, and what happens when eventually they do jack those prices up or they do have a data risk and exposure or or whatever that is, if you do have the funds to be able to spread out your resources, then you can take advantage of uh what you described as some of those models are better at other things than than what some of the other ones are. So why wouldn't you take advantage of what's best with each of them if if your business you know supports that? Get what's best out of each of them, and then you have the best of everything, and you're not highly dependent on one vendor. Should it be down, should it jack up its price a hundred times, or or whatever it is? So those are all good points, and definitely where the industry is headed. Because uh the other really great thing or a really thing to pay attention to is most line budgets right now don't have AI on it. They have AI as more of an experimentation. Like nobody is actually having to budget for AI at the moment and then decide uh you know how we're gonna save money, cut the budget or anything. We're just kind of throwing money at it, seeing what happens in our business. And eventually that's going to go over to your your your line budget there, and you're gonna have to manage it like you manage people and resources and all the other technology software. So and all that stuff's coming.
SPEAKER_03Why don't you share with us more about Stellar Horn Group and the services that you offer?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh so with Stellar Horn Group, uh, we offer three basic services really. Uh and it's fractional CIO advisory and projects. So what that means is, you know, as a fractional CIO individual, uh for those companies that cannot hire senior IT leadership, I can come in at a much cheaper rate. We can come in and make a plan on what you actually need to accomplish, what you need to do. I actually am embedded in your leadership team. So for better or worse, we'll call it. I am a part of your company and uh your success is my success, and vice versa. And it sounds cliche, but the way my contracts are structured is 30 days, you don't like what's happening, you just cut me at the end of it. So I literally have to be doing with the things I'm saying right now or I'm not gonna be around and you know no fault to you we move on. Um but I I am actually a part of your your business trying to move it forward from a leadership standpoint. Uh advisory services, classic advisory um for those that don't need you know an actual leadership they just need advice on a particular topic or AI that we're talking about is a great example. Um and then projects we go through and scope out uh particular projects depending on what they are it might be up my alley. If not I might throw it to a partner network for you uh that that I know and I can connect and help you get the job done.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well I thank you for offering those services. I think in a at a time today you don't need uh to hire a person full time so having the ability to um bring you in as that fractional CIO I think a benefit to an organization that doesn't have to go it alone but can have you for the length of that project or um implementation or whatever it may be. Now tell us about your podcast. I love the title by the way Decline Invite. So tell us more about what the podcast is about.
SPEAKER_01Yeah so the podcast name kind of came about uh from my time in in corporate and just listening to everybody talk about meetings. So I was trying to be clever and it turns out a lot of people like it and uh we ran with it. But uh what we actually do and talk about on there is we talk about all the business and IT challenges uh the everybody that comes onto the show is going through from their perspective or what we're seeing out in space and a lot of AI conversations these days and what we think and feel and where it's headed. Um and kind of things like that. So if anybody likes that kind of conversation and more we'd love to have you take a listen and uh you know hear a bunch of my other guests that come on as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I love that. I think I'll decline that invite today. Decline there's such joy sometimes in doing that. It's such meeting overwhelm. I remember my time in corporate America. You had to really truly decline invitations because uh you needed to focus on what you needed to. We will make sure a link to both of those.
SPEAKER_01But as we uh draw uh to to a close what are some final tips and closing thoughts that you would like uh l to leave listeners with yeah I normally leave with uh trying to just do a little bit of good uh every single day if you're thinking about leadership you don't have to have the title you can start any point any time and any anywhere on the ladder as long as you're just doing a little bit of good every single day. It adds up over time when those positions open up or uh those individuals uh take notice and whatnot, they're gonna gravitate towards the individual who was nice, who was helpful, who who tried to do the best that they could and it just makes you feel better uh over the course of time. As as somebody who's been in leadership for a long time now. I can rest my head on the pillow knowing I have multiple people who I no longer lead still messaging me, asking for advice, still thanking me, um as well as complete strangers on LinkedIn reaching out and looking toward mentor advice and other things like that. So just do a little bit of good in the world every single day and that's gonna take you places that you didn't even know were options.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's so true. We so need to lead with that kindness. As you were speaking one other thought came to mind Ryan uh with Stellarhorn group uh do you focus on any particular industry or and are you global or or I I meant to ask that initially so I was hoping you could expand on that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah no no problem uh I tend to focus on small to midsized companies. Uh those are the companies that typically don't have the budgets for uh C-suite and senior executive leadership and uh in terms of global I have absolutely worked global myself uh I used to travel to Europe quarterly so I'm definitely used to that I have experience with global customers and would welcome that should they see me as a fit.
SPEAKER_03Okay lovely. I I think that was important to note I always like to get in the head of my listeners that they're driving or at the gym on a treadmill listening to this what questions they might ask. And industry it doesn't matter what industry I know you have a vast uh wealth of experience so not industry specific you focus in all areas it seems uh a lot of my time right now is in AI and uh most of that is uh you know industry agnostic at this point.
SPEAKER_01Um obviously there's different regulations and and things of that nature but because I have worked in all kinds of different industries I try not to limit myself should if an industry need my services and help I can definitely help them.
SPEAKER_03Oh that's wonderful. No I appreciate you answering uh that question there so as well. But back to kinda so so make sure and try and do your your good in the world. Well Brian it has been a pleasure having you on I appreciate your wealth of experience your service offerings with Stellarhorn group and your podcast decline invite and just taking the time to uh to offer your perspective and insight on AI today. It's been a real pleasure having you on so thank you.
SPEAKER_01Appreciate it Sandy it's been great having a conversation with you and meeting you virtually I enjoyed having Ryan on the show.
SPEAKER_03I appreciated his expertise and service offerings especially when hiring a C suite member is not in the budget. There are options out there to bring on the expertise you need when implementing an AI strategy make sure and check out the show notes for more information on Stellarhorn Group and the Decline Invite podcast. In our next episode we're going beyond the buzzwords to explore how businesses can make AI work in an ever-changing landscape while protecting privacy and security. I am bringing Kevin Carlson on the show. Kevin is a seasoned tech exec and a go-to expert on AI's real world impact within businesses. He's been a CTO or CISO four times over working across different industries in both North America and Europe so he brings a genuinely practical viewpoint to how AI is changing business and the world. He's big on talking about the guardrails we need for AI, drawing on his security and compliance experience and he's got plenty of success stories to share along with a few cautionary tales. Make sure and subscribe so you don't miss the episode. And if I could ask one last favor in order for people to find the show it would be so helpful if you would be so kind to leave a review. You can simply go to the show go down toward the bottom and just above about there's this option to write a review. I'd appreciate if you take a few moments to do that it helps people find the show and gain the knowledge that they need. I appreciate it. Until next time take action execute and let's run the players