🧭 THIS WEEK AT AI SECOND ACT
Howdy, well the year is well and truly winding down, but AI and technology moves on! Interesting that one of my most clicked links was a BBC article about England getting hammered in the Ashes! Maybe I need to start an AI and cricket newsletter. Read on for:
Summing up the last 6 months or so of writing and creating your AI action plan in Q1 to ADAPT. Includes templates to help you plan!
If you’re enjoying this newsletter, please share it! Forward this to a friend/colleague and have them subscribe at aisecondact.com/subscribe. Thanks!
👉 You can also just hit "Reply" and let me know what you want more (or less) of, or use the poll to give feedback.
My goal is to make this as valuable and practical as possible as we navigate the new AI era. 🚀
🧰 AI NEWS + LEARNING
Here are a few things I found recently:
How people use AI at work
OpenAI introduce ChatGPT 5.2 - incremental improvements
OpenAI introduce Image 1.5 - seems now on par/caught up with Google Nano Banana Pro, though Google has the better name!
🗺️ FEATURED INSIGHT
Last week I introduced the ADAPT Framework—a simple model to organize your AI adoption journey:
Assess → Discover → Apply → Propagate → Transform
The responses had in common the following question:
"Great framework. Now how do I actually use it for planning?"
Today: the practical part.
The One-Page Q1 AI Action Plan
Here's the template I'm using to plan my own Q1. Steal it.
SECTION 1: WHERE AM I NOW?
Question | Your Answer |
|---|---|
Current ADAPT stage | ☐ Assess ☐ Discover ☐ Apply ☐ Propagate ☐ Transform |
Biggest AI win in 2025 | ___________________________ |
Biggest AI frustration in 2025 | ___________________________ |
Hours/week currently using AI | ___________________________ |
SECTION 2: WHERE DO I WANT TO BE BY MARCH 31?
Question | Your Answer |
|---|---|
Target ADAPT stage | ☐ Assess ☐ Discover ☐ Apply ☐ Propagate ☐ Transform |
One specific outcome I want | ___________________________ |
Hours/week target for AI use | ___________________________ |
Who needs to be involved? | ___________________________ |
SECTION 3: THE 90-DAY BREAKDOWN
For each month, pick ONE focus area based on your target stage:
JANUARY: Foundation
If your target stage is... | Your January focus |
|---|---|
Assess → Discover | Try 3 new AI tools for 30 mins each |
Discover → Apply | Pick ONE workflow to AI-enable |
Apply → Propagate | Document your best prompt/process |
Propagate → Transform | Train one team member on your system |
My January focus: ___________________________
FEBRUARY: Momentum
If your target stage is... | Your February focus |
|---|---|
Assess → Discover | Identify 5 use cases in your calendar |
Discover → Apply | Measure time saved on your workflow |
Apply → Propagate | Share your wins in a team meeting |
Propagate → Transform | Create a repeatable playbook |
My February focus: ___________________________
MARCH: Results
If your target stage is... | Your March focus |
|---|---|
Assess → Discover | Commit to one tool for daily use |
Discover → Apply | Expand to a second workflow |
Apply → Propagate | Get one colleague using your system |
Propagate → Transform | Present ROI to leadership |
My March focus: ___________________________
SECTION 4: RESOURCES I'LL USE
Based on your target stage, here's your reading list:
Assess → Discover:
Discover → Apply:
Apply → Propagate:
Propagate → Transform:
How I'm Using This
Full transparency, here's my own Q1 plan:
Current stage: Apply (solid personal workflows, starting to scale)
But —> I don’t use AI enough at work! I get rushed or just by default go to manual work. Just this week, I did some manual reviews of multiple spreadsheets with overlapping data that took me a few hours :(. AI should have been able to do that in < 10 mins. 2026, I will replace work with templates, use AI for review/analysis work and use AI to clean up redundant data sources!
Target stage: Propagate (get my team consistently using AI)
January/February: Document my top 3 prompt systems into shareable templates
March: Have at least 3 team members using AI weekly in their workflows
Metric I'm tracking: % of team using AI at least 5x/week
Your Turn
Print the template. Fill it out. Takes 10 minutes.
If you want feedback, hit reply with your completed plan. I'll respond with suggestions based on what I've seen work.
That's nearly a wrap on 2025 for AI Second Act.
Thanks for reading, replying, and pushing me to be better (like the reader who asked for a framework in the first place).
See you in January with fresh tactics, templates, and real-world experiments. Here’s to BBQ and beaches in Adelaide, snow, basements and movies in Chicago!
Until then, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!.
Weekly AI strategies for operating executives
— Brett
👉 Hit “Reply” and share your experience — I read every one!
Picture by me using Gemini Nano Banan Pro