You Have a Friction Problem.
Over the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of managers from municipalities, school service centres, public organizations, manufacturing companies, and SMEs.
Almost every conversation about artificial intelligence begins the same way.
“How should we implement AI?”
I don’t believe that’s the right question.
The right question is much simpler.
Where does your organization lose time every day?
Managers Already Know the Answer
I often ask managers the same question.
“If I gave your team two extra hours every day, where would you invest them?”
The answer comes immediately.
No one says:
“We’d like to produce more reports.”
Or:
“We’d like to answer more emails.”
Instead, I hear things like:
- Spend more time coaching employees.
- Meet with customers more often.
- Develop our team’s skills.
- Improve our processes.
- Think about the future instead of constantly reacting to the urgent.
In other words, managers already know where value is created.
The challenge is that their teams still spend a significant portion of their day dealing with friction.
Friction Costs Far More Than Most Organizations Realize
Searching for information.
Answering the same question ten times a week.
Trying to locate the right document.
Explaining the same procedure over and over again.
Individually, these frustrations seem insignificant.
Collectively, they consume hundreds of hours every year.
More often than not, it’s these daily frictions—not major projects—that exhaust teams.
That’s Exactly Why We Built Leroy
At illuxi, we didn’t create Leroy because we wanted to build an AI solution.
We built Leroy because we wanted to eliminate a very real operational friction.
Our goal was never to replace people.
Our goal was to free our team to spend more time on conversations that require judgment, empathy, and human connection.
AI was never the destination.
It was simply the tool.
One Question to Ask Your Team This Week
If you’re a manager, try this exercise during your next team meeting.
Ask one simple question:
“What is the most repetitive or frustrating task you perform every week?”
Don’t rush to find a technology solution.
Listen.
You have probably just identified your next improvement project—with or without artificial intelligence.
Final Thoughts
AI doesn’t create value simply because it’s intelligent.
It creates value when it removes friction that prevents people from doing what humans do best.
In my opinion, that’s where every manager should begin.
Not with technology.
With work itself.
Philippe Richard Bertrand
President and Chief Vision Officer
Who is Leroy?
