The most common thing I hear from people who haven’t started using AI yet is some version of: “Is it worth the cost?”
ChatGPT Pro is $200/month. Claude Max is $200/month. Google Ultra is $250. That adds up. And when you’re not sure what you’re getting in return, it’s a fair thing to wonder about.
But I want to flip the question. Because I think the cost question is temporary. And the question most people aren’t asking… is not.
Remember Your “Top Five”?
If you had a mobile phone in the early 2000s, you remember this.
Plans back then charged you per minute for most calls. Texting costs $0.10 to $0.15 each. But carriers started offering “top five” plans — five people you could call unlimited, while everyone else still cost money.
You had to actually think about whether a call was worth it. Is this quick enough? Can I just send a text instead?
Nobody thinks like that now. We call anyone, anywhere, without calculating anything.
I brought this up on the Lightbulb Moments podcast when the host Tom asked about AI costs. Are they going to come down? Is it sustainable to spend this much?
My answer: yes. And faster than people expect. The same thing that happened to mobile minutes will happen to AI compute costs. It always happens with technology. The early adopters pay the “top five” pricing. Everyone else inherits the infrastructure.
But here’s the part most people miss.
The Cost Goes Down. The Gap Doesn’t.
Back in February, I ran my first AI workshop in Austin. Didn’t do any real marketing… just sent a few texts and put something on Instagram. Sold out in four days.
I honestly thought it was a fluke. So I ran another one the following month. Same thing. Sold out in days. Five people came back from the first workshop because they wanted to stay current.
The people in those rooms were not worried about cost. They were worried they were already behind.
And that’s the more honest version of what’s happening with AI right now. There are two groups: people who are building fluency with these tools, and people who are waiting until it feels more settled, more affordable, more obvious.
The first group is compounding their skills. The second group is building a gap that gets harder to close every month.
AI Adds to You, Not Replaces You
There’s a fear underneath the cost question too. A lot of people worry that using AI too much means becoming dependent on it… or worse, outsourcing the parts of themselves that matter.
I actually think about this one differently.
Every December I write handwritten Christmas cards. This is a tradition I do every year, and I take it seriously. I still write every note by hand. But sometimes I’ll ask an AI for ideas first.
I’ll describe a friend I haven’t talked to in a while, and ask for a few ideas of what I could write. Then I’ll look at what it suggests and think… “yeah, that one.” And I write my own version in my own words.
The card is still mine. The gesture is still mine. The AI just helped me think of something I might have forgotten to say.
That’s how I think about these tools in general. They’re a thought partner. A good one. Not a replacement for your judgment or your relationships or your ideas. Just something that helps you think a little better, a little faster.
The AI Fluency Levels
In my workshops, I teach what I call the AI Fluency Levels — three stages most people move through.
The first level is AI Assisted: using chat tools like ChatGPT or Claude to help with tasks. Writing, research, drafts, brainstorming. This is where most people should start.
The second level is AI Workflows: stringing tools together so information flows between them automatically. An email triggers an action. A calendar event creates a prep document.
The third level is Building Agents: creating systems that run on their own, monitor things, and take actions without you triggering them every time.
Most people I meet are ready for level one right now. Some are ready for level two. Very few need to think about level three yet.
The point is not to skip ahead. The point is to start.
One Tweak a Week
The way I actually recommend people start is simple: do one more thing with AI this week than you did last week.
That’s it. Not a full workflow overhaul. Not a stack of new subscriptions. Just one thing.
If you’ve never tried it, start by asking ChatGPT to draft an email you’ve been putting off. Or ask it to help you prepare for a meeting you have tomorrow. Or describe a problem you’re solving and ask it to help you think through the options.
One tweak a week. Let curiosity compound.
The AI costs will come down. The “top five” era won’t last. But the gap between people who built skills early and people who waited? That one tends to stick around.
Start now. Even small.
