Stop the AI Paralysis: Start using the AI you are paying for, but never use.

17 11 2025

Stop the AI Paralysis: Start using the AI you are paying for, but never use.

By Ferry Brak, manager digital

The Great “AI Paralysis”

The “AI Paralysis.” You probably recognize it. As an E-commerce or IT Manager, you're confronted with the buzz every day. From revolutionary chatbots to generative AI promising complete marketing campaigns. The pressure to “do something with AI” is enormous. But where do you start?

The landscape is changing so quickly that any choice you make today already feels outdated tomorrow. The fear of betting on the wrong and expensive horse leads to the riskiest scenario of all: analysis paralysis. Waiting it out.

The biggest AI mistake you can make right now is doing nothing.

The good news, however: you're already halfway there. The problems you can solve with AI are already present — you just don’t have the solution yet. AI success isn’t a “big bang” project; it’s a snowball effect that starts with one simple, smart action.

At Kega, we don’t believe in waiting for a moonshot. We believe in a pragmatic action plan. In this blog, I’ll give you 4 concrete tools to break the paralysis and take your first smart steps today.

Step 1: The “Hidden Opportunities” Inventory

A realization we’re seeing more and more with Kega clients — and within our own organization:
The biggest AI opportunities are not found in an expensive, futuristic, unknown AI application. They’re hidden in the software you already pay license fees for today.

The smartest first step isn’t sending out an RFI (Request for Information) externally, but performing an internal “AI Audit.”

So take action: pull out your current contracts and roadmaps. Inventory which AI functionalities are already available, or are on the short-term roadmap, within your existing:

PIM System: Many PIM vendors (such as Akeneo or inriver) now offer AI modules to automatically generate product descriptions, extract attributes from images, or optimize translations. Are you already using these?
Headless CMS: Using a headless CMS (such as Storyblok, Contentful, or Prismic)? Many now integrate AI for content creation, SEO suggestions, or automatic asset tagging. Is this already being utilized?
CDP & Marketing Automation: Your Customer Data Platform is the perfect fuel for AI. Many tools offer AI-driven segmentation, predictive audiences (e.g., “customers with a high churn probability”), and next-best-action recommendations.
Search & Merchandising: Do you use external tools (such as Algolia or Tweakwise)? Their AI-powered algorithms are worth gold for personalization, visual search, and optimizing search results. Are these running at full capacity?
Internal Business Tools: Also check the “small” tools. Your project management tool (e.g., Jira, Monday), your note-taking app (Notion, NotebookLM), and even your file storage (Google Workspace, MS SharePoint) all have built-in AI that summarizes work, generates action points, and helps you work smarter.

Kega Pro Tip: Call your three most important software vendors and ask one simple question: “What is your concrete AI roadmap for the next 6 months, and which features within our current license are we not using yet?” It will unlock a world of immediately applicable ideas.

Step 2: Choose Your Pain

Now that you’ve identified the “hidden opportunities” within your own stack, the crucial question follows: which problem are you going to solve with them? AI is an extremely powerful hammer, but you still need to know which nail you want to hit.

As I mentioned earlier: you already have the problems that need solving, which is half the work. You know them better than anyone. The key is to start with a problem that truly hurts. And that pain? It’s often felt most sharply on the work floor.

Talk to your customer service team, your marketers, or your B2B sales team. Ask them: “Which repetitive process costs you the most time?” or “Which customer question do you get ten times a day?” Their answers are the goldmine for your business case.

At Kega, we see that the most successful AI pilots focus on one of these two axes:

Axis 1: Internal Efficiency (Focus: Lower Costs, Higher Speed)
This is about automating or accelerating repetitive, time-consuming tasks currently carried out by skilled employees.

The Pain:

“It takes our content marketers three days to write and translate 500 new product descriptions. We’re missing our time-to-market.”
“Our customer service spends 30% of their time on simple ‘where is my package?’ questions and summarizing customer cases.”

Axis 2: External Customer Value (Focus: Higher Conversion, Higher AOV)
This is about directly improving the customer experience, leading to measurably higher revenue.

The Pain:

“Our zero-results search page has an absurdly high bounce rate. Customers misspell a term and think we don’t have the product.”
“We show everyone the same Top 10 recommendations, even though we know this isn’t relevant for a returning B2B customer versus a new B2C visitor.”

So take action: Choose one of these “pain points” from your own organization — one you want to start with tomorrow. This becomes the business case for your first AI pilot.

Step 3: Define Your Starting Point (The UBB Model)

Now that you have a clearer view of the hidden AI opportunities in your stack and have chosen the specific pain point to tackle, we arrive at the “how” question. How do you determine the right action and avoid getting lost in all the options?

Here’s a pragmatic model we use at Kega to separate daily noise from strategic value: the Use, before Buy, before Build model. It’s a decision tree that helps you start with low risk while building knowledge and value step by step.

Start with “Use” (The Quick Wins)
This is the low-hanging fruit and, for most organizations, the logical starting point.
“Use” simply means activating the hidden AI features you already have.
The focus here is purely on achieving quick results — speeding up processes and building AI literacy within the team. The risk is negligible; the tools are already there and the costs already covered. You may simply not be aware that you have these tools, especially because development moves so quickly.
For example: simply turning on the AI translator in your PIM system can drastically shorten your time-to-market for new products.
Move to “Buy” (The Problem Solver)
Do you have a specific, painful problem that can’t be solved with “Use” features? Then “Buy” is the next step.
This means strategically purchasing a proven, plug-and-play AI solution.
The major advantage — especially if you already have a composable architecture — is the implementation speed.
The focus here is on quick, measurable ROI for a clear business case. The risk is moderate: it requires investment but solves a known problem.
Example: purchasing a specialized search tool like Algolia or Tweakwise to finally eliminate those zero-results search pages.
Invest in “Build” (The Game Changer)
This is the horizon — not the starting point.
“Build” means developing your own unique AI solution, built and trained on your proprietary business data.
Here, you create strategic, non-replicable competitive advantage — your unfair advantage.
The risk is high and it requires a serious investment of time and expertise.
Example: building an internal AI assistant trained on 10 years of technical manuals, service tickets, and CRM data.
Such a solution can help a B2B service team solve extremely complex customer questions in real time — a competitive edge you can’t buy.

Kega’s Advice: Nine out of ten organizations should focus right now on USE and BUY. Activate what you already have, and invest wisely where the pain is highest. “BUILD” is the strategic future — not the first step.

Step 4: Start Today (The “Start Small” Principle)

This might be the most important step: just start.
The AI paralysis I described earlier can only be broken by action. The “Think Big, Start Small” cliché is a cliché because it’s true. It’s the only way.

So stop writing a comprehensive, 50-page AI strategy document.
Pick one concrete pilot. One pain point and one solution.

Make it concrete and measurable. An AI project without a clear KPI is a hobby project. Define success before you begin.

Using that “Use” feature in your PIM system to speed up time-to-market?
Great — KPI: products go live 2 days faster.
Deploying that “Buy” solution to fix zero-results search pages?
KPI: increase conversion from search by 5%.

And here lies the real value — the part that’s often overlooked.
The outcome of your first pilot is always twofold:

You (hopefully) solve the problem and hit your KPI.
You gain knowledge.

Your team learns what works and what doesn’t. They discover pitfalls (e.g., “the PIM translations are a good 80% base but still need human review”).

This is the way to become an AI-ready organization. By starting small and learning fast, you build the momentum and intelligence needed to take the truly big (Build) steps later.

Conclusion: Waiting Is the Most Expensive AI Strategy

The “AI paralysis” I opened this blog with feels comfortable. Waiting feels like a safe, low-risk strategy. But at Kega, we see the exact opposite is true: right now, waiting is the most expensive mistake you can make.

There will be no “perfect moment.”
There will be no “golden” AI tool that solves all your problems at once.
The only reality is the next step.

And the great thing is: that step doesn’t have to be big, costly, or risky.

As I’ve shown, chances are you don’t have to look far for the solution. You likely already have the tools to get started today. The smartest AI strategy isn’t a 50-page document — it’s the simple decision to activate that one “Use” feature tomorrow. To launch that one “Buy” pilot for that one real pain point.

Stop waiting, start doing. Curious about the “hidden opportunities” in your current tech stack?
At Kega, we’re happy to help you run that AI Audit — not a months-long strategy exercise, but a pragmatic sparring partner who identifies the quick wins with you and defines that first, concrete pilot.