How AI drives growth with the 'weird' method

In a digital economy where the conventional playbook for business growth often leads to diminishing returns, innovative entrepreneurs are finding unexpected pathways to success through artificial intelligence. Max Maher's recent video reveals how he leveraged an unconventional AI strategy—inspired by a Call of Duty gaming tactic—to dramatically scale his business operations and revenue. His approach demonstrates how lateral thinking combined with AI tools can unlock growth opportunities that traditional methods miss entirely.

Key Points

• The Call of Duty analogy: Maher draws parallels between successful gaming strategies and business growth, specifically how "camping" (establishing a strong position and optimizing from there) can be more effective than constantly chasing new opportunities.

• Focus on optimization: Rather than continuously pursuing new business ideas, Maher achieved significant growth by deeply optimizing existing operations through AI tools, resulting in a 600% revenue increase while reducing his working hours.

• AI-powered efficiency: By implementing AI across multiple business functions—from content creation to customer service—Maher transformed his productivity, enabling one person to perform tasks that previously required an entire team.

• Human-AI collaboration: Despite the power of automation, Maher emphasizes that the most successful implementation involves human oversight and direction, not complete replacement of human workers.

Expert Analysis

The most profound insight from Maher's experience isn't the specific AI tools he used, but rather his philosophical shift from expansion to optimization. This "depth over breadth" approach represents a fundamental recalibration of how entrepreneurs should think about growth in the AI era.

This matters tremendously in today's business landscape where AI capabilities are evolving rapidly. Most businesses are caught in an endless cycle of pursuing new initiatives while leaving existing operations sub-optimized. McKinsey research indicates that companies focusing on optimizing core operations before expansion typically achieve 30% higher returns on digital investments. Maher's experience confirms this research and demonstrates how AI specifically can be the catalyst for this optimization-first approach.

The Optimization Opportunity Most Businesses Miss

What Maher doesn't fully explore is how widely applicable this optimization-first approach is across different business models. Consider the case of Carro, a Southeast Asian automotive marketplace that applied similar principles. Rather than expanding to new countries (the conventional growth strategy),