A year ago, if you had asked me whether our engineering team at Owner.com was truly adopting AI, not just dabbling, but actually integrating it into how we work, I would’ve said no.
We had a few early adopters playing with tools. A few GitHub Copilot installs. Some LLMs used here and there. But nothing close to an org-wide shift.
That’s all changed. And while we’re still evolving, I’ve seen what it takes to start moving the whole team forward.
First: hire people who are curious. We’ve put deliberate effort into bringing on engineers who are open to trying new things, who see AI as an accelerant, not a threat to quality or process. It’s subtle, but it matters. You can’t force this mindset into a team. You build it from the start.
Second: find your champions. Every org has a few folks who tinker in their off hours, who show up to standups with something cool they just built. Identify them. Support them. Make them visible. They’re your internal force multipliers.
Then: show up yourself. I’ve made a point of using AI in my own day-to-day work. Whether it’s brainstorming in ChatGPT, automating routine writing tasks, or even building simple prototypes, when the team sees leadership leaning in, it shifts the culture. Boldness is contagious.
We’ve also created real space for experimentation. Our internal AI hackathons have surfaced some of the most creative, practical tools we now use: automated code generation for straightforward tasks (more on this exciting stuff in a future post), auto-generated tests, and internal bots. Not all of them made it to production, but they created momentum. And that momentum changes everything.
On measurement - we’re still figuring it out. Traditional metrics like velocity and story points fall short. We’ve started thinking about time saved, friction reduced, and AI-assisted workflows adopted, but I’d be lying if I said we’ve nailed it. It’s an active conversation, and we’re learning as we go.
Throughout it all, we’ve kept our engineering guardrails. Code reviews still matter. Design quality still matters. AI is there to raise the ceiling, not lower the bar.
This isn’t about chasing hype. It’s about giving your team better tools, faster feedback, and more creative freedom. The orgs that figure this out now are going to be miles ahead six months from now. There’s no playbook yet. But that’s the opportunity: you get to write your own.
At Owner.com, we’re not waiting for someone else to figure it out. We’re leading from the front and taking the future into our own hands.
