Getting my interns to earn their keep

Yesterday was a very rewarding day; thanks to a revelation and some hard work by my interns.

No, I’ve not suddenly turned Human Risk from a company of one into a company of some. My interns are GenAI tools. Because I’m now spending a noticeable amount each month on AI subscriptions, I had a simple thought:

𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘈𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧?

Not through some vague promise of productivity or by helping me write slop. I mean actually pay for itself.

So I set my interns loose on my software subscriptions.Their brief was simple: what do I actually use this for, do I still need it, are there cheaper alternatives, is this still the best solution, am I on the right plan, and what would somebody who really understood this market do differently?

What struck me is that most software vendors don't have magical knowledge that I could never acquire. The information asymmetry that makes me an uneducated consumer exists because they've spent more time thinking about their products and pricing than I have. Given enough time, I could probably become worryingly knowledgeable about CRM systems, video conferencing platforms and AI tools.

The problem is that I really, really don't want to.

Which is where my interns come in. They can do the research that I can't be bothered to do. Not perfectly, and not to expert level, but well enough to help me ask better questions and make better decisions.

The results were fascinating. Some subscriptions have gone entirely, some have been downgraded, some have been renegotiated. A few I’ve actually upgraded because the higher tier made more sense once I'd properly understood what I was(n't) paying for.

Overall, I've saved enough money to pay for several months of AI subscriptions. Which got me thinking that this isn't just a business story. The same logic applies to my personal expenditure: utility bills, insurance, mobile phone contracts and all the other bits of life admin that most of us know we should review more often than we do.

So I've got my interns working on those as well; unlike real interns, they don't seem to mind.