20% AI time
08 Apr 2026
In this moment:
Bug
AI Chapter
I've been thinking about AI a lot more lately. Andrew Easter's story of moving quickly with AI-driven development and the starting of the AI Chapter has given me more food for thought of committing to AI.
As a leader/CEO, the big question is if and when to adopt AI. I've been cautiously holding off, not because I don't think it could be valuable, but it's more about waiting for the right time. As a small, independent company, we can't just hire and throw resources at AI without confidence that it will serve our goals properly. We have to ensure that it makes sense financially for us. We feel that time is now coming.
Until now, what I've felt was a good use of our efforts was restructuring our business to be AI-ready. Many things have happened and continue to shift in this direction to make us ready for a more AI focused world. Preparing yourself for an AI world doesn't have to mean using AI. For us, it meant re-thinking data, which naturally supports AI.
And when you decide, how should we go about it? This is another big question. Any tech transformation is a human transformation. It requires change everywhere. It won't happen overnight. It has to happen whilst we juggle the day-to-day needs of the business.
AI is a cultural shift. We can't adopt it overnight. There is learning involved for everyone. As I was thinking about this I thought that allocating 20% AI time would probably make sense for us, and it might make sense for others.
As a leader/CEO, the big question is if and when to adopt AI. I've been cautiously holding off, not because I don't think it could be valuable, but it's more about waiting for the right time. As a small, independent company, we can't just hire and throw resources at AI without confidence that it will serve our goals properly. We have to ensure that it makes sense financially for us. We feel that time is now coming.
Until now, what I've felt was a good use of our efforts was restructuring our business to be AI-ready. Many things have happened and continue to shift in this direction to make us ready for a more AI focused world. Preparing yourself for an AI world doesn't have to mean using AI. For us, it meant re-thinking data, which naturally supports AI.
And when you decide, how should we go about it? This is another big question. Any tech transformation is a human transformation. It requires change everywhere. It won't happen overnight. It has to happen whilst we juggle the day-to-day needs of the business.
AI is a cultural shift. We can't adopt it overnight. There is learning involved for everyone. As I was thinking about this I thought that allocating 20% AI time would probably make sense for us, and it might make sense for others.
What is 20% AI time?
It is what it says on the tin. It's about allocating and giving permission to people in your company to spend 20% of their time exploring the use of AI.
This idea is very much built on the popular 20% free/project from Google where employees were encouraged to spend roughly 20% of their time working on side projects. This type of approach feels like it could work well with AI. In reality, companies cannot drop everything and go all in on AI, it's too risky, and business as usual cannot be ignored.
It's more of a commitment to spend about an hour a day to use AI and explore how we can make efficiency gains. As we learn and build, we will figure out how best to use it.
10 things I'm thinking about with 20% AI time:
- be curious, learn and have fun!
- always start small, learn and iterate
- it should be aligned with business needs
- building in guardrails, safety and ethics is a must
- it's about giving permission to employees to explore
- look for efficiencies in daily tasks, and build upon that
- explore what data you wish you had access to, but don't
- it should be aligned with tools you think the business will use
- share your learnings in whatever way may be useful, now and in the future
- because many AI tools have usage limits, it should probably be encouraged as a daily activity, rather than a big block on a particular day
Let me know what you think about this in the comments.
Rosie Sherry
CEO & Founder at Ministry of Testing
She/Her
I've been working in the software testing and quality engineering space since the year 2000 whilst also combining it with my love for education and community. It turns out quality, community and education go nicely hand in hand.
🎓 MoT-STEC qualified
Andrew Morton
Wouldn't be the first time I've had 20% time to work on an important technical aspect https://www.ministryoftesting.com/testbash-sessions/having-all-your-testers-code-it-doesn-t-have-to-be-a-big-deal-anna-baik-andrew-morton
Lisa Crispin
Seems like a pragmatic way to go! I keep reading about comprehension debt, brain fry, other results of people going all in on AI without thinking how they will manage their work. Step by step seems smart.
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