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The Promptory Newsletter

Let's talk about the thing nobody wants to say out loud about AI

Published 5 months ago • 1 min read

Monday · May 4, 2026 · Issue #031

Let's talk about the thing nobody wants to say out loud.

Most businesses are frustrated with AI right now. Not because AI doesn't work. Because nobody told them what "working" was supposed to look like.

This week we're going straight at the six fears driving AI frustration in 2026 — and pairing each one with a vault-vetted tool that actually solves the problem it's supposed to solve. No hype. Just honest signal on what's working and why.
⬡ This Week In AI — The News That Actually Matters

The AI market hit $30 billion in enterprise spend this quarter.

Here's the part that didn't make the headlines: 57% of the companies surveyed said they couldn't point to a specific business outcome their AI investment had produced.

Thirty billion dollars. And more than half can't prove it's working. That's not an AI problem. That's a strategy problem. And it's the most important story in business right now.
⬡ Angst #1 — "I Can't Prove AI Is Worth The Investment"

This is the loudest, most universal pain we hear — and it lives in the C-suite. Executives want ROI. Marketers can't produce it cleanly because AI touches too many touchpoints to isolate impact. So the budget gets cut. The initiative dies. And the company falls further behind.

The fix isn't a better tool. It's a better starting question: "What specific metric will change, by how much, in what timeframe?" If you can't answer that before you sign up, you're not ready to buy. You're ready to plan.

💡 Jordan's Approach

Jordan asks the ROI question before recommending a single tool. The first thing Jordan does is help you define the bottleneck and the metric — so every tool recommendation comes with a built-in success criterion.

Talk to Jordan free → thepromptory.com
⬡ What's Coming This Week

📬 This Week

Tue

Tool Deep Dive: The AI writing tool that actually sounds like you — and why accuracy starts with tool selection, not prompt writing
Wed

Use Case: How a 7-person team cut $2,800/month from their AI stack without losing any capability
Thu

Jordan Edition: The one question Jordan asks before recommending any tool — and why most businesses can't answer it
Fri

Vault Drop: One tool per fear — five fears, five vault picks, zero filler

The Promptory Newsletter

Stay ahead of the AI curve with Troy Jones — Founder of The Promptory, the #1 marketplace for curated AI tools, Strategy, and Implementation.

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