The $3 Fix: The Obvious Automation Nobody Builds

A number that’s bugged me for years: about 3 million people fly in the U.S. every day. I’d bet almost all of them would happily pay another two or three dollars at check-in to know their flight is safe and on time. That’s more than enough to cover the people watching over them — and yet nobody organizes it. The fix is obvious and sitting right there. Nobody builds it.

Every business has one of these

There’s a version of that in your operation right now: a boring, obvious, automatable cost everybody tolerates because “that’s just how it works.” The quote that takes three days to go out. The data your team re-keys between two systems. The follow-up that never happens, so the lead goes cold. Nobody automates it — not because it’s hard, but because it’s unglamorous and no one owns it.

Skip the moonshot. Build the $3 fix.

This is where I’d start, every time — not with the ambitious “AI transforms the company” project, but with the dull, obvious one that pays for itself in weeks. Find the task everyone complains about and nobody has automated. Put a real number on what it costs you today. That number is almost always bigger than people think.

The flashy AI project makes a good slide. The $3 fix makes payroll easier. I’ll take the second one first, every time.