My New Book (And 3 Lessons From Writing)

My new book "The Profitable AI Advantage" launches today.

The book helps you systematically identify AI opportunities, put them on a roadmap and implement them in a way to create profit for your business.

Do you still need books in the age of AI? I spent over a year documenting my lessons learned from 50+ applied AI projects, and I came to a clear conclusion: Yes. Because AI can give you frameworks, but it can't share direct experience.

So if you're ready to stop chasing the shiny AI toys and start implementing real, profitable AI solutions in your business instead, grab your copy here (bonus at the end of this email).

Otherwise, let me take you behind the scenes of what led to writing this and which lessons I've learned after writing 3 books in a row (while running a full-time business).

Let's dive in!

3 Lessons

I'm not a full-time writer. I'm running a full-time AI consulting business, teaching courses on the side, and still trying to be as present as possible for my family. So writing a book in a situation like mine feels a bit like trying to change a tire while driving the car. It's messy and chaotic in ways that no writing guide prepares you for.

After three books, I've realized that a lot of the writing advice out there is flawed. Even with powerful AI tools, too many people have a romantic idea of what writing a book actually looks like. Sitting on the balcony with a cup of tea, watching the sun go down while you gather your thoughts. That’s mostly wishful thinking – at least for the kind of books I’m writing.

Here’s what I learned:

1) Documentation > Creation

When you write a book you don’t have to invent something new. In fact, that’s often counterproductive because you never know if “new” will eventually work. The best strategy I found is to just document what already works. For me, that’s mainly knowledge coming from my consulting projects, client calls, and workshop content.

In fact, "The Profitable AI Advantage" didn't start as a book idea. It evolved over 110+ weeks of emails about what I was learning from real AI projects. The frameworks I kept using with clients. The mistakes I saw repeated everywhere. The approaches that actually moved the P&L.

So when Packt Publishing reached out over a year ago, I didn't have to create content from scratch. I spent the next 12 months collecting materials from the work I was doing anyway that I knew was working because people were already using it.

AI became a huge leverage here. It helped me organize scattered insights, transition between newsletter and book formats naturally, and find blind spots I'd missed.

2) Ship at 80%

I used to be a perfectionist. (And I still am in some areas of life.) But after 15 years in the grind, I realized that business is inherently messy. “Perfect” doesn’t exist. Even more: waiting for perfection is harmful. There's a fine distinction between pursuing excellence and demanding perfection. The same applies to books.

There's always one more chapter to polish, one more example to add, one more expert to interview. Meanwhile, your book sits unpublished while others ship their book with half the insights you had.

I learned this the hard way with my first book. I spent countless hours to make everything “perfect” and triple-check every code example worked. Then 6 months after the release, Microsoft sunsetted one of the services I was using – it was still working but new people couldn’t sign up. You simply can’t account for everything (or if you do you’ll end up with fluffy talk).

"The Profitable AI Advantage" wasn't released because it’s perfect but because I thought that on those 250+ pages I said the most important things to get people started on their journey to profitable AI implementation. The 20% left on the table? Subscribe to my newsletter.

3) Better Clients

Unless you’re Alex Hormozi or Barack Obama, you won't get rich selling books. I know extremely talented writers who wrote THE guide in their area of expertise and yet struggle to make more than $2K/month from book sales alone. If you’re looking for ways to turn your expertise into money fast, I wouldn’t recommend books as an entry point.

Books serve a different purpose.

They help you crystallize your thinking and force you to “get your brain in order”. Organizing your expertise across 200-400 pages will show you the gaps between what you think you know and what you actually know.

Plus, books become an effective client filter. A book gives people the ability to tap into your brain without tapping into your brain. If they want more, they typically know how to find you. My best consulting gigs came from people who'd already read my work - sometimes a full book, sometimes just a chapter.

AI can give you frameworks all day long. ChatGPT will happily generate an 'AI adoption strategy' in 30 seconds. But it can't give you access to the actual experience of watching projects succeed and fail in the real world. That only comes from doing the work yourself – or learning from others who’ve documented their learnings in a book.

The Profitable AI Advantage

So here's how my latest book came to be:

Instead of trying to invent something new, I documented what worked (and didn’t work) in projects spanning multinational corporations to small 10-person businesses. The frameworks that clients understood and actually applied. The mistakes that cost companies 6-figure budgets and months of effort. The tactics that actually moved P&L numbers instead of just showing a "cool" demo.

If you've been reading my newsletter for a while, you'll find a lot of familiar concepts – in an enhanced, tightened and clarified way. The writing process taught me to focus.

Because originally, the book had a different title.

When I signed the contract last year, the planned name was "The AI Advantage". Back then, I thought this was cool because who doesn't want an AI advantage? But in late 2025 and 500M+ people using ChatGPT, "having AI" isn't enough anymore. Businesses don't struggle with buying Copilot licenses. They struggle with identifying which use cases actually drive the needle. So the angle of this book became to be results-oriented and "profitable". A word that I insisted to be in the title. I fought my publisher for it and you can imagine their excitement. But ultimately, they agreed because they saw the point. There are enough books that promise an advantage. What's needed though is a clear roadmap to create more profit in your business with the help of AI.

To do that, the book acts as a guide that comes in 3 parts:

Part 1: Preparing for the Journey - cuts through AI hype to show what's actually happening and why so many projects get stuck. You'll learn why copying Silicon Valley's playbook rarely works, and what successful adoption strategies look like in practice.

• Chapter 1: Understanding the AI Revolution

• Chapter 2: Understanding Modern AI

• Chapter 3: Approaches to Successful AI Adoption

Part 2: Charting the Course - Practical frameworks for finding AI opportunities that pay for themselves. You'll learn how to build a structured AI roadmap that moves from vague ambition to prioritized action.

• Chapter 4: Getting Started on Your AI Journey

• Chapter 5: Finding AI Opportunities in Processes and Products

• Chapter 6: Designing AI Use Cases

• Chapter 7: Building Your AI Roadmap

Part 3: Setting Sail - Takes you from planning to action. You'll learn how to build effective prototypes, what it takes to bring them into production, and pick the right AI tools to accelerate your journey.

• Chapter 8: Prototyping for Success

• Chapter 9: Scaling AI-Powered Systems and Workflows

• Chapter 10: Leveraging Your AI Toolkit

Get Your Copy Today

"The Profitable AI Advantage" is available now on Amazon and in bookstores worldwide.

• Amazon US: The Profitable AI Advantage

• Amazon DE: The Profitable AI Advantage

If you purchase, I’d be forever grateful if you could leave a review on Amazon ❤️

Special thanks to everyone who supported this book, in particular the entire crew from Packt Publishing, Sumi Singh for her thorough tech review and Armand Ruiz for contributing a stellar foreword.

Happy reading!

See you next Friday,
Tobias

P.S. To celebrate the occasion, "The Augmented Advantage" will move forward as the "Profitable AI Newsletter" - same practical approach, even more focus on results.