You’ve worked hard to articulate your AR program objectives and identify what needs to get done in order to achieve them. There’s just one problem …

… turns out there are only 24 hours in a day—just a few shy of the *checks notes* 150 hours that your to-do list requires. And although you’ve made impressive progress on the machine that you will eventually use to clone yourself, that’s still looking like a 2030 release.

This conundrum was at the heart of our latest AR Open Session. We discussed how AR leaders can leverage fractional service providers and AI to get more stuff done in the absence of additional full-time headcount.

Here are 3 action items that came out of the conversation that you can execute on right away to start making better use of your limited time.

1. Identify the one “big win” that will earn you the most credibility with your senior executives—and then write down what’s getting in your way.

The purpose of this thought exercise is to get really specific about who you should turn to for fractional help. When you’re stretched thin, the last thing you want to do is burn budget on a service provider who only slightly increases your impact—so it’s worthwhile to slow down for a minute and think deeply about what you need.

If you’re currently unable to achieve your one “big win,” it’s either because (1) you lack a certain skill or knowledge domain that is required to achieve it, in which case you need a specialized consultant; or (2) you’re spending too much time on other tasks, in which case you simply need an extra set of hands—either human or AI.

It’s frustrating and demoralizing to burn budget on a suboptimal solution. Resist the temptation to (as one Open Session participant put it) “throw money at the wall” as soon as you realize that you need help. One of the keys to making the most of fractional support is to think deeply and be specific.

2. Use AI as a coach, not just a content generator.

True story: The ARInsights Customer Experience team recently asked ChatGPT to tell them what they should do to produce better webinars for our customers. One of its suggestions was to focus less on ARchitect features and more on ARchitect workflows.

The team took the advice to heart: Our July 2025 webinar was all about “The Ultimate Briefing Workflow,” and lo and behold, it was our best-received webinar of the year so far. (Watch it here and you’ll understand why!)

I’m not telling you this story because I want to brag about my coworkers; I’m telling you this story because you can apply it to your AR program.

Try asking the chatbot of your choice to recommend things you can do to be more effective in your conversations with analysts and internal stakeholders. It just might give you a game-changer.

P.S. This recap of our Q1 Open Session is all about the creative ways AR leaders are using AI.

3. Create a simple system for tracking customer advocate activity.

Just like the first item on this list, this is another example of how spending a little time now can save you a lot of time later.

Picture this: You need a customer to provide a case study for an analyst report. You get excited for a moment as the perfect candidate comes to mind—and then you think to yourself, “Wait … have we been overly reliant on this customer?”

You then proceed to waste precious time digging through your inbox in search of an answer to that question. Multiply this by dozens of customer advocates over the course of a year and … that’s a lot of time searching in Outlook.

The solution? Use ARchitect Projects (or a spreadsheet, if you’re not a customer of ours yet) to create a simple system for tracking every instance of a customer advocating on your behalf. This not only makes it effortless to determine whether you’re relying too much on a certain customer, but also helps you see which customers are best suited for specific situations (evaluative reports vs. awards vs. online reviews vs. et cetera).

P.S. If customer advocacy is one of those tasks that’s eating up too much of your time, our services team can take it off your plate.

Want to discuss more ideas like these with your fellow AR leaders? AR Engage Live 25 is the perfect place to do it.

The beauty of our quarterly Open Session is that it gives AR leaders an opportunity to speak candidly with one another about the challenges they’re facing.

Having those candid conversations virtually is great. Having them in person? Even better.

That’s why we’re bringing the AR community together for two days of learning and networking in downtown San Francisco this November. Get your free ticket to AR Engage Live 25 now—they’re going fast!