Torpedo Bats, AI Agents, and Optimizing Your Expertise

Aaron Leanhardt is a name you likely haven't heard much before, if ever.

He's the MIT physicist-turned-baseball instructor who's spinning the baseball world on its head.

(Side note: I love baseball. America's pastime echoes through the hallway of my childhood dreams. Stick with me for a short trip around the baseball world.)

This season, my beloved New York Yankees turned to Leanhardt's expertise to answer one core question...

Where can we adapt a fundamental part of hitting to optimize every at-bat, up and down the line-up?

Leanhardt's answer? Changing the shape of the baseball bat.

Narrowing the head of the bat and elongating the barrel gives a greater surface area for a batter to make meaningful contact with a pitch.

These new bats have a torpedo-shaped appearance, hence the moniker Torpedo Bats.

The length and weight of a Torpedo Bat is within the MLB guidelines, the same as a 'normal' bat.

But the results? The Yankees hit nine home runs, racking up 20 runs on Opening Day. They hit fifteen home runs in their first three games this season, tying a major league record.

MVP hopeful Elly de la Cruz hit seven RBIs yesterday during his first game using a Torpedo Bat.

Baseball has largely used the same bats for generations, with a small innovation switching from ash bats to maple bats in the late 90's.

Why did it take so long to innovate beyond the status quo? In Leanhardt's words:

"...Every now and then, it takes a little bit of time to question what you're doing. And so a couple years ago, some of the hitters started questioning what they were doing. And I just kind of responded to their questions.” (MLB.com)

The advisory space is experiencing a massive disruption due to AI innovation. Financial advisors, health and wellness entrepreneurs, corporate consultants, and other B2B advisors are feeling the strain of disruption.

What's the advisory version of a Torpedo Bat? AI agents.

If that term is unfamiliar, you'll likely know one form of AI agents called custom GPTs.

These are your trained, proprietary AI processes, bots, and other automations that can optimize your expertise.

As one example, financial professionals are seeing incredible AI-driven platforms and programs outpace their technical expertise in trading, financial planning, risk assessment, and other aspects of portfolio management.

What does that spell for the future?

Advisors in any industry already sense this shift, and the ones who will succeed the most are the ones who are proactive with this opportunity.

Advisors who innovate by adopting not just one but an entire ecosystem of AI agents will have greater 'at-bats' with clients in the near future.

With the right ecosystem in place, you can empower AI agents to handle the technical side of your expertise. It will optimize what you do best.

This will free you up to focus on what you uniquely bring to the conversation: Human connection. Empathy. Experience. Earned perspective. Unpredictable responses in the form of wisdom.

These are earned qualities that few, if any AI agent will ever be able to fully replicate.

That's why it's imperative for advisors in every space to focus on implementing AI agents with greater intentionality.

"But, Jon, my OSJ/regulatory board/licensure will never sign off on me using a custom AI agent with my clients."

Have you asked? Have you tried? What AI-driven resources are already available inside your advisory firm, specifically if you're part of a larger broker-dealer or organization that you can 'test drive' with your clients?

AI agents will become mainstream across every advisory space in the next year or two. Guaranteed.

Where do you see the opportunities to leverage AI in doing the lower-impact, time-sucking tasks so you can optimize what you do best?

No matter the size or shape of the baseball bat, the batter is still the one who needs to swing. The batter still needs great eye discipline, power, accuracy, and situational awareness.

As Leanhardt said, "At the end of the day, it's about the batter, not the bat. It's about the hitters and their hitting coaches, not the hitting implements."

Yes, there's an unfathomable opportunity with the latest AI innovations, so what do you need to change about how you show up as an advisor and the tools of your work?

What can AI agents do for your advisory business to give you better 'at-bats' in the form of more productive, profitable conversations with clients and prospects?

And what will that allow you to do more of as a fully empowered human who happens to be an advisor?

You still need to be the one crafting a powerful message borne from the guts of your passion.

You still need to be the one standing on stage in front of a crowd eager to hear your thoughts, not your AI agents' outputs.

You still need to be the one your clients and prospects trust to give a different perspective based on your experience, empathy, and earned wisdom.

AI agents are the new 'bat' for advisors to get better and better results, but your crowd is cheering for you to make these moments matter even more.

Batter up.