A New Definition for FAFO
Why the future belongs to the leaders willing to figure AI the f*** out — before it figures them out.
The boardroom was silent.
Then one of the directors leaned back in his chair and explained,
“We have to be careful watch how the tech matures.”
The room was in quiet agreement.
Not out of certainty, but uncertainty.
Translation: Out of fear, we’ll let someone else figure it out first.
That’s when it hit me, most companies aren’t competing with AI.
They’re competing with courage.
The Old FAFO
For years, “FAFO” meant one thing:
F*** around and find out.
It was a warning…a not-so-subtle smirk before the consequence.
…a reminder that naivety had a price.
But this definition doesn’t fit the Age of AI.
Because today, the ones who “figure it out,” who tinker, test, and touch the unknown…they aren’t reckless.
They’re the ones getting ahead.
The old FAFO is powerful, but too broad.
In the age of AI we need to be more targeted. We need Figure AI the F*** Out (FAFO).
The Divide
There’s a quiet split forming in leadership.
Most leaders are still hoping AI will save them.
They’re waiting for the market to “mature.”
They’re spinning the luck wheel, hoping to land on the one tiny green slice labeled WIN, surrounded by gray.
Tomorrow’s winners will build their own wheel.
They’re experimenting in real time — embedding AI into their workflows, teams, and culture.
They’re not waiting for certainty (that will never come).
They’re FAFO.
The New Definition of FAFO
Figure AI the F*** Out.
It’s not about chaos.
It’s about curiosity.
It’s the discipline to explore without a guaranteed outcome.
That’s where the breakthroughs live.
In the Age of AI, FAFO has evolved from cheeky meme to market share necessity.
FAFO leaders aren’t reckless; they’re relentless.
They’re testing prompts, workflows, automations, and integrations…not because it’s easy, but because clarity only comes through contact with real world results.
You can’t plan your way to AI maturity.
You have to build your way there.
The FAFO Companies
These companies are messy in the best way.
Their Slack threads are full of “What if we…” ideas.
Their prompt libraries look like lab notebooks.
They’ve broken a dozen workflows and learned more in six months than most competitors will in five years.
They’re playing with tools like Famous AI to build out micro-applications (Listen to my interview with their founder).
They’re building content workflows with Captions App to produce professional marketing and thought-leadership content for tenth the cost.
They understand that figuring it out is the moat.
Every test builds muscle.
Every failure builds intuition.
Every iteration tightens the connection between human creativity and machine capability.
They’re not adopting AI.
They’re adapting to it.
One is a transaction.
The other is transformation.
The Leadership Mandate
If you lead people, FAFO isn’t a meme — it’s a mandate.
Because the companies that Figure AI the F*** Out, internally, imperfectly, experimentally, will own the next decade.
They’ll move faster.
Decide smarter.
Scale trust at speeds their competitors can’t touch.
You can’t delegate discovery.
Perfection is just procrastination with better branding.
In every era, the brave outperformed the brilliant.
The industrialists experimented with steel.
The internet pioneers experimented with code.
Today’s leaders? They’re experimenting with AI.
The tools change.
The courage doesn’t.
Companies Implementing FAFO
Here are a few examples of companies that are putting FAFO to work.
Munich Re
Munich Re’s Realytix Zero platform uses generative AI in underwriting and product design: assistants, low-code/no-code configuration, enabling new product launches “within hours or days.”
Munich Re turned underwriting from an annual slog into an hours-to-days product-launch engine
AXA
AXA deployed its proprietary “AXA Secure GPT” tool (built in-house in partnership with Microsoft) and now has ~400 AI use-cases in production across predictive, generative & agentic AI.
AXA didn’t spin the wheel hoping for a win — they built the machine, rolled out 400 use‐cases, and FAFO’d AI.
JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan have deployed over 450 AI applications in areas like call-center automation, asset-management support, legal‐document review.
PMorgan isn’t hoping someone else figures AI out. They built the lab. They built the platform.
They’re training 200,000 employees to speak AI fluently. The wheel isn’t spinning for luck—it’s built for wins.
The Rub
The Age of AI won’t reward the smartest leaders.
It’ll reward the ones who FAFO first.
AI technology and integration into every aspect of our society is happening too rapidly.
Being a laggard is a death sentence.
There’s no perfect product, no plug-and-play miracle.
There’s only the work…the testing, the learning, the figuring it out.
We’re all going to have to FAFO.
The only question is when.
This is the way.
Hanley
P.S. What has been your experience FAFO (Figuring AI the F*** Out) so far?
👉 If this hit, share it with one leader still “waiting for the perfect tool.” They might need a little FAFO in their life.
[Live Workshop] 3 AI CustomGPTs That 10x Your Influence
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During this training we’re going to walk-through the process of setting up 3 CustomGPTs in OpenAI that 10x your influence online.
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JPMorgan's approach to AI is exactly what the FAFO mindset looks like at scale. Training 200,000 employees across 450 applications isn't a pilot program, it's a full blown transformation. While other banks are waiting for the perfect solution, JPMorgan is building institutional knowlede through experimentation and iteration.
AI is a magic wand that needs to be wielded by those willing to experiment and iterate. More and more consumers, founders, and enterprises are realizing the people who master operators are even more important than coders