The Cortex Protocol (Your Autonomous Business, Part 3)

Good morning.

In the first part, you read about The Great Convergence that’s now taking place.

In this second part, you saw how a Bionic Business can work.

In this third part, you’ll see exactly how to get started quickly, with low-hanging fruit, and how you can leverage AI and Agents to grow and scale your business.

Let’s get into it.

—Sam

IN TODAY’S ISSUE 🤖 

• The Cortex Protocol

• Starting Points: Your First Neural Pathways

• Building Your First Brain Functions

• Grow & Scale with AI and Agents

• Cortex: Signals and Circuits

Let’s dive in.

The Cortex Protocol

Most businesses implementing AI are doing it wrong.

They're buying chatbots they don't need. Installing automation tools that break. Pursuing AI projects that go nowhere. 

And wasting hundreds of thousands and even millions on initiatives that deliver a fraction of their promised value.

Why?

Because they're trying to bolt intelligence onto existing systems instead of building it into their operational DNA. 

They're treating AI like a fancy new tool rather than what it really is:

The nervous system of a living, breathing business.

The Costly Illusion of Easy AI

I've spent the last 8+ years watching businesses fail at AI implementation. 

The pattern is always the same:

1. They get excited about AI's potential, often distracted by a shiny AI object.

2. They rush to implement the latest tools, trying out a ton of them.

3. They think that “mega prompts” are all they need.

4. They celebrate small initial wins and think they’ve figured it out.

5. Everything falls apart, tools break, processes are a mess.

6. They blame the technology and think that “AI is stupid”.

A Fortune 500 retailer spent $12 million on an AI customer service system that their customers hated. I tried to stop them and guide them right but their C-suite management were stubborn.

A tech startup burned through $4 million trying to automate their sales process, only to revert to human sales teams. I told them it was a terrible idea and recommended better systems that could’ve done the job.

A media company invested heavily in AI content generation, only to find the output was unusable. They came to me after it crashed and burned.

These are symptoms of a fundamental misunderstanding about how business intelligence works.

Quick Wins vs. Long-term Transformation

The path to business intelligence isn't linear. 

You need both quick wins to build momentum and long-term initiatives to create lasting change.

Quick Wins (30-90 days):

• Automated customer service responses

• Basic pricing optimization

• Simple inventory management

• Marketing campaign automation

• Sales lead scoring

Long-term Transformation (6-18 months):

• Full customer journey intelligence

• Dynamic pricing ecosystems

• Predictive inventory systems

• Autonomous marketing optimization

• Integrated sales intelligence

The key is to pursue quick wins that align with your long-term transformation goals. Each small victory should build toward your larger vision of a fully intelligent business.

The timeline varies based on your starting point, resources, and commitment to transformation. 

But one thing remains constant: the sooner you start, the sooner you'll see results.

First Steps on the Path

Ready to start your transformation? 

Begin with these critical steps:

1. Audit Your Current State

   • Map your existing processes

   • Identify data sources and flows

   • Assess technology capabilities

   • Evaluate tech and team readiness

   • Document pain points and opportunities

2. Define Your Intelligence Vision

   • Set clear transformation goals

   • Identify priority areas

   • Define success metrics

3. Build Your First Neural Pathways

   • Choose high-impact starting points

   • Implement initial connections

   • Measure and optimize results

   • Expand based on learnings

In the next section, we'll look at how to build your first neural pathways and begin your transformation journey.

Starting Points: Your First Neural Pathways

The hardest part of any transformation is knowing where to begin. 

This is especially true when building business intelligence. The opportunities seem endless, but so do the potential pitfalls.

After guiding over 100+ businesses through this process, I've discovered a truth that might surprise you: 

The best starting point isn't always the most obvious one. It's rarely your biggest pain point.

The key is to find the neural pathways that will give you the highest return on intelligence (ROI) with the lowest implementation risk. 

Let's discover yours.

1. Identifying High-Leverage Opportunities

Your business is sitting on goldmines of untapped intelligence. 

Here's a process that requires both strategic vision (understanding the signals) and tactical know-how (building the right circuits):

Data-Rich Processes

Look for processes where you already have information and data but aren't using it effectively. 

These are your low-hanging fruit. 

Common examples include:

• Customer service interactions

• Sales conversation logs

• Website behavioral data

• Product usage statistics

• Transaction histories

• Email history and metrics

• Ad data, metrics

The richest opportunities often involve multiple data sources, too. 

For instance, combining customer service data with purchase history can reveal patterns that predict customer churn before it happens.

Critical Decision Points

Map out where your business makes frequent, important decisions. 

Focus on decisions that are:

1. High-Frequency: Made daily or weekly

2. Data-Dependent: Based on measurable factors

3. Impact-Heavy: Affect revenue or customer satisfaction

4. Currently Subjective: Rely heavily on "gut feel"

For example, an e-commerce business might find that pricing decisions meet all these criteria:

• Made constantly (High-Frequency)

• Based on market data (Data-Dependent)

• Directly affect profits (Impact-Heavy)

• Often based on intuition (Currently Subjective)

Customer Interaction Touchpoints

Any point where your business interfaces with customers is a potential neural pathway. 

Pre-Purchase:

• Marketing message personalization

• Product recommendations

• Search result optimization

• Cart abandonment prevention

During Purchase:

• Pricing optimization

• Inventory management

• Payment processing

Post-Purchase:

• Order tracking

• Customer support

• Review management

• Retention marketing

Revenue-Impacting Operations

Focus on operations that directly affect your bottom line:

• Inventory management

• Supply chain optimization

• Resource allocation

• Marketing spend

• Sales pipeline management

2. Evaluating Readiness 

Before building any neural pathway, assess these critical factors:

Data Availability and Quality

Score each potential pathway on:

1. Data Volume: How much historical data exists?

2. Data Quality: How clean and consistent is the data?

3. Data Access: How easily can you retrieve and process the data?

Example: A SaaS company found they had years of customer support tickets (high volume) in a standardized format (high quality) that was easily accessible through their help desk API (high access). This became their first neural pathway.

Process Documentation

Evaluate your current process documentation:

• Are procedures clearly documented?

• Are decision points well-defined?

• Are outcomes measurable?

• Are exceptions handled systematically?

The best first pathways often have strong documentation but inefficient execution.

You then need to assess how possible Integration is, and if your team has the capabilities to execute (or you need to hire those who can).

The goal is to create one strong neural pathway that can serve as the foundation for your business intelligence transformation.

And then add more of them.

The path to intelligence begins with a single step. But to truly succeed, you'll need both the strategic vision to read signals and the tactical expertise to build reliable circuits. 

The businesses that master both layers—strategy and implementation—are the ones that will crush it.

In the next section, we'll dive deep into how to build your first brain functions—the actual implementation of intelligence in your chosen pathway.

Building Your First Brain Functions

You've identified your neural pathways. You've assessed your readiness. 

Now comes the next part: 

Building the actual intelligence into your business operations.

This is where most businesses stumble.

They either oversimplify ("just add a chatbot!") or overcomplicate ("we need a full deep learning infrastructure!"). The truth lies in the middle—sophisticated but straightforward, powerful yet practical.

Let's build your first brain functions the right way.

Core Components

Every effective business brain function requires four essential elements working together.

1. Data Collection and Processing

Think of this as your business's sensory system.

You want data, like customer interactions, financial metrics, conversion metrics, and so on.

Example: A SaaS company built their first brain function around user behavior. 

They collected:

• Feature usage patterns

• Time-on-task metrics

• Error encounters

• Support interactions

• Engagement scores

All data fed into a central system that standardized and structured it for real-time processing.

2. Decision Engines

This is your business cortex—where data becomes intelligence.

These are functions like pattern recognition, trend identification, business logic, decision criteria, performance tracking, and so on.

Example: An e-commerce company's pricing brain.

It processes:

• Historical sales data

• Competitor pricing

• Inventory levels

• Market demand

• Customer behavior

The system learns from each transaction, continuously refining its pricing strategies.

3. Action Systems

Your business's motor functions—turning decisions into results:

You have things like AI Agents, workflows and automations, monitoring, communication triggers, and more.

Example: A media company's content distribution brain functions automatically.

It basically handles: 

• Schedules posts

• Adjusts timing

• Modifies messaging

• Optimizes channels

• Measures results

It’s basically a self-driving content system.

4. Feedback Loops

The learning system that makes your business brain smarter over time.

You’re looking at success metrics, impact, ROI tracking, process optimization, and so on.

Example: An agency kept track of client performance and made sure to quickly fix any lagging results.

They collected client performance data:

• Campaign performance metrics (daily/weekly/monthly)

• Ad spend efficiency

• Conversion rate trends

• Cost per acquisition changes

• Revenue generated

This system then self-corrected and notified the agency of issues, low performance, and provided recommendations on what to do.

You can see the immense potential of an intelligent, self-correcting business system—right?

When implemented correctly, it's like giving your business a superpower—the ability to detect issues, optimize performance, and seize opportunities automatically.

But here's what almost always goes wrong: 

I've watched brilliant entrepreneurs and seasoned business leaders struggle to implement these systems on their own. 

They get caught in an endless cycle of:

• Testing different tools (too many of them)

• Trying the latest “mega prompt”

• Debugging broken workflows

• Fixing integration issues

• Rebuilding failed automations

• Starting over. Again and again.

Building business intelligence is fundamentally different from building traditional business systems.

It's like trying to construct a living organism instead of a machine.

This is why I’m turning this newsletter into a paid, premium newsletter that will provide you with what you need to grow and scale your business with AI.

It’s a monthly business intelligence report, combining both the strategic vision (signals) and the tactical how-to’s (circuits).

Remember: The future belongs to businesses that can think, learn, and adapt at scale. 

The question is: Will yours be one of them?

Grow & Scale An Autonomous Business with AI and Agents

Implementing this transformation alone can be unnecessarily hard and risky.

Whether you're running a small online business or leading a largeteam or company, the challenges are the same:

• The technology changes weekly.

• Implementation mistakes are costly.

• Learning curves are steep.

• Time is always against you.

Why Most Implementations Fail

Let's be brutally honest about why most businesses struggle with AI implementation:

The Piecemeal Problem

Many businesses try to:

• Implement isolated tools

• Add disconnected automations

• Deploy uncoordinated agents

• Create fragmented workflows

• Build without strategy

The result? A collection of smart parts that never becomes a truly intelligent whole.

The Resource Reality

Even with unlimited budget, you still face:

• Technology that evolves extremely fast

• Complex integration challenges

• Steep learning curves

• Implementation risks

• Opportunity costs

A single wrong turn can cost months of progress and thousands in wasted resources.

The Expertise Gap

Most businesses lack:

• Strategic AI expertise

• Technical implementation knowledge

• Integration experience

• Optimization skills

• Transformation experience

So, I decided to offer CORTEX, a monthly premium version of Bionic Business to help entrepreneurs and business owners with AI and Agents.

Cortex: Signals and Circuits

Every month, you’ll get additional strategic (Signals) and tactical (Circuits) email issues that will help you transform your existing business into an intelligent, adaptive organism.

That means every month you get: 

• Regular email issues with my expert commentary on news, tools, and developments (like you are now, but the free version will be shorter, only paying subscribers get the full issue).

• 1x SIGNALS Strategic Briefing.

• 1x CIRCUITS Tactical Guide.

Whether you're a solo entrepreneur or part of the C-suite running a larger operation, the monthly premium issues provide:

• Clear strategic direction.

• Proven implementation frameworks.

• Expert guidance from someone who’s done this for years.

The SIGNALS issues are deep-dives into:

• Emerging AI capabilities.

• Business automation opportunities.

• Transformation strategies.

• Decision frameworks.

• Implementation planning.

You get this so you can: 

• Stay ahead of AI developments.

• Identify prime opportunities.

• Avoid costly mistakes.

• Accelerate implementation.

• Maximize ROI.

The CIRCUITS issues are short, practical implementation guides for:

• AI agent setup.

• Workflow creation.

• Prompt engineering.

• Maximize model use.

• Performance optimization.

You get this so you can: 

• Reduce implementation time.

• Minimize errors.

• Optimize performance.

• Accelerate results.

• Maximize efficiency.

These are not full courses or workshops. Ain’t nobody got time for that. 

You don’t need more information, just clear action steps on things you can do today.

I’m applying my experience and expertise to show you the 80/20, the 1% that affects the other 99%, the levers to pull, and the most important things you need to know.

Honestly, this is at least half the reason you should subscribe: So you don’t waste time and energy on AI hype that doesn’t matter.

To give you an example, you might get a SIGNALS issue on how to use Reasoning LLMs in your business. 

This issue will go into what these models are, how they work, and how you can best use them strategically inside your business.

The CIRCUITS issue will give you specific examples, prompts, and workflow ideas for how you can implement Reasoning LLMs in a tactical way.

One is strategic (Signals), the other tactical (Circuits).

You might think this level of transformation is only for large businesses. 

The reality? Yes, large businesses have an advantage and can do a lot more—but small businesses often benefit from intelligence implementation because they can move faster.

The intelligence I’m sharing works at any size—it's about choosing the right starting point for your business.

Cool?

Cortex is focused purely on high-value intelligence delivery:

• No community to join.

• No courses to complete.

• No coaching calls.

• No fluff or filler.

Everything is delivered via email. No logins, no portals, no complexity—just pure, actionable intelligence in your inbox.

Who is it for? Who is it not for?

This is for entrepreneurs and business owners who want to scale with the help of AI and Agents—and turn their business into an autonomous business.

If you have an existing business, and you want to integrate AI into what you’re doing so you can increase revenue, margins, and profit—as well as find your unfair advantage—this is for you.

This also means that if you’re a startup, “AI curious”, or still looking for something to sell, then you might get value from Cortex but it’s not geared towards your situation.

I won’t be covering “how to start an AI business” or similar topics. That’s not what this is (and this newsletter has never been about that, either).

Everything I’ll talk about will be in the context of existing businesses, with products or services, making sales, growing, building, etc.

But your business can be “small” and still get value from this.

In my applied AI studio business, we work with medium to large-sized businesses at $10M or more per year, but almost always around $50-$100M in revenue.

This newsletter, and Cortex, takes what I’m doing for larger businesses and simplifies it for smaller businesses.

So, you could be at $10k, $100k, $500k or more per month. Doesn’t matter, as long as you have an actual business.

SaaS, ecommerce, agencies, media companies, educational companies, etc. doesn’t matter, either.

Cool? I want to be clear about this, as AI hype has tricked a lot of people into thinking there are one-click buttons to make money with AI, or that building and growing a business isn’t a lot of work.

(This also means that if you’re on the AI hype train and you’re playing with these tools and hope to one day make money—now would be a good time to unsubscribe).

Ready to Join Cortex? 

Cortex is currently closed for new paying subscribers but will open again soon.

Subscribe to Bionic Business to be notified when Cortex opens up again.

Make sure you open Bionic Business emails so you don’t miss the next time it opens up.

I've spent years watching businesses struggle with AI implementation.

Most fail. Some spectacularly. A few succeed beyond their wildest expectations.

I’ve also spent years helping businesses implement various AI systems.

The difference isn't budget, team size, or even technical expertise. 

Those things matter.

But it's understanding one simple truth:

Building business intelligence is an evolution. A transformation. A metamorphosis.

With the Bionic approach, I've seen:

• A small business entrepreneur cut operational time by 73% in 38 days, outmaneuvering competitors 10 times their size.

• An agency increasing project profitability by 33% in 47 days, while their competitors struggled to keep margins above water.

• A media company boosting content engagement by 47% in 27 days, dominating conversations their larger rivals couldn't even join.

Making moves like these requires a shift in how you think and do business.

You’re not eliminating solid, timeless business principles. You’re not throwing out the importance of solid offers to the right market, and everything else.

You're also not installing software. You’re not tinkering with prompts in a chat. 

You're growing a nervous system inside your business.

This requires both strategic vision to spot the Signals and tactical expertise to build the Circuits.

You’ll go from using prompts, to automations, to Agents, to building brains and transforming your existing business into a Bionic Business.

You’re starting with one neural pathway, building it properly, and expanding from there.

Subscribe to Bionic Business to be notified when Cortex opens up again.

Talk soon
Sam Woods
The Editor