The 87% Rule: Letting Go of the Boring Work

In this episode of Building with imaginAction, we look at a recent white paper published by the Harvard Business Review on how modern software teams are using artificial intelligence. While the data is aimed at massive enterprise corporations with budgets to match, it carries a vital lesson for solo builders and small business operators.

A recent McKinsey study highlighted in the paper revealed that 87% of developers using generative AI felt they could focus on more satisfying, high-value, and meaningful work—compared to just 50% of those who weren't using the technology.

The reason for this massive gap isn't that a machine is doing the high-level thinking. It’s because technology is taking away the tedious, repetitive, mind-numbing administrative legwork—like drafting standard templates, setting up frameworks, and manual data-entry. This episode breaks down how you can apply this exact concept to your own business project using the five platform experts inside Levonis to handle the heavy lifting, clear the noise off your screen, and put you back in control of your high-level strategy.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The 87% Study: Why developers using AI tools are significantly happier and moving faster than those stuck doing manual administrative tasks.
• The True Friction in New Ideas: Why it’s rarely the big, creative vision that stalls a solo operator, but the boring administrative legwork.
• Outsourcing the Heavy Lifting: How using specialized roles for your project management, marketing, operations, compliance, and tech needs keeps you out of burnout.

Head over to Levonis.ai to see how it works for your own project.

What is Building with imaginAction?

Building with ImaginAction is a business development podcast exploring the systems, strategies, and technologies behind modern companies.

Hosted by GB and brought to you by Levonis.AI, each episode breaks down practical approaches to business growth, operational thinking, AI implementation, product development, automation, and execution — without the hype.

From building smarter workflows and scalable systems to refining offers, positioning, and decision-making, this podcast is designed for founders, operators, creators, and business owners who want actionable insights they can apply immediately.

No interviews. No noise. Just focused conversations on building better businesses in the age of AI.

The 87% Rule: Letting Go of the Boring Work
Welcome back to Building with imaginAction.
Today, let’s talk about a recent white paper published by the Harvard Business Review that looks at how modern software teams are using artificial intelligence. While it was aimed at big business with big teams (and a budget to match), it had some interesting things for all of us small builders - and shows just why our Levonis tool exists!
One of the things that stood out was a statistic that 87% of those using generative AI felt they were able to focus on more satisfying and meaningful work. Compared to the developers who weren't using the technology, only 50% felt that way.
That is a decent gap, and it tells us something incredibly important about how we should be building businesses today.
The reason those developers are happier and moving faster isn't because the AI is doing their thinking for them. It's because the technology is taking away the tedious, repetitive, mind-numbing parts of the job—like writing basic code structures or setting up testing frameworks. It clears the table so the human can focus on the creative, high-level problem solving that a machine simply cannot replicate.
Now, bring that back to your own project or small business, and to Levonis.
When you get a new idea, what is the stuff that actually stalls you out? It’s rarely the big, creative vision. It’s the boring, administrative legwork. It’s sitting down to draft a standard template, trying to figure out how to format a basic action plan, or manually searching the internet for how to structure a tech scope. It is tedious work, and it drains your mental energy before you even get to the execution phase.
This is exactly why we built Levonis.
The goal of the platform isn't to replace your intelligence or spit out a generic, automated business-in-a-box. We designed it to be the equalisation tool that lets a single person move at the same speed as an enterprise corporate team. It takes the heavy, repetitive lifting of project planning off your plate.
When you open up an Idea Chat, you are handing over the boring structural layout tasks to the system. You give it your raw, unpolished thoughts, and it handles the heavy lifting of mapping out the baseline logistics, the pricing variables, and the framework grids. That means you get to spend your time on the 87% side of the ledger—focusing on the meaningful strategy, refining the actual product offer, and talking to your real-world customers.
When you start building a project or business with the platform’s five experts, you outsource the heavy lifting that otherwise bogs you down. On the platform: Michael is your project manager; Sophia looks after your marketing; Jack is your operations guy; Chloe researches your compliance; and Liam guides your tech needs.
Instead of you trying to juggle all five of those roles simultaneously—and burning out before lunch trying to be your own tech guy and expensive compliance lawyer—you let them handle the tedious administrative layouts.
They clear the distraction from the screen so you can actually step up as the director. It puts you right back into that 87% bracket, doing the high-value strategic work that actually gets a project live. You don't need infinite corporate resources to build a calculated business asset anymore. You just need to stop doing the data-entry work manually. That’s working smart.
Head over to Levonis.ai to see how it works for your own project, and I’ll see you in the next episode.