AI and Dragons: Why Flex Operators and Landlords Need to Stop Slaying the Wrong Beast
AI isn’t a beast to slay, it’s a tool to scale
The Ancient Origins of Our Fear
Back in ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerians had a flair for mythic metaphors. When they wanted to explain chaos or the unknowable, they conjured up dragons—or more accurately, massive serpents.
Tiamat, the original big snake, wasn’t just terrifying—she was chaos.
A primordial sea-dragon goddess, she embodied the untamed, unpredictable forces of the world. And when things got messy, Tiamat was inevitably behind it.
This habit of naming the unexplainable passed on through civilisations.
When in doubt, blame the beast.
Fast forward to 2025, and here we are…still doing it.
Only now the dragon (in the business world) is called AI.
Landlords with flex ambitions, and flex operators trying to scale, often react the same way:
AI? Too complicated. Too expensive. Not for us. Call someone in IT and hope.
But AI isn’t a dragon. It’s a toolbox.
And it isn’t going away.
What the Greeks and Romans Got Right
The Greeks and Romans didn’t exactly bust the dragon myth, but they did change the narrative. Serpents became symbols—of chaos, greed, nature. And instead of cowering, they sent in heroes. Python was slain by Apollo. Hercules took on the Hydra.
The message?
The dragon isn’t a mystery. It’s a challenge to be overcome.
And this is where we are with AI.
It’s not unknowable. It’s just new.
Stop whispering about the “big snake” in the server room and start figuring out how to put a saddle on it.
Most importantly:
AI isn’t a tech problem. It’s a business problem to solve.
AI Solves Business Problems
Not Just Technical Ones
AI isn’t just about machine learning models and code.
It’s about solving boring, expensive business problems with smarter tools. And it only works if everyone’s involved—sales, ops, marketing, even finance.
Siloed tech experiments? Dead on arrival.
But cross-functional ones? They fly.
And Data? Not That Scary.
No, Really...
When people hear “data,” they picture endless spreadsheets, data warehouses, and a guy called Dave who hasn’t seen daylight in a decade.
In reality, your data is already sitting there:
CRM notes
Customer reviews
Meeting room bookings
Floorplans
Lease terms
Support tickets
You don’t need a perfect system. You need a structured one.
Tidy it up, make it accessible, and AI can do the rest.
Don’t Fight the Dragon.
Learn to Ride It.
The landlords and operators who stop fearing the unknown and start collaborating across teams, cleaning up data, and testing small AI pilots—those are the future winners.
The rest will still be throwing spears at spreadsheets and wondering why the “big snake” keeps coming back.
Manuel Conti and I will be running a webinar on this topic later this month,
so register here to come along and get involved!