Rod Amora

Co-founder, CTO & CAIO at Berry

See where AI fits in your business.

I help business owners see exactly where AI fits in their company, without spending years figuring it out the hard way like I did at Berry.

I write for owners and operational leaders of established US small and medium-sized businesses with teams and repeatable processes. If you need to decide what to try first, what it will cost, and what your team needs before it can work, this is for you.

Proof points

4,000+ businesses
observed through delivery data
150+ franchise units
and growing
Since 2017
working with service businesses

Latest writing

  • 8 min read Updated

    AI prices fell up to 22x. Our bill fell 2x. Here is where the rest went.

    At Berry, we use cheaper models to give agents harder work, with a monthly model bill less than half its old size. But making the output useful can take better instructions, not more tokens.

  • 4 min read Updated

    Making the same work faster is not enough

    At Berry, I see the gain in changing the manager's work: AI handles sales evaluations, while managers help salespeople practice. Faster reports alone leave the old work in place.

  • 10 min read Updated

    You Can Build Your Own Software Now. Buy the Cheap Tool Anyway.

    Replit dropped a seven-figure software contract for an app its own people built, and Berry runs on a CRM we built ourselves. The flip is real. It still does not mean you should start building. Buy the cheap tool first, and build when nothing fits.

Read all articles

Three questions I keep answering.

  1. AI applied to businesses

    Where AI can help with the work your firm does, and where I would leave it alone.

  2. AI-first businesses

    What changes in the team, the tools, and the costs when AI becomes part of how you do the work.

  3. AI in day-to-day work

    Why something that worked in a demo can fail in daily use, and what to check before you depend on it.

Proofwork: six frameworks and tools for your AI decisions.

These help you see where your firm is today, what to measure, and why AI projects get stuck. The assessment suggests what to work on next, and the calculators help you count the costs and check how much of a time saving could reach the business.

  1. The Delivery Model Ladder

    See where your firm is today, from people using AI for individual tasks to AI being part of how the whole job gets done. The stage depends on what changed in the work, not which tools you bought.

  2. The Four Numbers

    Track what it costs to win a client and do the work, how many clients stay, and what you charge. These four numbers help you check whether time saved with AI changed the business.

  3. The Production Gap

    If the demo worked but the team cannot depend on it yet, start here. These eleven ways AI projects get stuck each come with a warning sign and something to try next.

  4. The AI Readiness Assessment

    Answer sixteen questions about how your firm works today. You get a place on the Delivery Model Ladder and a short list of things to work on next.

  5. AI ROI Calculator for Businesses

    Estimate how much more work your firm could handle with AI, then check what happens after review, approval, and the other work around it. Saved time still needs somewhere useful to go.

  6. AI Token Cost Calculator

    Work out your AI token bill at current model prices, then add the retries, review, and corrections. That gives you a cost for one accepted task, a finished piece of work you can actually use.

Rod Amora

I am co-founder, CTO, and Chief AI Officer at Berry, and I ran our own AI transition, so I had to make the calls on the strategy, the budget, and how we built it. I have also watched hundreds of service firms adopt AI through a franchise network's delivery data spanning 4,000+ businesses and 150+ franchise units and growing.

More about me

Find me on