Welcome to today’s Midas Report!

We are here to keep you up to date on what matters in AI for your bottom line.

Here is what is unfolding in AI today, January 14th, 2026….

Our top story is all about a recent Wharton study showing a gap in how businesses are utilizing AI. 

Companies keep buying AI tools, launching pilots, and talking transformation, but they forget the one lever that actually changes behavior… Pay and praise.

It is not that people hate AI. Almost 90 percent of knowledge workers already use it at work in some form. The problem is that only 5 percent say they are using it to transform how they work, and Gallup pegs active use across industries at just 20 to 40 percent.

That gap is not a technology problem. It is a motivation problem.

If your job is to ship a project on time, hit a sales quota, or close tickets, then using AI is just extra risk unless it helps you win under the rules you are judged by. And right now, more than half of employees either do not trust AI or worry it will cost them their job.

So when leaders say “use AI,” employees hear “take a chance and maybe make yourself redundant.” Great pitch.

Meanwhile, enterprise AI spending is projected to top $2 trillion by 2026. If incentives stay frozen in the pre AI era, a lot of that money becomes shelfware with a login screen.

The organizations moving faster are not doing it with magic models. They are wiring AI into what gets measured and rewarded. Microsoft has offered AI compute credits to teams that successfully pilot new solutions. JP Morgan uses innovation tokens that can be converted into grants for more AI work or education. IBM uses “blue points.” Walmart uses cash prizes.

Ken Blanchard nailed it. The fastest way to change behavior is to reward the behaviors you want to see.

If your proofs of concept keep stalling, stop asking whether the model is good enough. Ask a simpler question. How does the user get compensated for changing their workflow.

Start by tying AI usage to outcomes people already care about, like faster cycle time, higher close rates, fewer errors, better customer response.

Give teams a grace period to build skill, then phase incentives into performance reviews. And do not reward vanity metrics like time spent in a tool. Reward business impact and trust building.

AI adoption bottlenecks often live in the org chart, not the tech stack.

Prompt of the Day

We used ChatGPT today for our image generation. Decent for marketing your personal brands and self. You will need 1 reference image of your face, the name you want to appear, and a simple tagline.

Here is the prompt:

create a hyper realistic portrait in 9x16 aspect ratio with graphics element using the uploaded reference face, preserving the face 100% identical with no changes. the subject is a male with relaxed, confident body language. outpit: clean plain white crew neck t-shirt. layered with a khati trench coat, black slim fit dress trouser and polished black formal shoes. pose ;full body shot, standing and leaning against a wall , both hands in pockets. environment: a smooth pure white studio wall background , next to the subject, include an art wall featuring a human vector portrait in the black and white, with sharp angular lines, overlapping polygons, minimalist modern graphic style, placed adjustment to the subject. typography below the vector art "MIDAS AI" as a primary text and "Turning AI Into Leverage" in hand written font, positioned beneath the vector. technical spaces : 8k resolution, ultra realistic style, professional studio lighting

That’s us for today.

See you tomorrow for Thursday’s Midas Report.

MIDAS AI