The VAR Moment: How AI Is Changing the Rules of Business Forever

Why the businesses that embrace this technology now will dominate the next decade

July 11, 2026
Read Time: 7 minutes

If you've been watching the World Cup this week, you've probably heard about the Argentina vs Egypt controversy.

Egypt's Mostafa Zico scored what would have been a stunning 3-1 goal on a fast break. The stadium erupted. Egypt were about to pull off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament.

Then VAR stepped in.

The goal was disallowed after a review found a foul in the buildup. A minor contact, the kind that gets ignored in top leagues every single week. Egypt were furious. Fans were outraged. The Egyptian FA filed a formal complaint with FIFA.

But here's the thing: VAR isn't going anywhere.

The technology is in the game. The rules have changed. And no amount of outrage, complaints, or resistance is going to put the genie back in the bottle.

Sound familiar?

VAR and AI: The Same Story, Different Stage

VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee. It's the technology that reviews decisions in real time, catches things the human eye misses, and makes better, more accurate calls.

When it was first introduced, the resistance was enormous. Fans hated the delays. Managers complained about the inconsistency. Pundits argued it was killing the spontaneity of the game.

But here's what nobody argues anymore: VAR makes better decisions than humans alone. It catches offside calls that are invisible to the naked eye. It spots fouls that happen in the blink of an eye. It brings a level of accuracy to the game that simply wasn't possible before.

AI is doing exactly the same thing for business.

It's not replacing the game. It's advancing it. It's making better decisions possible, faster processes achievable, and outcomes that were previously out of reach suddenly attainable.

And just like VAR, the resistance is real, the controversy is loud, and the adoption is inevitable.

The Rules of Business Have Changed

Let me give you a few examples of how AI is rewriting the rulebook.

Hiring and recruitment: One of the biggest bottlenecks in any growing business used to be headcount. You needed more people to do more work. Now, a team of ten AI-efficient employees can outperform a team of fifty who aren't using AI. You don't need to recruit to grow your business tenfold. You need to make your existing team more powerful.

Productivity and output: People are getting more done in less time, and they're happier doing it. The mind-numbing, repetitive tasks that used to drain energy and kill morale are being automated. What's left is the interesting, high-value work that people actually want to do.

Decision-making: AI processes data faster and more accurately than any human team. The businesses using it are making better decisions, faster, with more confidence. The ones that aren't are making slower decisions with less information.

These aren't incremental improvements. They're fundamental shifts in how business works. And they're happening right now, whether businesses are ready for them or not.

The Resistance Is Real (But It's Not What You Think)

Here's something that might surprise you: AI adoption is not moving as fast as the headlines suggest.

Everyone in the AI world thinks adoption is happening at lightning speed. But step outside the bubble and the reality is very different. There are still companies running on servers and data centers that haven't even moved to the cloud yet. Adoption of transformative technology always takes longer than the early adopters expect.

That's actually good news for AI consultants. The window is wider and longer than most people think.

But here's the nuance: not all resistance is equal.

An HVAC company that resists AI isn't going to face the same consequences as a software company that resists it. If an HVAC company's competitors aren't using AI either, the competitive pressure is lower. The urgency is real but not existential.

But if you're in a tech-forward industry where your competitors are already using AI to move faster, deliver better, and charge less, resistance isn't just a strategic mistake. It's a death sentence.

The early adopters are going to own 80% of the market in their respective niches. The laggards will fight over the scraps. And the businesses that never adapt will simply cease to exist.

Why This Creates a Massive Opportunity for AI Consultants

Here's the beautiful irony of the VAR controversy: the more people argue about it, the more attention it gets. And the more attention it gets, the more everyone understands that the technology is here to stay.

The same is true for AI in business. Every headline about AI replacing jobs, every controversy about AI-generated content, every debate about regulation and ethics, all of it is doing your marketing for you.

Every business owner who reads about AI is thinking about what it means for their company. They're wondering if they're falling behind. They're asking their accountant, their lawyer, their IT provider whether they should be doing something about it.

And when they go looking for someone to help them figure it out, they're not going to find OpenAI's billion-dollar deployment company. They're going to find you.

The consultant who understands their industry, speaks their language, and can walk into their business and show them exactly where AI can make a difference.

That's the opportunity. And it's only getting bigger.

Both Are Irreversible

Nobody is taking VAR out of football. The technology is in the game, the infrastructure is built, and the benefits are too significant to walk away from. The controversy will fade. The adoption will deepen. And in ten years, people will wonder how the game ever functioned without it.

The same is true for AI in business.

The technology is in the game. The infrastructure is being built at a pace that's hard to comprehend. And the benefits, the efficiency gains, the cost savings, the competitive advantages, are too significant for any serious business to ignore indefinitely.

The controversy will fade. The adoption will deepen. And in ten years, people will wonder how businesses ever functioned without it.

The only question is whether you're going to be on the right side of that shift.

The VAR Lesson for AI Consultants

Here's what the Argentina vs Egypt controversy teaches us about AI consulting.

The technology doesn't have to be perfect to be transformative. VAR got the call wrong, or at least made a call that felt wrong to millions of people. But it's still better than the alternative. It still catches more than it misses. It still advances the game.

AI is the same. It's not perfect. It makes mistakes. It has limitations. But it's still dramatically better than doing everything manually. It still catches inefficiencies that humans miss. It still advances the business.

Your job as an AI consultant isn't to promise perfection. It's to show businesses how to use this technology to make better decisions, faster processes, and better outcomes than they could achieve without it.

That's the VAR moment for business. And you're the referee who knows how to use the technology.

See you next week,

– Andrew