What Should Evergy Pay a Homeowner to Host an AI Node?
Start the bill credit at about $112 a month, half the peak capacity each node keeps off the grid. Then put noise, heat and service in writing. A reader of my…
Kansas City
AI in Kansas City
Vector 1 is a Kansas City practice, and much of its research is about this metro: which of the region's industries can prove AI pays off first, what data-center growth means for Evergy customers' bills, and how the local AI community has grown since Brian Curry founded KC AI Lab in 2016.
What the research covers
- Where AI pays off first across eight Kansas City industries
- Evergy, large-load tariffs and what data centers mean for local electric bills
- The state of AI adoption in Kansas City and opportunities for 2026
- KC AI Lab: a community of more than 1,500 practitioners
Talk about your project
Tell us what you're trying to measure, forecast or decide. We work with teams in Kansas City and remotely, and we reply within two business days.
Email [email protected]Try it: interactive demos
Where AI Pays Off First (Kansas City)
How many months until you can prove an AI use case worked? Sixteen use cases across eight Kansas City industries, with every input editable, plus payback once you count captured savings.
Open demo →Large-Load Tariff Calculator
A utility builds $600 million of grid for a data center that leaves after eight years. How much lands on household bills, with and without minimum bills, exit fees and collateral?
Open demo →Research
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What Evergy’s Large-Load Tariff Means for Your Electric Bill
Data centers on Evergy’s system now pay a premium rate, sign contracts of up to 17 years and post two years of collateral. The first measurable effect on a…
Eight Industries, One Question: Where AI Pays Off First in Kansas City
AI use cases by industry are usually ranked by hype. A better ranking asks how many months it takes to prove a use case worked. Across eight Kansas City…
A Playbook for Evergy: Curing AI’s Power Bottleneck With Home Compute and Flexible Load
Evergy already pays 75 MW data centers to flex. A homeowner on its grid who wants to host a 12.5 kW compute node has no path at all. Here is the math for…
The Future of AI in Kansas City: Gigawatts, Models and the Math of Who Gets Paid
Kansas City’s main utility has signed 2.5 gigawatts of data center load. Here is the power, model, adoption and labor math that decides whether the metro…
Agentic Artificial Intelligence in Kansas City: A Field Guide for 2026
What agentic AI is, how to build it safely, what it costs per task, and where it pays off for Kansas City companies, from the founder of KC AI Lab and Vector1…
Kansas City Artificial Intelligence: 20 Opportunities for 2026
Where agentic systems, causal inference and machine learning will create the most economic value in Kansas City, ranked by a founder who has worked in the…
The State of AI in Kansas City in 2026: From Chat Wrappers to Decision Systems
Oct 8, 2026 · @Brian Curry Kansas City’s logistics, manufacturing, agriculture and animal health companies are done paying for chat wrappers. What replaces…
Grading My Own 2018 Prediction on AI and the Illusion of Meritocracy — With the Data, the Math, and the Code
In April 2018, Startland News interviewed me about the AI and machine learning cooperative I’d just founded in Kansas City. I’d been building neural networks…
Common questions
Where does AI pay off first for Kansas City companies?
In high-volume, fast-feedback work found in every local industry: service centers at banks and insurers, clinical documentation at health systems, proposal drafting at engineering firms and route optimization in logistics. These can be proven in about a month; rare-outcome uses such as credit losses or equipment failures take years for one organization to prove.
Is Vector 1 based in Kansas City?
Yes. Vector 1 is a Kansas City research and advisory practice led by Brian Curry, who also founded KC AI Lab. It works with teams in the metro and remotely.