The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
AI Tools That Help Small Businesses Excel | Dennis Jackson & Benny Carreon
What happens when small businesses stop fearing AI—and start using it to remove friction, boost margins, and strengthen customer trust?
Summary:
We trade fear for facts and show how real small businesses put AI to work without losing the human touch. From “Tina” the chatbot to contact-center triage, sales coaching, and smarter inventory planning, we map where humans still lead—and where bots quietly drive efficiency, speed, and margin growth.
We also dig into the changing labor market, the disappearance of entry-level tech roles, and why care, therapy, and spiritual support will remain human-only. If you’re a small business owner wondering how to test AI tools safely and ethically, this episode gives you real-world examples and a simple rule: AI drafts, humans decide.
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallBusinessSafari
💡 GOLD NUGGETS
• AI chat handling after-hours inquiries with clean human handoffs
• Why call centers are giving way to contact centers + chat automation
• Sales coaching using recorded ride-alongs & feedback loops
• What shifting market signals show across demographics
• The vanishing entry-level pipeline in tech roles
• Three domains AI won’t replace: caregiving, therapy, spiritual roles
• Why small companies have the edge in testing emerging AI tools
• Seasonal forecasting + inventory insights from real case studies
• Google vs ChatGPT and the new research habits
• A simple operational rule: AI drafts; humans decide
🔗 Guest Links
• W Rxsolution: Worxsolution.com
• Veloci Technology Group: velocitechnology.group
• WFH with Two Guys: Find on LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/dennisjackson10
linkedin.com/in/https://www.linkedin.com/company/wfh-with-2-guys/posts/
🌍 Follow The Small Business Safari
• Instagram | @smallbusinesssafaripodcast
• LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislalomia/
• Website | https://chrislalomia.com
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
We have implemented AI at uh at the handyman company and um uh we called her Tina. So Tina talks to a customer through chat, right? And so chats back and forth with Tina. Um and with AI, uh one of the things I'm seeing is that AI does a little over-explaining, a little over-empathy. And so um Kirk, my general manager's saying you want your computer to have less empathy. I do. I love that. I did in fact, in fact, I told him, I'm like, dude, this is like what oh, I hate to hear this. We don't need to say that thing. Um actually, I'm working on a couple things, and he's like, No, I can't do that. I said, Are you sure? How about you go how about you go dig a hole, jump in it, and put the kits in. So, so believe it or not, before I left today, I was uh talking about AI and how it's helped us in our business. I have three ladies who answer our phones, and they said, Are we gonna lose our jobs? Uh, this was a week ago. I said, No, but that fourth lady we were gonna hire, um, she's not gonna be here. That's Tina. I said, You guys gotta look to work with Tina. I'm walking out today, and one of the ladies goes, Believe it or not, I just got a call from a guy who said, Hey, I'd like to talk to Tina.
SPEAKER_05:I was you did not.
SPEAKER_07:It's that good. We um it's dialed in, it's good. And so it it really is helping. So um, that's a little step for a handyman company, right? This was after hours, but now because people say, Ah, you need an after-hour call center. In fact, um, one of my other buddies swears by after hours call center, and uh, we got into a knockdown dragon. I'm like, no. I said, that call center is dead. I said, because I'm answering calls overnight. People call overnight in my business and don't expect to get anybody. In fact, a lot of people right now don't want to talk to anybody. Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls, and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there, and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari to get you too. We've got to get out of the dream room. You know, we always leave the good stuff in the green room.
SPEAKER_06:I can't believe what we just because I just I just love to chat, and uh and you're the one who's gonna be a good thing. Jitty chaty chat's old owl that says, hey, maybe we should actually record this. Thank you, Alan. I know, thank you. So I just want to be like you someday.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah. So we don't have just one guest today, we have two, and they're in Zoom, but they're gonna have to hang on a minute because we gotta talk about we gotta talk about you, right? Because whose podcast is this? That's right. It's yours. No, but this is for everybody. I do it for the people, Alan. I'm a man of the people a benevolent dictator. You know what? I just that brings up another story of pluggage. So last week was the week of Neri, right? Everybody knows I'm the uh president of the local uh Atlanta chapter of Neri, but I'm also on the national board. And you sound so humble when you say that. You know, you've got the Pope hands. I do, and I I've actually, you know, I'm doing the Pope wave already. I got the wave going on, but uh I came in and I told our executive director in Atlanta, I said, I think we should name the event the Southern Shootout. She goes, You know, this is not a dictatorship, you have to put that up to vote. I said, Huh. I didn't know that. I said, Okay, well, watch this. And I put on the whiteboard, Southern shootout. I said, option B, option C. No, I filled them out eventually, but they were shit. And I was like, Oh, I've already picked Southern Shootout. How about that? No, we picked out some good ones, but um, so it's not a dictatorship, but let's continue on, please. So I went up to Chicago, uh, met with our board in person for Neri, talking about the state of the union for remodeling and what we're doing. Did they have to genuflect when you walked into the room? Well, so I'm only on the board. You know, we have a chairman, a president. I thought you were the president. That's weird. No, in Atlanta, I am not of not the national. On the national, I'm just on the board. But but but since you brought that up. Like an Earl. I'm some I yeah, I guess you could say I'm like the Duke of Sandwich. Okay. Earl of Sandwich? I got it now. So but kind of a big deal, but not as big of a deal as you may have to. They did bring it up. You can't talk about the board meeting because if I do, it would be in violation of our uh code of conduct and our confidentiality, my fiduciary responsibility for confidentiality. Way to throw some big words around there. They did, but they did say, Chris, since you know everything about marketing and you have your own podcast, what do you think? I'm just gonna leave it there. So I was like, Yes, I think we figured this out. So, yes, guys, instead of looking at the chairman and the president, the guy's been doing this for 35 years and completely awesome remodeling groups. By the way, the power in that room was pretty awesome. Yeah, please look at Chris, who just has this little handyman company in Atlanta. Oh, look at you. All right, so had some fun. Learned, I would tell you the one thing I'm learning. Uh, it is a really I and we don't say the word weird market, but people are very uncertain. And everybody, as soon as I say the word uncertain, Dennis and Benny and Alan, I think everybody immediately goes to the political views you have and go, yes, the other side is uncertain. I'm here to tell you, I went out in a couple and I've been listening to now. I've implemented Ride Buddy, so the guys uh record their conversations and then they get to listen with me because you got to be careful with confidentiality. I would tell you, it is I don't care if you're a blue or a red, I don't care if you're an old boomer or a young 35 or 40 first-time homeowner. The sediments the same on uncertainty on all of these groups. It is not, it is not. You thought, yeah, you're right. You know, if I'm a Republican, yeah, those dams, man. They're they're uncertain. Nope. It's everybody.
SPEAKER_06:You just slid in that you implemented Ride Buddy, which is a really kind of nice name for something just totally draconian. It is too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:So you're just we had recording devices that I get the transcripts, I get to listen to their sales call without me being there and being weird, being the ride-along guy, right? Being the second guy, and people want to look at you and like, well, who is he? Oh, he's just the owner. What does the customer want to do? Look at you and say, Hey, what do you think? And so you completely just steamroll the sales guy. So I get to listen to them now and give them feedback. And so uh I've been able to listen. I so I can sit down in four hours and I can listen to uh I can listen to I've been listening to 10 to 20 calls every two out four hours and give these guys feedback on their sales process, what they're doing. No, but they love that. They love my feedback, Alan. It's so funny. Um, just ask them, they will tell you with me in the room.
SPEAKER_06:But they don't eventually bring you in, just want you to know.
SPEAKER_07:All right. So let's get this candle started. Come on, Alan, please. I mean, it's always gonna be about. I'm guys, we're such a diva. Uh so I went on this incredible podcast by myself, and they told Alan right before they go, no, no, yeah, he was yeah, you know, he's bringing good stuff. Yeah, no, he's pretty he was pretty straightforward. And Alan's like, who what do what? I'm like, yeah, I've never seen you by yourself, Chris. I know that's what happens to you left by myself. So Dennis Jack Jackson, Benny Carry on, guys. Um, why don't you tell us a little bit about your podcast, but uh also what you guys do.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, we have to follow this up, Dennis. I know this is this is tough. These guys are good. Uh hey guys, thanks for letting us come on the show. We really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02:This is this is uh this is fun. This is fun. Yeah, so um my name's I'm Benny Carrion, my partner's Dennis Jackson, and we host uh podcast called WFH uh with two guys. And so Dennis and I uh have known each other for a couple decades. And over the pandemic, we just started, you know, we we we I live, I used to live in Nashville where Dennis and I met. Uh we no longer live there, but uh uh we kept in touch. And over the years, we just managed to just have these great conversations about what you know business was like. And I think it was Dennis actually who said, you know what we should do? We should we should be recording these conversations we're having. And you know, why don't we put a podcast together? So I'm gonna give credit to Dennis for this whole idea. And uh we just started doing that, and here we are six years later. Uh and it's it's been it's been a fun ride so far. But I have to say, uh our format and energy is a little bit different than you guys, so well, I think you're you're well, you guys have been doing it for six years, so kudos to you.
SPEAKER_06:Uh 100%. Oh, if H means. I I know what W I know what WF means, but what's H? I don't know. Let's ask.
SPEAKER_03:So it stands for working from home with two guys.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, I didn't get the WF right.
SPEAKER_03:So it it's so it started back in, yeah, with a COVID. We can workshop that for you if you'd like. Exactly. And so we started out with just Benny and I and then after, I don't know, Benny, what, 10 or 15 episodes? We're like, okay, what else are we going to talk about? That's when we started having guests on. And and a lot of it, I we started it because both of us have small to mid-sized companies that we support. And a lot of them were asking questions about, you know, how tell me about marketing. How could I do HR? How could I what could I do about legal? So we just started having guests on um with some of those experiences and talking for 25 minutes about whatever it is, and hopefully then, you know, our our clients listen to it, but also then we pick up new listeners, and we started, like Benny said, six years ago, and now we're over. I think we're close to we're getting close to like 7,500 listeners. So we're growing and it's it's fun.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:So you basically, Chris, you stole their idea.
SPEAKER_07:You know, if I would have known they were out there, I absolutely would have done what they did and then said I came up with it on my own. Uh 100%. Uh I mean they're they're consulting now too, they know what it is. Yeah, copy with pride, baby. Um, and I don't give any credit credit to anybody. Uh and uh Alan will know that because thank you. Uh so yeah, WFH. That's funny because the first time they said, Hey, you want to uh you should. I think somebody connected us to say Chris, you ought to get on their show and you do it uh a trade. And I think yes, I was like, Yeah, I'm like WF WFH. I'm like perfect, and I was definitely listening to it. I know what WF means and the H. I get that. I because I've done that too. I mean I thought I was like, Well, they probably made the T silent. What the working from home? I'm like, oh, right, right, yes, got it.
SPEAKER_03:So the podcast and the podcasting is just a part-time job. Um, our real job. So I own a company called Work Solutions, and so we help companies with workflows. So they'll usually have some kind of operating system, some kind of accounting system. It's all that stuff in the middle that's on spreadsheets, sticky notes, and people's heads, folders that you have to touch 15 times. We automate that and make life easier for them without breaking the bank.
SPEAKER_07:So he helps those guys take that one guy in the corner who's got the stapler and all the sticky notes and the and the tie that's shorter, the you know, the skinny side, fatter than the short. Think office space with me, Alan. Oh, yeah. And he goes, Where's my piece of cake? He walks in and he goes, I'm taking you out. Where's my piece of cake? I'm taking you out. And I you're you're gone, you're gone. So you're known as the hatchet man, Dennis. No, it's the nicer, hopefully working from home.
SPEAKER_03:Not what the hell. And hopefully, then we help people be more efficient. So our goal is to give people back 15 minutes a week per employee. So it doesn't sound like a lot, but you if you have 10 employees, it's an hour and a half, and over the years, it and the name of your company again is Work Solutions. So it's W Rxsolution.com. Yeah, don't forget the X. That's right. And Benny, what do you do?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I own a technology consulting company. And so I've had it now for 22 years. I think I was uh pretty new when I met Dennis to my having my own company. And so yeah, we're going back, I said a couple decades, but we help companies with whatever technology implementation look into. They need some help with their technology stack, they need to have some type of strategy put in place. That's what we do. We put together, you know, we help them find the best technologies and and help them plan a little bit better for whatever technology that they might be thinking about implementing for the companies.
SPEAKER_06:That's a good thing technology hasn't changed much in 22 years. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_07:I mean, come on, boring, technology, uh, whatever. I know. I mean, and you you know, you read it once and you're kind of over it. Yeah. Okay. You've got AI, you've got AI now to solve everything.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and I give Benny credit for AI because three years ago he started talking about AI, and I had no clue what AI was. And then all of a sudden we start doing it on talking about on the podcast, and all of a sudden it's on news. I'm like, okay, Benny is the one that created AI that we all just give him credit for. There it is.
SPEAKER_07:Benny created AI, just like Elgor created the internet.
SPEAKER_03:That's right. You know, now we just Benny.
SPEAKER_07:Oh my god, break that story. I think we just you know, I think we got the podcast title already figured out, huh? The inventor of AI.
SPEAKER_06:All right, so Benny, you you don't know, you don't know my cousin Brad, but he called me the other day and he's like, What do you think about the people that say AI is gonna take away so many jobs that we're gonna have to go to universal basic income?
SPEAKER_02:Um, you know, it's funny. I I get asked this question about it.
SPEAKER_06:That's not funny. That's not funny. No, it it's it's it's frightening. So just so you know, I'm like terrified of AI, and Chris is a total adopter. But anyway, so slow your role there, chicken. Let him answer it. I just went to a hard question. I went to a hard question after all the hijinks, didn't I? You did. You went you went right to it. All right, yeah, right to the jugular.
SPEAKER_07:No, Benny, I dare you to answer that. Yeah, make me not kill myself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I'm sorry, you're gonna you're gonna have to kill yourself. No, the tr the truth of it is that it's you know, it's funny because you all right.
SPEAKER_00:I'll be right back. Maybe not.
SPEAKER_02:I'm on this in this world, and yeah, I'm not gonna be lay claim to being the AI expert of all. I mean, there's some folks out there that I talk to that they they understand AI far deeper than I'll ever understand. And they understand algorithms and they understand all the other aspects actually how to how to train AI. But what I will say, and for the people that I've talked to and the experts that I've interviewed and and and had conversations with, um, AI is fundamentally changing literally every every aspect, every job, every person in the world is gonna be is is gonna be touched by AI in some capacity. Even that Amish far farmer in the middle of Pennsylvania, you won't think that he is gonna be affected by it, but he certainly will be. And and and that sounds scary and it sounds like it's Orwellian, but the truth of it is um there's so much that's gonna be going along and it that that life is life is fundamentally changing. Listen, Dennis and I talked about this. I I've got a 20-year-old in college right now, and uh he'll be graduating in a year and a half. And I am scared to death about what is he gonna do when he gets out of gets out of college. He's in a you know, he's studying computer programming, right? And so he'd love to get a job in that space, but what I'll say is that is it fundamentally affecting that world? Well, what they'll tell you is this if you go look at programmers, typically what's happening is you have senior developers and then you have junior developers, right? And so in the world that he wants to go into, you have a senior dev who is in charge of this big segment of the program. And then he has the junior developers that kind of work on parts of that bigger piece, right? And so what they're telling the companies are telling people now is that okay, senior devs, great, we're not, we're not, we still need you, but instead of hiring these extra junior developers, have AI do that job for you. We haven't eliminated a job, but we're not gonna hire somebody in that place. So the problem is you're having all of these entry-level jobs that are being pushed to the side, and they're saying, okay, we're gonna hire senior developers, but the junior development work is gonna go to AI. Where in time, we go 10 years from now, or where are the junior developers who turn into senior developers gonna get that experience, right? And so the the world is changing, and so what does that mean? I think a lot of what's gonna happen is our traditional design of what um what a job looks like is completely different. We know we've gotten a taste of it, and you guys have been familiar with like the gig gig economy, right? And and how workers do things differently today, and they don't necessarily need to have one job. Well, that's gonna be somewhat similar, I think, when it comes to AI. I think a lot of people, especially if you want to have a job in a specific industry, well, you might have to, you know, literally start your own company, or you have to develop a piece of software, or you have to do something using AI to help get you noticed to be able to get some of these gigs and to be able to get that because there's gonna be a lot of contract work that's gonna be evolved from it. So it it'll be interesting to see what five, ten.
SPEAKER_03:And Alan, and I'm more on your side. So I always challenge back is you still have to have humans involved, they still have to review it, analyze it. That's where it does change the so instead of just being a task worker, you'll probably have to have the knowledge base to kind of understand things or ask questions. And like on my emails, I'll put on there at the very bottom that it, you know, most of this email may have been written by AI, but it's a hundred percent reviewed by a human being. So damn right. Good.
SPEAKER_06:I love that. And I mean, the the the uh freaking Amish, the AI is not gonna turn their butter, it's not gonna make it's not gonna make the the chest pie, it's not gonna raise the barn.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_07:And and your world, in your I'm putting Alan back in the I'm gonna put Alec Penn back in time out. He's actually in a fetal position right now.
SPEAKER_06:Benny, you did not help. You know, you saw me slip my wrist, but I I'm just I'm I'm back for just one last gasp. So you're good.
SPEAKER_02:Let me let me actually I I'll I'll give you this, okay? And so uh I was listening to an interview the other day from an expert, and and we were they were talking about like you know, we we know fundamentally AI is gonna change the way things are being done. Absolutely know that. But are there certain industries or are there certain professions that are absolutely safe from AI? So here here's let me give you some reassurance because I completely agree with this thought here. There are three categories where AI really cannot take over the place. Now, this may not be your industry, but at least kind of give you some thoughts behind it. Um, the first one was caretaking, right? In terms of like caretaking, whether it be somebody who needs some help, elderly person, maybe a child with disability. Number two, therapy, being able to have no one wants to get therapy from AI. No one wants to be able to get any advice from AI. You know, that it's not gonna fly. And number three is like spiritual leaders, right? So your pastor, um, uh anybody from a religious, you're not gonna be able to get comfort or really you know, the the the they need people to to have that human aspect. So I think that's really just kind of a fundamental aspect about you know what it's gonna be. Now, for your job and what we do professionally, like look at Chris's job in the in in the handyman space. You think AI is really gonna come over and take that? 100%. No bad no, no way.
SPEAKER_06:Stop that, Alan. Alan, oh Alan just got muted again. Sorry, Alan's gonna answer the phone, they're gonna do the estimates, they're gonna follow up.
SPEAKER_07:Yes, yes, yes. But they're not gonna do the drywall, they're not gonna hang your door, they're not gonna do the driver's driver.
SPEAKER_06:You don't think I can make a robot that can do drywall better than you? Well, no. I've seen them, I've actually seen trusted tool bug. No, no. Well, that's that's the thing.
SPEAKER_02:You think about what what I was just saying in terms of like the caretakers of therapy and the spiritual spiritual leaders, they're gonna use AI to do some of the things, like the administrative work, all that paperwork. You're gonna have somebody who, I'm gonna take the raw estimates, I'm gonna go out, be able to take pictures of the job site that you're gonna work on, feed that in AI and use that as a tool, as a mechanism to help you get better quotes, be able to maybe point out some things that you're not thinking about. Those are things that I think AI is gonna help us. But to Chris's point, you're not gonna be able to have somebody come out there, and you know, you're hearing things like you know, Elon Musk and the robots that they're manufacturing. Well, I I think we're still way away from that. Now I we're being recorded, so you know, maybe I'll be proven wrong on that. But you know, it there's a there's a ways, away from it.
SPEAKER_06:Make a note. We're gonna check this.
SPEAKER_07:We're gonna check this policy. Check this out. Alan's taking receipts right now. Yeah, look out right.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, it's gonna be a while before someone feels comfortable letting you know, unsupervised robot come into their house to just do whatever, you know. I I I'm I'm gonna feel I'm I'm gonna feel good with uh, you know, uh uh a licensed handyman, somebody who comes in who I trust who's gotten good referrals. Oh, yeah, he did a great job on my bathroom. Yeah, you can come over and help you out on on the kitchen repair. Absolutely, I trust those guys.
SPEAKER_03:But yeah, it but it will take. I mean, think back, you know, 40 years ago, we didn't have computers really. I mean, I remember still doing hand calculations and all that stuff and spreadsheets on pieces of paper and all that. And then when I went through college, you had the you put all the the cards in an order and ran them to somebody and they ran them through a machine and it gave you hoped it gave you the right output. It evolves, and I mean, and people begin to evolve, and that's that's the best part about it. It'll free people up to do more productive things. And Alan, to your point, it probably will that's why one we like the working from home model because it's gonna probably allow you to do some different things that you don't you're not gonna work that eight to five Monday through Friday at some point in the future. Things will definitely evolve and change as AI kicks in. And I just got back from I just got back from Hawaii, so I know where to go is go to Hawaii. It was awesome over there.
SPEAKER_07:So oh, look at that. Now that that's how we get this person because I know that was huge. I you know what? I tell you, kind of slid that in. Damn it. And he's uh so for those of us uh you guys all know we're in the northern suburbs of Atlanta. He is in Noonan, which is not a suburb of Atlanta. They'll they he's not Hawaii, it is not definitely not Hawaii, yeah. And anybody who says, I'm sure he's had to do this, he probably says, Oh, yeah, I live in Atlanta. Um, but he's gonna find out very quickly because he just moved to Noonan that Noonan wants nothing to do with Atlanta.
SPEAKER_03:They said, Yeah, we're a suburb of LeGrange.
SPEAKER_07:I'm like, okay, yeah, I guess exactly right. Yeah, I don't want to do it. No, I think uh, Benny, those are great points. Uh, because I was on a uh an advertising um uh webinar, and a lady put this out there and said, AI is like a five-year-old smart toddler. You still have to give it direction and you still have to check that it's going the right way. And if you let it go for too long, it might do something stupid. And I was like, okay, all right, I feel good with that. Um, and I didn't want to ask this question.
SPEAKER_06:When that toddler gets a knife or a gun, then you're gonna be in trouble. Yeah, you better run because you won't have to slit your own wrist, it'll just slit. It's gonna come after me, Alan.
SPEAKER_07:You're no longer useful. Yeah, I I you know the thing you said, Benny, that I thought was very interesting. I'll tell you where I went again. Frame of reference was uh your son is coming out of school. I remember hearing about the first computer programmers uh getting a computer programming four-year degree was in the 70s. And you're like, man, they're on the forefront. They are. I mean, oh my god, that's cutting edge. And when I had a chance to do anything with computers, I said, No, I'm gonna stay with uh just machining. Idiot, but that's a different story. Um but I think about him coming out now and the first aren't gonna be AI. Yeah, for you. I still got that. Yeah, you do. Yeah, I'm still running my own, I'm still running my own deck of uh deck of cards at the computer to have an output. That's so funny. When Dennis said that, yeah, I know it. I know he's had it. We've all had that plastic box of all the cards, and you watch that one kid stumble, fall, drop them all because he didn't have the box and he didn't have a numbered, and you would see him just like weep in tears and just fall into a puddle.
unknown:Yep.
SPEAKER_07:I'm laughing only because it wasn't me. Um, so Benny, I I'm worried about uh you know that age and you're what you're talking about. But what what I was going with was if he doesn't have a chance to learn what a senior developer does, how does he learn that? And like you said, he's got to gig his way up to get there, and now you're gonna have that drain 10 years from now is how who's gonna be the architect? Who's gonna be the overseer? Um and you know, and then here again, my frame of reference was I would tell you, uh we just left another call, Al and I with the local chamber. Uh I'm seeing more and more kids opt for the trades, welding, electrical, plumbing, yeah, it's becoming a more certain one that they know that they can touch and feel. Um, so I am I'm worried for your son too on that. I'm worried for the brain drain that happens. What do you guys think of that?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think you know, from as a an organization, that company's got to be thinking of that. If you're just saying, hey, I want to introduce AI as my cost-cutting mechanism, it's a short-term solution that you're gonna you're gonna get some cost savings for a little bit, but at some point you're gonna have you hit that point where you don't have the people to oversee it, and you end up with that five-year-old toddler doing work part of the time, but it screws up many times, and then your company's not successful. So as a comp as an owner of a company or a manager, you've got to have a broader vision of what's gonna happen. You can't just say, Hey, I'm gonna re-release all these people, and you've got to figure out how do you develop people. I heard today Amazon I think it is gonna roll out robots to all their warehouses. Well, they're not that they say they're not gonna lay off anybody. It's just they said their point was they're having a hard time finding enough good people that the robots will then be able to keep and grow because they're gonna grow. It was like 30% in the next five years. So they they needed all these other people that they just can't get that are qualified, and so the robots will fill that. But you've still got to make sure you've you're working your talent in there to run this stuff or develop it or oversee it, otherwise, you end up with a bunch of robots that do stuff that screws up.
SPEAKER_07:So, with everything you guys are doing, as you touch all your clients, obviously it it's becoming more ubiquitous. We're gonna talk about AI, and and Dennis, when you design processes, you're thinking about how AI can help. And Benny, your guys are coming at you with an on the forefront of technology. Um, who's doing it right? I mean, who who is give me some examples of somebody just like, man, this person figured this out quick.
SPEAKER_02:They they're nailing it, they got it down. Um, well, the good news, I think, is nobody's doing it right. I I mean, I I and it's funny. Um I've been doing this for 30 years, right? I've been so in the technology consulting space for 30 years, and and it's funny, you you think about the adoption of, you know, going way, way back, right? I still remember times before the internet was in the home. And I tell my son about that, and I say, I'm older than Google, and he he thinks, oh my gosh, you know, how old are you, right?
SPEAKER_06:But well, you could be like Alan, you're older than electricity. I still don't think that'll that'll take. Okay, I know it's a fan. It's a fan. It's a fan. It's a fair.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, it kills people. That that's right. That's right. I heard it killed its elephant. Edison proved that.
SPEAKER_07:That's right.
SPEAKER_02:Uh but um it if you think about the adoption of well, the internet, and then you know, um you go fast forward in terms of like uh computers, and then we look at the adoption of like uh smartphones and then social media, you know, all of that the everything has adopted quicker. AI got to like a million users, like literally in a day, right? So when ChatGPT came out in November of 2022, they literally had a million signups in within like that first week or so. And so this is an industry that right now, uh literally, if you if you were to really kind of dig down deep into it, literally AI is changing every single day. There's a new model that's rolling out, there's a new use for it, there's a new hallucination, right? There's something going on that's that's either positive or negative. And so the funny thing is is that you see so many uh competitors in this space that are changing the industry. Nobody's doing it right. Go back to your question, it's like I I'm seeing some people who are doing some really interesting things. And uh you know, uh you can take a look at the big companies. And if you've gone to Amazon, you've probably seen Rufus. Have you seen are you familiar with Rufus on Amazon? No, so if you go into Amazon nowadays, and anybody who's listening to this, you can see Rufus, who is an AI companion when you go shopping, and you can ask it questions about this particular model of whatever. And does Amazon have any other, or does this does this um uh will this work internationally? Or you can ask it any question and and it can look, it's not perfect, and it'll do that. And you see these implementations now, like for instance with Microsoft. Microsoft has co-pilot everything, it's incorporated into uh the Office 365 and all of those elements in there. And so you could say that and it's like, are those things great? Well, no, you're you're seeing things. Do you guys remember when Microsoft came out with their first chat bot? This is a few years, this is before 2022 when OpenAI came out. Do you remember when they rolled it out kind of well? It started, they rolled it out and it started, you know, you just chat back and forth a little, and suddenly it took this bent where it starts doing all of this uh racist and white supremacist stuff. Oh, I heard about that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. So think of some more. Yeah. Well, think you know, Microsoft is one of the biggest investors in open AI, right? And so they knew they couldn't get it right. And um there have been a lot of stumbles. Google came out, and they they uh when open AI came out, they weren't ready. And so they've kind of fumbled. But I'll tell you right now, Google's making some amazing things. And I was listening to this story about this this company that is in Niceville, Florida, if I'm remembering this correctly, and I think it is an HVAC company. It's a small town. If you I'm not sure if you guys know where Niceville is, but uh I'm from Florida or I lived in Florida for a while, and so I I know that area. We had a lot of football players from my football team that were there. Um, but uh they implemented AI really heavily into their business, and so what does that do? When they go. Go and they do a uh an estimate over at a house, they're using AI to make recommendations on the uh the type of uh AC unit that should be in place. Um, the specific problems with this particular, this is a condo and it's built in 1937 or whatever it happens to be. And it can listen, there's no replacing the experience of that person, that technician has there. But what this can do is it can shortcut and reference little bits and pieces, nuanced items that they may have forgotten. There's a recall on this particular um uh AC unit or this particular device uh doesn't work anymore. These are all the things that the AI can actually help and it's recognizing, and it has increased the amount of business, and also they're using it within their marketing. So it's a company that I can't even remember the name of it, but I'll tell you, you know, when I heard about the implementation they're doing, I thought this is exactly like those type of clients are my type of clients, and that's the ones that you know they get it and they understand they're implementing it. And so this is what we're starting to see.
SPEAKER_03:And actually, I think smaller companies are gonna be more effective with it than large companies because large companies have to go through testing and all this stuff where small companies can test it, try it, move quick, adapt, adjust. I've got one where they carry inventory and it's really seasonal. There's all kinds of weird stuff that they have to take into consideration. And the person that was doing it was 70 years old, and so a lot of it was in her brain. And so we built AI into it, and so it knows to look at what the forecast of the weather is, what celebrations are coming up, because that it's all seasonal type of stuff, and so it knows it came back the other day saying, hey, 2026 is the bicentennial year, you really be should be focused on red, white, and blue. And sure enough, if you watch, Disney World came out the other day starting Veterans Day, everything's gonna be red, white, and blue at Disney, and it's all this stuff. And so they were small companies, they would not, they would probably have caught on to it way uh into the event. Now they're seeing this stuff six months to a year ahead to be able to plan and kind of think through it. They don't let AI make the final decision. A human still looks at the recommendations and signs off on it, but it just makes them allows them to carry your inventory that based on what people may need. So those are unique. Personally, I'm in the process of buying a new car. I I went to chat last night and said, Hey, I want to look 100 miles around Atlanta for this certain car that my wife wants and a certain color that they swear there wasn't any. It came back, gave me all these different things and what was out there, set up the phone call. And when I got up at nine o'clock, it had the call set up, and I've already found the car and found that I said, Hey, I want to I'll buy new or used, tell me the benefits and all this stuff. And it came back with all this information that I would never have known this without Benny's guidance. That I'm actually gonna save about$15,000 on a car.
SPEAKER_07:Benny, you just you just earned$15,000. I love this because you're welcome. You so they didn't do like a 3D printer. Are you sure is this is this like a matchbox car? Are you are you sure about this?
SPEAKER_03:Is this a real car? It's actually it's it's up your way. I found it. So it's a it's a company where they buy used cars, and this one has 3,200 miles on it.
SPEAKER_07:Well, Alan's happy to drive the Lambo down to you if you want, he'd love to.
SPEAKER_03:I don't I don't fit in the Lambo, but I wouldn't either I'm six seven, so I wouldn't put in the smallest guest in four years.
SPEAKER_07:God, I love this. Yeah, Alan, you're what six, six six seven. You're sure.
SPEAKER_03:I'm sure I used to be six seven, I'm probably about six five now.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, that is awesome. You know, uh, you guys talked about that. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03:Those are fun things to use it. That you know, again, I didn't used to do anything with it. Benny turned me on to it, and it's like it's just it's fun to get on there and just ask at things.
SPEAKER_06:Now, are you using it with what you do though, with the process improvement?
SPEAKER_03:We'll enter, yeah, we'll introduce it periodically based on what they're doing. With you know, if you read the definition of AI, it's it's automation of a process. And so we have a tool, it's typically workflow, we're automating some process because it's usually so I always say we were kind of the very simplistic AI. We've introduced more complicated AI into it to do different things. We're doing a lot with marketing where you know it's companies that have inbound phone calls, and Benny hit it on the head that we'll use the chat and it'll it'll do a bot, it'll chat with people and it'll recognize what they need. And at that point, it'll turn it over to a live person. Because a lot of times my clients aren't open 24-7. Well, this allows them to be open 24-7, um, and you know, at least get enough information or carry on the conversation, and then it flows it into workflows that uh either you know sends it to MailChimp or whatever it is going to do, whatever their process is to help automate those steps that used to be a human that nobody liked doing that stuff anyhow. And and they couldn't find people to do it, and if they did do it, they half-assed it. So now that stuff gets done, but then there's a human that gets involved at some point in time.
SPEAKER_07:We have implemented AI at uh at the handyman company, and um uh we called her Tina. So Tina talks to a customer through chat, right? And so chats back and forth with Tina. Um, and with AI, uh, one of the things I'm seeing is that AI does a little over-explaining, a little over-emphy. And so um Kirk, my general manager's saying you want your computer to have less empathy. I do. I did in fact, in fact, I told him, I'm like, dude, this is like what oh, I hate to hear this. I said we don't need to say that. I say you're dead to me. Um, actually, I'm working on a couple things, and he's like, No, I can't do that. I said, Are you sure? How about you how about you go dig a hole, jump in it, and put the kids in. So, so believe it or not, before I left today, I was uh talking about AI and how it's helped us in our business. I have three ladies who answer our phones, and they said, Are we gonna lose our jobs? Uh this was a week ago. I said, No, but that fourth lady we were gonna hire, um, she's not gonna be here. That's Tina. I said, And you guys gotta look to work with Tina. I'm walking out today, and one of the ladies goes, Believe it or not, I just got a call from a guy who said, Hey, I'd like to talk to Tina.
SPEAKER_05:I was you did not.
SPEAKER_07:It's good. We've um it's styled in, it's good. And so it it really is helping. So um that's a little step for a handyman company, right? This was after hours, but now because people say, Ah, you need an after hour call center. In fact, um, one of my other buddies swears by after hours call center, and uh, we got into it and knocked on dragon. I'm like, no. I said that call center's dead. I said, because I'm answering calls overnight. People call overnight in my business and don't expect to get anybody. In fact, a lot of people right now don't want to talk to anybody, they'd rather chat back and forth, right?
SPEAKER_03:They'd rather chat or because they don't want, you know, no offense, but they don't want to get someone offshore that doesn't really speak English well. They would rather chat with the knowing that in the morning you're gonna call them back with the details and and carry on a real conversation.
SPEAKER_06:That's an interesting turn.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so you I mean, here you actually, you guys, all of you, Dennis, and you guys it in you know, in terms of like what you were talking about, and and Alan, I know you were concerned about job loss. So let me give you an example. I mean, in the in this goes exactly with what we're talking about. One of the big areas that I work with is contact centers, right? So we have a lot of the old call centers and contact centers. Today it's kind of shifted and migrated because we call them contact centers now, it's because it's more than just voice. To your point, uh, especially millennials, they don't like to talk to people. They want to, they just want to text, they want to be able to do, you know, just do everything on the phone or through an app. And so what we are, I don't know if you were aware of this or not, but um, call center agents, that's their the attrition rate is 60% a year, right? So you you if you have a hundred people in in your call center, 60 of them would be gone by the end of the year, and it just keeps going over. We had a client that their attrition rate was 140% a year.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, good god. It was it was so they're spending tons of money on training and hiring and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_07:That's I mean they're they're buying them lunches and the the ungrateful ingrate leaves the next day. That's right. Not not bad, but you know, give them a great big tool and they quit the next day. Bastard. Um I mean, uh hypothetically, of course, right? Sorry, didn't mean to bring Helen's issues in. Oh, that was me. Well, you know, what we're seeing You are a great big tool.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's the right profession.
SPEAKER_07:I am. Thank you. I am the right tool for this industry, I can promise you.
SPEAKER_02:If you have AI come in and take those those jobs, like if like think about this call center that you would have, and somebody who's answering the same question literally 30 times a day, what time are you guys open to? Does it come in blue? Do you have this in stock? Blah, blah, blah. Whatever it happens to be. Well, those are the type of questions that AI can easily and eagerly answer, right? So if you have a call center that has, let's call it 500 uh agents working at any given time, right? And we know that as a certain percentage of those calls are gonna be the same repetitious calls every single time, right? Then what you can do is you can create specialists. And this is what we're doing, is like you have people who need to have that final question. Let's say an insurance company client of mine is an example, they would have uh they would do everything from uh reporting an accident to, you know, I I just added this uh car and I need them put in there, I need it put into my uh uh policy, right? But what is what about this strange one here? I I, you know, it is this uh is this particular um windshield going to be OEM and is this an approved vendor? Well, you need to talk to a human being for that. I'd rather have a like instead of having 500 agents, maybe you have a hundred agents that are specialists and are trained in those segments. And so they can have AI filter out all the garbage questions because they're still gonna come in, whether it comes in from text or if it's coming in voice, and then you have these specialists. Now you can build a career around that. Sure, you're gonna have some people who are are it's it's gonna be asking the ridiculous questions and all that, but at least you're not getting those monotonous, repetitious uh calls all the time. And in fact, with my client who had that 140% turnover rate is down to about 50%. So it's still high in terms of the attrition rate.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, but not in that industry. You can't fire people who are not there. Well, yeah, but think about this. But now the people who are there are feeling more valuable, right? These people are instead of answering that same anonymous question, do you have this in blue? Do you have the yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. Well, they get paid more. Well, no shit. The blue is one, and they get paid more, yeah, and then they get the hard question and they get the upsell opportunity, and they get the opportunity for the customer to go, man, thank you so much. You've really helped me. And you go, you know what? I really did on this one, as opposed to no, thank you. No, thank you. Are you open yet? No, that's why I'm talking to you, you moron.
SPEAKER_06:Um, are we talking too much about AI? Should we I don't I don't know. Like I should we talk too much, Mike Nate? I tell you what, I think what you want to show, dude.
SPEAKER_07:Let me tell you again. Benny the Jet here has taken off because, dude, you all we did was give him like this much information. We went nuts. And Dennis is like, hey Benny, uh Benny, hold on, Dennis. We'll get back to you. Uh hold holster that sidearm there, Hawaii.
SPEAKER_06:We're going back to Benny. Dennis, I I I feel you because it's like being with Chris. This one lets me talk. Okay, that's enough. I'm just Benny's sidekick. Yeah, we're just we're just little moons in their orbit.
SPEAKER_02:It's it's funny. Whenever I if I'm giving a talk, or if I'm you know on a podcast, or if I'm even just talking, and and we eventually the the the the conversation of evolves into AI. And without a doubt, it you know, I was supposed to talk 10 minutes on this topic uh for a talk. Uh, and I talked an hour and a half, and I said, You guys, we can move on if you want. No, no, no, we want to know more. We we have some questions for you.
SPEAKER_07:I would say that you're right. Uh, I think all of this is germane to the audience. Uh, I would tell you that uh I do hate it when people talk about AI and get all scared like Alan. And next thing I know, I'm putting him in a blanket, shivering things and giving him ice cubes because his mouth is starting to quiver. So that's all right, Alan. You'll be fine. I do when you do that. It is, it's part of the conversation. A lot of people were all struggling with it. You guys said it. I agree with you. I think small businesses, you got to adopt. And here's the thing, and that's why I always ask, especially when people kind of come on condescendingly and say, Well, I'm in the AI space. I'm like, all right, tell me one thing I can do to implement my company right now. And if you can't, then I don't think you really understand it. And this is this is my SEO test. I used to do that with SEO. They always came in and said, Oh, SEO, SEO. Well, what's the stand for? Well, I can't tell you that. You're like, Well, I do it. So, how do you implement it? Oh, I can't tell you that either. You just have to sign up with me. I'm like, all right, man, if you can't explain it to me where I can understand it, I don't think you really understand the subject.
SPEAKER_06:They knew you were gonna steal steal it from them.
SPEAKER_07:Well, of course I am. Yeah, well, that's the fact that in my Benny, I mean, he hit you, right? He clearly understands how what it's doing and how it's impacting things. Dennis uh gave us another one talking about how he's implementing it, and it's part of the conversation of everybody he's changing processes for. He's definitely taking the guy out looking for the cake in the stapler, though. He's gone.
SPEAKER_02:Though Alan, I I want to tell you that I think that listen, it you're not the only one that I've talked to that is afraid of AI. And and and and really truthfully, rightly so, right? There you we've all seen the movies growing up. You can go and uh you know see about the robots that attacked, you know, you know, is far back before we were born, right? But the but the whole idea about World of Worlds, Terminator, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Oh yeah, think about yeah, is this a movie podcast?
SPEAKER_00:I can't remember.
SPEAKER_07:Hey, does that bump us up in genre? We let's go true crime. True crime, we were niche sex a couple of weeks ago.
SPEAKER_06:We were yeah, uh for one episode we niched up high. Well, Chris Chris turned off the heat because he had contractors in his house, which I still don't understand why he did that, but it didn't make me want to take my quote. Hey, you're working for LFA? That's what happened. All right, that's right. You do the job, maybe I turn it down a degree.
SPEAKER_07:It's incentives, guys. Huh? You know, there's carrots and sticks. Welcome to my world, which is bad. It's a fabulous employer of the year, right here. You know what? I'm always in the running on it's usually I'm I got kicked out of let's see, dad of the year January 2nd, employer of the year, uh probably usually January 3rd.
SPEAKER_06:It's awards I'm not gonna get season best place to work awards January 5th. Shit. I need more AI.
SPEAKER_00:Dennis, what'd you get me into?
SPEAKER_06:Dennis is like I'm glad I'm not saying it's the worst podcast is everyone.
SPEAKER_07:Please is this podcast over here? No, stay here, buddy. You can't wait. Dennis, hold on, I'm coming back to you.
SPEAKER_00:So so I'll let me just I'll just finish this for you, Alan.
SPEAKER_02:Alan, so I think that just to kind of tie this up for you. I I think they sure we we need to approach AI carefully, right? And and you know, the part that we can do, what we can control, use it for your business, use it for your personal life. Anything from plan of vacation to uh you know helping you think out what your next business strategy move should be. Those are things that that are usable. But for the the folks that out there that are out there and doing things that we can't control. This we've always it's always been that way, right? There's always been somebody who's a pulse away from pushing the the nuclear button. There's always been somebody out there who could um, you know, uh, you know, when when farming equipment was uh was manual, right? And we came out with the uh the motorized tractor, that was considered, uh we're not gonna do that. Those are the type of things that uh you you'll never replace the human being. The thing about it is is that there's opportunities in everything that we do, and even for my son, yeah, I don't know what exactly how it's gonna look when he graduates, but I feel confident that there's gonna be an opportunity out there that that hopefully AI can actually leverage him into. And so what I will say is this is that um just a spoonful at a time. Right now, it's it is you know we say drinking from a fire hose, it's Niagara Falls. It isn't a fire hose, right? So you can get overwhelmed and you can go into the fetal position and and crawl on underneath your bed. But I I I I feel that there's a really good opportunity out there for it. And I I think if you just kind of play around with a little bit, you'll you'll be uh you'll be all right.
SPEAKER_07:So good news is I'm not in my bed, but I am going fetal and I usually go on my couch. Yeah. So I'm halfway there. Thank you, Benny.
SPEAKER_06:No, I I feel I feel like this is good therapy. I think I think you got more nervous on this episode than you have been before.
SPEAKER_07:No, actually, I'm getting more. I'm uh he actually there's a couple things you guys have said that you're right. Uh, the more the future continues, the more the past shows itself. Um, because you said something. Um try to quote somebody. No, uh-uh. That's me, baby. That's you. That was deep. That was deep. Oh, you know what? Cindy, mark that down. Put that on there uh and see if I can't quote it. Let's do the future continues the more the past reveals itself. It does. And I'll tell you, here's a great example. When I was in college uh going to engineering school, very proud of the fact that I never took one business class. I took one business class, econ 101. Um, I took history of technology, and they talked about as technology evolved, what they said was the advent of the washing machine was going to eliminate washing jobs. What do we do? We started washing our clothes more. The advent of the dishwasher was going to kill the dishwasher jobs in uh in uh restaurants. What do we do? We wash more dishes, so it just leverages people, and it's so it didn't kill, it actually had people doing more work. So the more we invented, more mom had to work. Just for the record, I will say this though. My mom and dad bought a dishwasher the day after I went to college, and my younger brother is five years younger than me, didn't wash a flipping dish and threw it in his entire 40 seconds. You're not you're not bitter about that. I am definitely not bitter, but I know when I that history lesson came back. I came back with the book. I'm doing this, I'm shaking up my mom. I'm like, Ma, huh? How come I had to wash all the flipping dishes?
SPEAKER_06:Do I need to set another appointment with your therapist? Which is not AI. I have mommy issues. All right.
SPEAKER_07:We could probably train an AI to deal with you. I don't, I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. All right, Dennis, you were gonna say something. I'm sorry I cut you off.
SPEAKER_03:No, no, no. I'm I'm good. I'm just listening. This is fun. This is awesome.
SPEAKER_07:It's like, no, no, please just get me out of here. All right, all right, guys. We'll grant you your wishes. We'll get you guys going. This honestly, I think this has been awesome. I'd say, you know, it's unlock some things. Benny, you said something. If you've never tried AI today, just go sit there, go on a chat GPT, get the free one, and try something for funsies just for once, right? If you're on Amazon shopping, I'm gonna go try that Rufus thing and see what it does. Just try it, see what it does. Who knows, man? And then you start dipping your toe in, and next thing you know, it's taking over the world, and we're trying to slit slit Al's wrists with butter bikes. Can I can I stitch him back up?
SPEAKER_06:Benny brought me back. I go. And I already I already slit him, but okay, good. Well, he meant I ask a really stupid question. It's really too late in the podcast to do this. Yeah, what's the difference between me googling something and then me asking chat GBT?
SPEAKER_00:So when if you think about the old days and you still didn't I got a good question out of him, yes, okay.
SPEAKER_07:Late neck podcast, though. Most people try as a Hail Mary.
SPEAKER_02:Man, if you if actually, if you this is actually good, Alan. If you go to Google today, it's it's very different.
SPEAKER_06:Actually good. No, it's it but if you do it today. No, it's good. I think you're just kind of dumb, but I want to hear this one. Hey, good job, Alan. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Have you if you've uh Googled like you know what's the weather forecast for Atlanta? Or you know, in in the old days it would be they're gonna take you weather.com, and then you would click on weather.com and it would show you the actual website and you look through that. Maybe you know, maybe that's a bad one because they were starting to put the weather forecast itself. Now AI is the very first response that is actually on the top of uh if you go to Google and do it today, the first generated response is AI, and it gives you the answer directly. So if you want to say, what's the difference, what's the distance between Barcelona and Detroit? You know, I'm curious. What is it? What is it? They would have had you going to a scientific calculator, perhaps, and then you would put it in and you would have to figure out the answer. Now you go in, AI will give you the answer, they'll give it. Now, is that I is there a danger to that? I think there is, right? When we when we were all kids, and this is uh uh this is something I I heard from a comedian. I can't remember I'd give the comedian credit, so I I can't take credit for this. When we were all young and and sitting around, um, you know, maybe campfire and having a good time, the question it would come up, hey, was Tom Petty from Florida? And we would sit there and go, I don't know. I think so. And that was it, right? That was all we had.
SPEAKER_05:Right.
SPEAKER_02:The environment today or changed actually with the advent of the internet and certainly smartphones, to say, was Tom Petty from Florida. And someone would pull it up, yeah, he was from Gainesville. He was from Gainesville, Florida. So now we know the answer right then and there. AI has actually upped that game one step farther, meaning now we don't have to even we don't even have to go and and and do even more research on more difficult questions. And the here's the difficulty, and this is where we can stand ourselves out is that don't lose that passion for the research to go that one step farther. Don't rely on AI only. You got to make sure that AI is just a tool, AI is an assistant, and you need to take it one step farther. So keep that brain going. AI is not gonna replace us.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and Alan give you uh kind of a firsthand experience. Biddy and I had a guest that was supposed to be on our podcast. Unfortunately, he had to cancel, you know, like 30 minutes before the podcast was coming up. So we went to AI, AI, and said, Hey, you know, here's a couple topics, do an outline for us. And literally in five minutes, it had the outline put together. It had, hey, we said, hey, give it some pictures because we do video as well. And so it all put it together, and then we used that as a talking point. Now, as we looked at it, there were like 20 recommendations. There were five or six in there that we said, we're not talking about that. So we just took them out and had that presentation ready to go, and then we had uh had our podcast pulled together, and then we brought it to life with the relationships and the human features of it, but it put it together that we didn't have to sit there and do all that research about. I think it's the one that actually our podcast that came out today where we were talking about tariffs and inflation and what do you do with all that for from a business standpoint? That was AI putting some recommendations together, and Benny and I putting our spin and our experiences and talking about it. And that that was a fun one that we that we weren't planning to do that podcast, but we were forced to.
SPEAKER_06:So you so you actually prepare for your podcast?
SPEAKER_07:I uh Alan, that's overrated. Let me just say this again. Um, I'm gonna get a little cutout with Alan, and I'm gonna say, Hey, Alan, what do you think of that? And I'm gonna push the button, and AI's gonna go, hey, and he's gonna say your voice is sound just like you. Hey, Chris, you thanks for letting me talk. I don't want to shut up, Alan. It's gonna stop, and I'm gonna go. That's how I'm gonna use AI. Guys, uh, this has been phenomenal. That is a great one that you guys just talked about. Um, so uh Dennis, why don't you tell us your your company name and then we'll head over with Benny?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, uh my company it's Work Solutions and it's Work Solution. It's W Rxsolution.com. Benny.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and you can uh yeah, my company name is called the Velocity Technology Group. That's velocitechnology.group, and you can find both Dennis and me on LinkedIn. So reach us out there and the podcast.
SPEAKER_03:You gotta talk about it. WFH with two guys, and that one you can find on LinkedIn or Google it. WFH. WFH with two guys.
SPEAKER_06:We know what that stands for. I can workshop that. It's not working from home. No, it's not for not for this guy.
SPEAKER_07:All right, guys. Actually, thanks for coming on. This has been a blast. Thanks for hanging with me. I just this has been awesome. This has been great. But before we do this, as the great Tom Petty said, I will not back down from using AI. Go out there, make it a great day. Get up that mountain and let's go make some money.
SPEAKER_06:Cheers, everybody. Cheers.
SPEAKER_07:Love it. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Department. Remember, your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in the wild world of small business ownership. Until next time, make it a great day.
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