Pioneering Perspectives

AI Fuel for Entrepreneurs with Thea Zimnicki

• Pioneers21 • Season 2 • Episode 8

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 35:21

Welcome back to Pioneering Perspectives! In this episode of “AI Fuel for Entrepreneurs,” we are joined by Thea Zimnicki, a P21 VMS Mentor, and the Founder and CEO of FutureProof. Thea Zimnicki shares how solo entrepreneurs can harness AI as a "business partner" to automate tasks, maintain authenticity, and drive business growth. She also dives in on overcoming AI integration challenges, navigating ethical considerations, and leveraging emerging trends to scale effectively.  

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or seasoned founder, Thea’s insight and perspective is invaluable. Don’t miss this episode!! 

Now available to watch on YouTube! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBblCmonlNc  

Listen on: 

Stay Connected: 

Subscribe to our newsletter: Pioneers 21 Innovator’s Digest!
https://pioneers21.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=7453c8a78fca6db0e2ce742d5&id=9f19b0c937
 
Music: ♪ Onion (Prod. by Lukrembo)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGQNrzqrGqw 

 

 

SPEAKER_02

Howdy y'all, welcome back to another episode of the Pioneering Perspectives Podcast. I'm Michelle Tubbs and I'm here with the program director of Pioneers 21, Marisol Chavez. Hello, everyone. We're your hosts for today's episode. In case y'all didn't know, Pioneers21 is one of the first and longest running incubators in the border region. Our mission is to inspire and incubate entrepreneurs and businesses through mentorship, training, and connection. In today's episode, we are joined by Tea Zimniki, a P21 VMS mentor and the founder and CEO of Future Proof, which helps organizations thoughtfully integrate generative AI into their operations, allowing teams to be more creative, engaged, and impactful. P21 admires the work that you've done, and we're so honored to feature you on our podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, Tea. How are you doing today? Great. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited for our conversation.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, good to hear. So also, I've heard you had a birthday. So happy belated birthday.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

That was last week, right?

SPEAKER_01

That was uh yes, end of October last week.

SPEAKER_02

Very funny. Well, we'll go ahead and jump right into this episode.

SPEAKER_00

And thank you so much for being here today. We really appreciated not only this, but also in general, all of the support that you provide Pioneers21. Um, so we're here to talk about AI. And uh, as an expert that you are, uh, we wanted to relate to um we want to relate AI to entrepreneurship. And one of the things that we thought about is that for solo entrepreneurs, time is a very limited resource. Uh, so how can AI act as a team member or a business partner for those running a one-person operation?

SPEAKER_01

Sure. I think that that's a that's a great place to start. And to me, generative AI really can act as a force multiplier, which is useful for most people, but particularly for solo entrepreneurs. If we think about the solo entrepreneur experience, we know a couple of things. One, as you said, time is undoubtedly their most valuable asset. And two, they wear every hat in the business, juggling multiple roles, marketing, product, customer success, administrative tasks, everything, right? And so this is where AI can step in, not just as another tool set, but as you said, a quasi-team member or thought partner. You can use AI to act as an extension of yourself to amplify your abilities and your effectiveness. So you can, first of all, perform certain routine tasks much more quickly and efficiently. Second, it can provide some types of expertise that you may not possess. And third, it really can help you with thinking and decision making as if you did have another teammate. So I can give some examples because I realize it kind of sounds like we're we're living in the future here, and maybe we are, but let's let's kind of break those things down. Um first, yeah. So when it comes to automating routine tasks, um, one simple example is email management. The AI can sort through your emails, highlight priorities, draft some initial responses, things like that, which puts you now in a position of reviewing and tweaking something that has been pre-drafted rather than doing everything from scratch. So talking about saving time and mental energy, those types of smaller tasks are a great place to look. The other sort of the second part that I mentioned is um AI being able to enhance areas where um you might either lack expertise or bandwidth. And so let's say you're crafting an important message or delivering sensitive news. I think we've all had that experience of agonizing over rewriting something we're really nervous about sending. You know, how do we clearly convey a certain message using a particular tone or inviting a particular response? And so I know a lot of people who use ChatGPT or their Gen AI tool of choice to check their writing tone in situations like this. And AI is great at that, suggesting different phrasing or making things more clear and precise. So that would be an example kind of in this second category. Another one here might be digesting large amounts of information. It can output summaries, analyses, and it can do it really quickly. So that could be useful if you're researching a prospect, preparing for a meeting, um, analyzing customer feedback sentiment to uncover insights that you might have missed. So all of those things are areas where AI can help you, where you may not have the bandwidth or perhaps the expertise to do it solo. And then the third part that was part of your question around decision making, this one is really interesting. AI can help with decision-making structures or providing frameworks that can be really helpful to be organized with your thoughts and reasoning. So, for example, you can give it your goals, constraints, some initial ideas, and ask it, is there anything else I should be considering and why? Or analyze these options and for each one provide pros, cons, or sort them in order of priority, or suggest 10 alternatives I haven't thought of yet. So, all in all, using AI in these ways can help you achieve more than you might be able to do by yourself. And that's really what I mean by a multiplier. So you're you're you mentioned freeing up time in your question, which is one thing that Gen AI can do, but it's really more than that. It's about enhancing your own effectiveness, not just efficiency. So basically, where you are putting in your time and energy, you can do things better and not only faster, which is great for the solo entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, definitely. That not only sounds helpful, but honestly, it doesn't sound that difficult. So there's one misconception, I think, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, uh, about AI that it has to be this, you know, complex implementation of something very intimidating. Um, what advice would you give entrepreneurs who feel overwhelmed by the idea of integrating AI into their operations?

SPEAKER_01

Totally. It's completely understandable that so many ventures do feel overwhelmed by the idea of integrating AI into their operations and that it can seem like it's only for big corporations with lots of resources or huge data teams, right? And um the reality is that you know the landscape of AI has changed dramatically, and today the technology really is more accessible, affordable, user-friendly than ever before. And it's continuing to evolve in that direction. So you don't need a team of data scientists or a massive corporate budget to start leveraging AI in really meaningful ways. So, what can you do if you're feeling overwhelmed? The first thing to do is assess your own operations. Um, don't think about inserting AI into what you're doing from the get-go. First, look at where it really makes sense to implement it. So this means take a step back, look at your operational workflows as they currently stand, and map out your processes, identify repetitive tasks, pain points. These are clues that they could benefit from automation or uh enhanced insights. So all of this sounds, it sounds really tedious, um, but it's super valuable. And I bet you can learn some unexpected things, even just from that first step. From there, once you have that done, my advice is to start small. Focus on specific areas where AI can have an immediate impact. So maybe it's uh sorting through data, maybe it's you know, during the first step of mapping out your workflows, you find that there are too many handoff steps, or your efforts in a particular area are overbroad and should be more targeted. Those are all areas where you can have really big impact from small changes. The other thing I would say in this step, use off-the-shelf AI tools that integrate easily into those existing workflows. So this might mean going directly to an AI language model like ChatGPT or Gemini, using no-code platforms to create simple AI automations. It could mean using an AI-driven point solution for a particular set of tasks, though I'd be a little careful with that. You don't want to overcomplicate your tech stack with a compilation of a whole bunch of point solutions, because then you risk making things messier rather than simpler. So look for those easy wins. Start small. And the third part, step three, as I would put it, is investing in education and training. I'd emphasize that this really can demystify AI and help you understand what's possible. In order to even make informed decisions, you really need some foundational knowledge. And that really is a core belief that we hold at Future Proof. And that's why we help organizations, not just with the AI implementation part, but with helping teams get excited and coaching them on how to identify those opportunities. We see all the time that ultimately it's the people who are closest to the day-to-day operations who are best positioned to see where AI can make a difference. They're in it all the time. So a fundamental understanding of how the technology works can be critical for figuring out where it should fit in. So overall, I would say, you know, those are three places to start. And for organizations that are feeling overwhelmed or AI hesitant, it's important to remember that integrating AI is not a one-step process, it's a journey. It starts with making those really incremental improvements that collectively lead to something significant. So it's, and it's fun. Like it's an opportunity to innovate, to stay competitive, which, you know, as we all know, is going to be increasingly important as businesses continue to embrace AI. So, bottom line, this technology is available to businesses of all sizes and stages. Don't let the fear of complexity hold you back. Um, you just need to start exploring, focus on your specific needs, your workflows, and take that first step.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, definitely. One thing that I could grab from that, there's so many technologies, like you said, that are out there that can help you already. But uh recently we attended South by Southwest at Austin, right? And there was a lot of panels talking about AI. But I want to ask you like, have you been to a conference recently where you've been able to stay up to date with trends that can offer a glimpse into the future of AI? What have you come across that you think could be a game changer?

SPEAKER_01

Oh gosh, there's there's so much happening in the space and it's changing really rapidly. And so I think there's there's so much to say here. I think one thing that that um is really interesting and sort of is uh continuing to develop is uh AI agents. And so AI agents are these autonomous systems that are capable of performing complex tasks for a user. And in October, I don't know if if you um read about Anthropics release of its computer use model using using Claude. Um it's it's really cool. Have you seen this yet? No, I haven't. I have not either. Okay. So um Claude's computer use feature, it's released in beta right now. It allows the AI to interact with a computer in in a almost like a human-like manner. So it can move your mouse cursor around, it can click buttons, it can type text, go through windows and screens. And what that means is that it can handle a variety of operational tasks on its own, sort of like a virtual assistant. It's it's really cool. It's very early, um, which means that it is currently extremely slow and has a lot of bugs to figure out, but um, but it's incredible. And I think that gives us a glimpse into what's possible in in the future. And if we could delegate tasks to an AI agent like that, um it would certainly allow for scalable operations in a way that we just haven't seen it before.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, definitely. How would you trust an AI agent as a solo entrepreneur? Let's say they choose that agent specific to, you know, like run their daily tasks that are repetitive, how would you trust that AI?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, I think I think that that's a big concern. I think when it comes to this specific use case, um I think there are a lot of unknowns. But when you're talking about interacting with generative AI in general and sort of some of those risks around how do you trust it to um, I mean, to do what you want it to do, to um not reflect biases, to you know, perform ethically, to maintain your brand voice, all of those things are are really critical to think about. And um, and and each of those is its own big topic that we could that we could talk about. But essentially it comes down to awareness of the risks. It comes down to making sure that you know that when you implement uh any sort of uh AI integration into your workflows, that it's an ongoing process. It's not going to be a you know, set it and forget it kind of kind of process. You really need continual iteration to make sure that it is doing what you want it to do. And then I'd say um continual monitoring, human in the loop, all of those things are really critically important for um for making sure that it's not um that it's not performing in a way that is damaging to your brand reputation, to your customers, to um data privacy, to any of these things? It really requires a lot of iteration and a lot of oversight.

SPEAKER_02

And actually, on the topic of, you know, like keeping one's authenticity with their brand, how would a solo entrepreneur leverage AI to not replace that human touch, you know, and that that human feel that it gives to when it comes to, let's say, marketing, when it comes to customer service, et cetera?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think that that's a that's a good question and and it's a valid concern. And of course, you're completely right that businesses and and solo entrepreneurs in particular really thrive on creating those genuine connections with their customers. And and for you know, a solo entrepreneur, they really are the embodiment of their brand. So um, so it's really it's it's something to keep in mind. And I think that this concept of um of having the human element and not allowing AI to be a replacement for the human touch, I think that that that's important. I think the AI should not be viewed as a replacement, but it can help in a bunch of ways. So we talked a little bit earlier how the AI can um help you to amplify your time and your ability then to connect personally where that matters. So if we're looking at the AI as you know, an extra teammate that handles some of the groundwork by automating some of those routine tasks, whether it's managing emails, pre-drafting content, um, things that are basic and repetitive, then you are freed up from those things and allows you to focus more on the aspects of your business that truly require your personal touch and expertise because not everything does. So delegate things to the AI that are those areas where you don't require a human touch. That's the first thing I would say. Another thought that comes to mind here is that you can use the AI to help augment those workflows to help you deepen your personal interactions. So I'll give you an example of this that we give sometimes in our workshops. But um let's say you have an upcoming phone call with a customer, or it could be a prospect or a peer or anyone you're trying to build that relationship with. You could use an AI workflow to gather context and background about that person and surface insights about them, like goals or preferences or challenges, and then have it suggest some really engaging questions that you might want to ask them in your conversation. So that way you're still having the personal interaction yourself one-on-one, but maybe you're able to deepen the conversation with the help of the AI. And then after the conversation, you can have the AI analyze your transcript, draft a follow-up email to send them based on what you talked about, which then you personally review, edit, tweak, and then send. But in this case, the AI isn't replacing you as a human. You're still building that authentic personal relationship, but you're able to do it more effectively and maybe have more conversations like that. So I think that's that's kind of a critical distinction there, where we're not using the AI to replace the human element where that is really, really critical.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, completely agree. And I mean, I don't just want to be talking about concerns, but you mentioned ethics earlier, and um, ethics and AI is becoming an increasingly important conversation, especially for ventures who might not be able to have the resources to navigate complex regulations. So, what ethical considerations should entrepreneurs keep in mind when using AI, especially regarding data privacy and transparency with customers?

SPEAKER_01

Sure. Um ethics are really important uh part of the conversation when we're talking about AI. And so I think the first place that I would start this conversation is about data privacy. And I think this is one of the biggest ethical concerns that people talk about when using tools, when using AI tools, um is the risk of accidentally sharing private or sensitive information. And the reality is that when you input data into an AI system, that information might be stored or used in ways that you don't realize or you didn't intend. So when it comes to data privacy, I would say be really mindful of what you share. Um, avoid sensitive information, personally identifiable information, confidential business data, sensitive customer data, any of those things, you know, be really careful. If you need to use real data in any kind of interaction with the model, anonymize it. Um, so that's the first thing. For some businesses that are um that are a bit further along and are concerned about data privacy, um, you can go into things like hosting your own model. So everything is private to your own company network and you control all of that data, but that requires more resources and sophistication. So I think that's maybe out of scope for our current conversation, but worth worth mentioning. And it does make sense for some businesses. Along with those, yeah, along with those concerns, I think really it's about um being informed and informing your team. Companies really need to be training employees on best practices when using AI. And they need to be thoughtful about establishing clear guidelines that support employees of their use in these tools. So that's kind of, you know, on the data privacy end, um, things to really think about. I think the other part you mentioned was uh transparency with with customers. Yes. And um I'll mention maybe a couple things here. Um transparency, excuse me. Transparency fosters trust. And so it's okay to be open about how you're using AI in your operations. And that's especially true if you're deploying customer-facing tools. And I'd say, in fact, you may want to tell your customers how your use of AI enhances their experience because that's probably why you're using it. You can deliver faster response times or something, you know, more uh more personalized service or better insights, um, whatever the case may be. So um there may be a proactive desire to share those things anyway. I think the last thing that's worth mentioning in this discussion about ethics is about um bias and um bias and fairness. And I'll say that AI systems can perpetuate biases that were present in their training data. The AI works by trying to predict the best answer to output based on patterns in its training data. So if the training data is biased, the model will likely reflect that back in its output. And for most users and most small businesses, solo entrepreneurs, they probably don't have a lot of insight or control over the data that's used to train the model. So in this case, the best you could do here is just be aware that this is the case. Be vigilant about the potential for uh for biased assumptions. Stay in the loop. You probably want to have human review of AI outputs before they impact customers or inform significant decisions. And so there's there's a lot you can do here to uh to continually test um to make sure that the outputs you're getting do match what you want it to output as kind of your ground truth. Um, and that's that's critical.

SPEAKER_00

Definitely. And um, I mean, we've talked about bias, we've talked about decision making at the beginning, um, and ethics too, which I mean are all part of my my following question, uh, which is you know, how uh how can we ensure that, you know, by using AI responsibly, we are aligning that use to our values and our standards, uh, both as an entrepreneur but also as a company.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's a good question and totally related to the conversation we were just having about um about bias. Um and as we as we just talked about, you know, these Gen AI models are built using large data sets as training data. And so because it's matching patterns that are in those data, those those training data sets, there will be bias inherent. Um and as we also mentioned, most startups aren't going to be choosing what data is used to train the model. They'll be using a pre-trained model that was created by another company, and we may not even be able to know exactly what training data was used. So, what can we do about that? We mentioned awareness, um, understanding how generative AI works and that bias is a potential risk is critical. Next, the key to responsible use lies in how we implement and oversee these tools. So we need to critically evaluate our AI outputs. We need to keep in mind that using AI in any kind of decision making isn't a set it and forget it process. We need to make sure that we're giving the AI enough context, guidance, and examples to generate the kinds of outputs that we want. And again, that's a really important iterative process.

SPEAKER_00

So feeding the AI with your data, with your uh priorities so that it understands what you need.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. And so that the AI is giving you the type of output that you expect. So, as an example of what you're talking about, you probably would want to develop your own rubric or set of standards for how you want the AI to respond. Then you run the AI and you compare its actual responses to see how close it gets to your ground truth. If it's not on point, you still have work to do to adjust what you're giving the model. It's just, it's not ready yet. So you need to keep going through that process. And then even after you end up with something that that looks good, we still need to go through this process regularly to monitor and assess the outputs from your AI tools. Always make sure that it is aligned to your company's values and standards and take corrective action if it's off. So human oversight was really important. Keep a human in the loop, especially when the AI is being used to inform decisions. And it's really just about responsible AI use and making sure that it's enhancing your decision-making process in a way that is aligned to you and to your brand.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, completely agree. So I just want to change gears a little bit. So back in the beginning, we were talking about, you know, attending an AI conference and what you've seen from technologies coming from there. But as a solo entrepreneur that needs to stay ahead of the curve, maybe they can't afford to go to these conferences. How can an entrepreneur or a small venture be aware of these technologies? Like what can they do to be aware of these new technologies?

SPEAKER_01

Gosh, it it's simultaneously, uh that's a really interesting question because there's so much out there and it's happening so fast that it's hard to know where to look for uh for what's going on and for kind of the latest and greatest things that are happening uh in the space. It's moving really fast. I think that um, you know, for myself, um, I look at um people who are in the industry who I think are change makers and people who are um at the companies that really are at the forefront of this technology development and to see what they're writing about and um and what they're saying. All of that I think is is one place to be if you're looking at the newest, latest, greatest um developments at the edge of the technology. For most businesses and for most solo entrepreneurs, they don't really need to look that far for finding things that are going to be useful in building their business. I think, like I said earlier, really the place to start is looking, reflecting on what you're already doing, and then taking those really small steps that will amplify over time. So it's not even necessarily about staying on the on the bleeding edge of this technology as a solar entrepreneur in order to build your business. It's about just starting. Just start, experiment, um, learn by doing. And um, and in the meantime, of course, it's a fascinating space to be in. So looking at what thought leaders are saying and posting is fascinating, but that may not necessarily be the most impactful place to look for things that you can be doing in your business right now.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, 100%. And I've seen how every day there's something new. Uh, I follow this newsletter where it has like a bunch of different AIs, and the newsletter like sends one weekly and it sends you like, oh, this is the new AI for today. And yes, it's it's very how Marisol said earlier, like overwhelming for someone who doesn't know much about AI and wants to start in the field to help their business. So definitely I agree with um your input. So lastly, I want to bring it to our final question. AI has the potential to scale businesses in ways that weren't possible five years ago or even three years ago, two years ago. Uh, was your vision of the future for solo entrepreneurs using AI not only to manage day-to-day operations, but to innovate and drive long-term business growth?

SPEAKER_01

There's so much that AI unlocks for solo entrepreneurs so much. And like you said, it can be, there's so much there that it can be overwhelming. But kind of taking a step back, we talked about how AI can impact day-to-day operations, automating routine tasks, acting as a thought partner, freeing you up to focus on strategic thinking and relationship building and creativity. And all of that is true and fascinating, but really just scratching the surface. AI empowers entrepreneurs to operate with the capabilities of a much larger organization. And that's really the force multiplier we talked about earlier. So I think it was in uh in February of 2024, Sam Altman from OpenAI said that soon we'll see a one-person billion dollar company, which would have been unimaginable without AI. And your question made me think about that. Um I think that really is it is unimaginable without this type of um empowering force multiplier. So I think by experimenting and embracing AI in a thoughtful way, that's what's available to us in the future, which is incredibly exciting. Yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think that closes off our episode. Thank you so much, Teya. The conversation has been insightful and has made me think a lot about AI, especially in terms of bias, which is actually something that I haven't thought about before only in, I guess, ethics, but uh bias is also something that's huge that I haven't thought of. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00

And also, yeah, I mean Thank you both. Ending in that exciting note, I'm excited not just for the companies that we support, but all of the future companies that will form, thanks to AI, how they will become inspired, how how they will find a way to make things work as solo entrepreneurs with the help of AI as their right hand. So thank you so much, Tea. We really appreciate having you here. And I don't know if you'd like to add anything else before we leave.

SPEAKER_01

Um, well, I you know, I'll say thank you again for for the conversation. I really enjoyed it. Um, I would say if there's if there's one piece of advice that I could give to solo entrepreneurs who aren't currently using AI, um, it's just a start now. The best way to get better at using generative AI is to use it. So it's going to be a required competency in order to compete in the market, and it's really exciting. So again, I'd say start exploring, focus on your specific needs and take that first step.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you so much, Taya. Thank you.