Unsolicited Business Advice
Let's be real.
You may feel like your business owns you. You may feel uncomfortable that business has become stuffy, so you either dress up or don't show up. You are possibly on the roller coaster of wearing all the hats and wondering if it's time to close your doors.
Unsolicited Business Advice
26: "AI And Its Impact On Human Connection"
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The day has come when we were asked about the topic that's all around us...AI.
Our wonderful producer, Kassidy, asked, "With AI and automation becoming standard, human-centric business is the new premium. What are your thoughts on this?"
This is one of those topics that is escially opening up a can of worms, so we touch on many different aspects of AI.
Key Takeaways:
- Can this help us create more opportunities for human-centric services?
- Personal responsibility and the choices we make
- Can we bring back '90s-style communication?!
The two podcasts Amanda mentioned from Diary of a CEO were: AI Whistle Blower and Plumbers Will Earn More Than Lawyers.
We know this is a hot topic, so we'd love your thoughts and feedback!
Got a question/suggestion/or want our advice on a topic?
We’d love to give you our unsolicited advice, so please submit your question here.
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This is the Unsolicited Business Advice Podcast. We're Amanda and Callie, founders, moms, and friends who believe your heart is valid and your way is good enough.
SPEAKER_02Around here, we skip the buttoned-up LinkedIn talk and dive straight into real conversations about growing a startup, balancing motherhood, and rejecting the hustle culture. Consider this your weekly reminder that business can actually feel joyful again.
SPEAKER_00All right, welcome back. We got episode 26. Yes. Yeah. Um I will Which is my age?
SPEAKER_01No. That's cute. Yeah, well. It's close. Yeah. Wishful thinking. Plus a couple. Yeah. Just a few.
SPEAKER_00Just a few. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Okay. We have a submission. Okay. And it's more of a topic. Cool. Cassidy, our wonderful producer. Oh, that's very fancy. Um, submitted this one because it's very real. And I honestly like, I am struggling to talk about this topic for many reasons. And I will try to keep it. I know. It's weird. I don't know. Anyways, okay. Sorry, everybody. Back to it. Topic submitted. Always. The future of connection with AI and automation becoming standard, human-centric business is a new premium. What do you think is the future of connection when it comes to AI and all the things, business life? Wow. You first.
SPEAKER_02Um, well, a couple things immediately jumped into my brain. It's always funny how that happens. And then I'm like, does this relate? I don't know. But in my gut, it's like, this is this reminded me of that or whatever.
SPEAKER_00Does this deal with you moving to the side of a mountain? Shut.
SPEAKER_02If for all of you that don't know, Amanda is kind of a jerk. So I think I've said that maybe 17,000 times before this, but probably the amount of times that you've talked about moving to the side of the mountain. We're all gonna eventually move to the side of a mountain. So there is that. Um, one of my friends recently just lost her job, and um she was talking about, she's in the coffee shop the other day, and she was talking about how she was trying to apply for all these jobs, and there are, you know, thousands of open jobs out there. And she uh had sent her resume and she's our age, so she's like 40-ish. And so she was talking about how old she was because most of the people who are applying to these jobs, and even on some job application sites, it's not really a choice. There's like this AI component to your resume and to your cover letter and to your and and she happens to work in HR. So she at her last job, they were downsizing and she lost it. But anyway, she sh that's what she did. Is she read all these people's resumes? Yeah, resumes and cover letters and stuff, and she was like, the whole world basically is AI. Yeah. She was like, I know that there's a lot of value in that, and I know that there is it's certainly easier and all the things, but I can't get myself to use it. Because she's like, it feels just like all of it just feels so wrong. It's like, at what point do you need me to be a real human? Yeah. At what point do you need my real opinions, mind, you know, relational ability? Like, and and she feels like going through this process right now, she's just like, but if I don't do it, I don't really compete with the rest of the world that is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's it's like that if you can't beat them, join them. But I think, yeah, that's the hard part.
SPEAKER_02It's crazy to think about that because every time we do something like this as humans, like we go so far one way. It's just a matter of time before it the pendulum swings back, yeah, you know, and and then we're so over something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Right now we're just in the direction of going towards that something, which happens to be AI at the moment. It's weird because even knowing that and watching history, it I'm I am interested and intrigued by how that pendulum swings back. Like, what are our kids who grow up with that as being a, you know, a normal thing, an everyday thing? How are they gonna use that? Yeah. There's a part of me that thinks they're gonna say, screw it all. I'm gonna move to the side of a mountain.
SPEAKER_01And there's your full circle right there. But um, well, that's the end of the episode. Well, that was easy.
SPEAKER_00We're all just gonna move to the side of a mountain. And then it's just gonna be overly populated, and we're at to find a new side of a mountain. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_01Um, be like, get off my light.
SPEAKER_00What do you think? I mean, I don't know. What's yeah, well, I like the hard part, and I'm it's it's one of those things where I've just been watching and I love conversations and I love to have conversations about things that are very hot and people get hot and heavy about because and I don't, but I don't everybody's like, if you don't share it on Instagram, that means your head's in the sand. I'm like, no, I don't think that's true. Like, I'm more than happy to have any kind of conversation. I'm just not gonna have it in a place where it can be taken out of context, or there are people that like, I don't really care what their opinion is, that wants to put their opinion on it to then feel like I have to have a conversation with them. But like, I think if I sat down at a coffee shop or wherever and people talked about politics or HR or I don't know why HR just came in there, AI is what I meant to say, but HR too. Um, I think I love hearing the different opinions because I think the different perspectives is really helpful to hear because we all only have our perspective of like how we were raised, where we were born, all that stuff, right? And so we all come in with our own bias. And I love to hear the difference. And so I've been like there are many people that I follow, and this is within like my 20-minute Instagram allowed time a day, of like some people saying, I'm using it for absolutely everything because it's the way that my business is gonna be able to run with me and me not like burn myself to the ground and not have to hire and spend a ton of money on things that like it's very simple stuff. And then there are people who are like building all of these agents to like take over their whole business and they don't care about not hiring another human. And then there are people that are like, every time you ask it a question, you're basically throwing a plastic water bottle out your window into the world, and it's gonna take all of our water. And I'm like the pollution, oh my gosh, yeah, servers because of yeah, yeah. And so I've listened to a couple like specific AI, it's diary of a CEO. I'd never heard of it, but somebody shared it. And so one was like an AI whistleblower, then the other one was this other guy who wrote a book, and both of them just brought diff really interesting thoughts to it about like what it's doing to jobs, what it's doing for people who like to get to get us out of these jobs, we're like we're basically typing on a keyboard all day long doing stuff that like we weren't put here to do. And then getting to this, also like how important that human connection is and like almost having customer service for the most part be AI because the voices are so good and you can train them so well to actually answer a question and not give you the runaround. But then the people that want the human connection, that's like a VIP. So I'm like, well, does that mean that we're gonna be paying more for actually talking to a human? Which is strange to think about because I'm like, isn't that just something that comes with customer service? But then also that things that people are going to be craving that human connection. So like somebody that maybe owns a concert venue would benefit from that. Who would do that? That's kind of reclaimed stage in Centralia, Missouri, brought to you by Callie and Brad. If you didn't know that. But I think like that people are going to be looking for those things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then like the the conversation it was like, if we're not having to sit at our computer and do this like very mind-numbing work because it can be done with AI, then that does allow us time with our family or like with our friends to be able to go and do that. And so very valid. Yeah. And so that's why like I like go back and forth on it. And like one of the guys that on this podcast, it really, it's like it's here, it's been here. The hardest part is like for them, and this is so off topic. So I'm not gonna go down it, but it's more of the financial crisis that it's gonna cause because the investment in a lot of these data centers only last. I mean, it's billions of dollars and they last for like three years. Oh, barf. Yeah. So it's not, and like the people so many people aren't willing to actually pay for it. They use whatever a whatever platform for free. And so, like, the return isn't there. And so that's a huge interesting thing. Yeah. And so then I'm like, oh my God, that opens like opens up a whole other part of the conversation. And then, so like, I'm just so nervous to talk about AI, and then I've used it a little bit more, like I use Claude. And it is fascinating what it can help you do as a small business owner, where like you don't maybe have the funds or the capacity or the manpower to be able to get the information that you need to really make a big difference in your business. Yeah. This, the one of the podcasts he talked about, he was like, businesses are going to what it's gonna be able to do is you're gonna be able to offer more services and to be able to offer more client experience rich things. So like a conference or a retreat or something, and that goes along with maybe what uh what product or service that you offer, because AI essentially can take care of the like simple quote unquote tasks of like planning something or keeping track of something or like running a program. So then you have the capacity and the funds to be able to offer some kind of client experience on top of what you're already doing. Or like if you're hosting a conference, you're able to quickly create like a beneficial product for them to use. Take away something. Yeah. Yeah. But then it's like how quickly somebody else can create the same thing is that like these things aren't gonna last very long. Like the ownership of it, any like I could create the same thing, you could create as like a, I don't know, let's say like we're analyzing finances that like there could be like, please create this chart that does this and puts it out three years XYZ. I can create that, you can create that. So like it's not as much like intellectual property, I guess, because for some people would take quite a bit of money and somebody specifically to put in those formulas and create that, that now it takes with the right input 15 minutes. That's insane. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So well, that's why I'm like it's such a struggle. And I and who knows if what the right answer is, or even if there is one, which usually most of the time there isn't. But I do know something for sure, and that is every time something quote unquote new is introduced into the world, our very first reaction is no. For sure. And that's just human capacity. So whatever, take that with a grain of salt. But I don't know where this ends. Like I don't know where AI ends, but I I also know that prog progress isn't isn't always uh helpful. Like, for example, a very uh a very um typical example is putting emails on phones, on cell phones. Right. Like there was a day when we didn't have that. Uh-huh. And so we couldn't, when we went home after work, we didn't answer, we weren't expected to answer our email because we didn't have it. Yeah. Right. And so there is a a human element to that not being a good thing. However, there's also an element to being able to answer your email after you get home from work as a convenience thing being a good thing. Yeah. So there's always bad and good, and we all know that. But AI in and of itself, I think, can be much like cell phones are to us. Some things are really, really good about it. Yeah. And some things really, really suck. Yeah. And because humans struggle the most, I think, in my opinion, with discipline. Yes. This is going to be a hard thing for us to like keep in check. Yeah. Or be aware of. Yeah. Kind of thing. But that doesn't mean there's it's there's not a place for it in the world. Which is one of those things, like, I don't want uh humans to get to the point where we're like, let's blame this. Right. Because that's what we also do.
SPEAKER_00Because we have a choice.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah. You can absolutely just not use it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is that easy? No, of course not.
SPEAKER_00Well, and yeah, you have to know yourself well enough to be like, I'm, I might fall behind. But like, what is what am I willing to do?
SPEAKER_02Or even if it's not like a performance-based thing, there might be the, for example, there might be a situation in which we, our kids or friends or ourselves, could use some counseling. And instead of going through the difficult task of getting up and going to a counselor or even getting online and doing a video call and like being vulnerable and doing the thing that all humans need to do, which is get out the crap, right? We might just go to AI and type in our question or type in our emotion. And although that's nuts and it's not an answer, there is a piece of that as a mental health counselor that I'm like, you know, there is a percentage of the population, maybe it's 2%, maybe it's 3%, that would never, ever, ever ask for help otherwise.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so if they're getting a little bit of good or a little bit of maybe some sort of direction that's positive or helpful or useful, or even if it's just making them not feel alone. Yeah, I mean, there's some good in that. Is it a good thing? Not necessarily, but there's some good in that.
SPEAKER_00And that's the other thing where like I've seen, I didn't add this in earlier, is like there's no, I just the word just escaped me. Um, there's no like restrictions on it. And there's not like, and I do we blame the government? Do like who do we blame for that stuff? Because we're all looking for somebody, aren't we? Because like, because kids are asking it questions that are putting them in not great situations, or they're learning things, how to do things that they should not know how to learn. Like how to create a roofie, how to like that type of stuff. That's also our fault. Yes, I do agree with that too. It's not that's the regulation. Yes. There's no regulation. It's not a computer's fault.
SPEAKER_02That lands on us. I think this is totally maybe getting off subject, but a bit. If we're ever what not surprising, right, exactly. If we're ever gonna do anything that really truly matters or make any kind of groundbreak breaking moves forward, it's gonna have to start with responsibility.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like, do some things suck that are out of our control abse freaking Lutley. But as soon as we say, hey, I can do a little bit about that, I can, I can help that situation in this sort of way, even if it's on our own little corner or just even within the four walls of our own houses, we have to take some responsibility there. That's a soapbox for me. So I think we should cut it off right here because holy crap, I could go on forever on this one.
SPEAKER_00No, I yes, I I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, personal responsibility and that ruffles a lot of people's feathers, which is I think where a lot of the conversations that I would have one-on-one or like one to few would happen there instead of like on social media, because just like some of the things I talk about, and I feel like you talk about are they ruffle people's feathers because they're not ready to hear it, because they don't want to have the self-awareness yet. They're not there yet. Yeah, and I wasn't there for a long time. I'm sure that I've blamed so many things on so many things that it wasn't their fault and barf. Yeah, yeah. So I think that people will crave more. I think it's like that 1990s kind of feeling to come back where it was just felt easier because there was less comparison. Because we didn't have the visual in front of us all the time. Yeah, because like you're good enough is you're good enough because that's all you know. I don't know what like so and so's doing next to me to know that, like, oh god, I thought I was doing enough, and this is what Sally's doing over here. So I better figure that out, and it's all the time if we allow it, which is why I put a 20-minute timer on my social media because like I have to choose how to use it and I know ways that I can use it for benefits and for negativity. So awareness.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Coming back to that every time.
SPEAKER_00It's a work in progress.
SPEAKER_01So okay, yeah, good question.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a whole good topic. Deep can of worms. And then someone I do okay, one more thing. Midwestern goodbye. I do think that that specific topic is something that is an opportunity for any business to look at, okay, if there is less human connection and that is a value to you and or your customer, this is your opportunity to like try it out. What can that be? Ask your customers. What could we do that like, you know, would it be beneficial to get people together? And my mind, of course, is like, go to AI and ask. Like, this is what my business does. Is there an in-person human element that like I can create? Because, like, I mean, there's there's tons of them, and there's so many options that we we haven't even thought of that I do believe will come from this. And so, like, this is a huge opportunity for people to look at what they're doing, especially if they're like, I don't love what I do, but I don't like it's working, I'm making money, I don't know how to do anything different. This is an idea to be like, oh, how can I bring a human element to this for my business? There's good and bad. Yeah, yeah. So throw away the bad, keep the good. Yeah. We're all good. And just experiment with what that looks like for you and your business. Yeah. And your life. And come to a concert at Reclaimed.
SPEAKER_02I don't know how we worked that back in there, but yes, let's do that. All right. Bye. Thanks for listening to the unsolicited business advice podcast. If you've got a question you want us to tackle, DM us or drop it in the comments. Your story might be in our next episode. And hey, if it resonates with you, hit follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Every review helps us reach more business owners who are ready to bring joy back into their work.