Playbook AI Partners

Episode 8: AI Is No Longer a Nice To Have…It Is an Operational Infrastructure

• Sandy Kibling

Share episode

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

0:00 | 25:31

AI is no longer just a shiny new tool or futuristic concept—it is becoming essential operational infrastructure for businesses that want to save time, reduce costs, and create smarter workflows.

In this episode, Sandy Kibling talks with AI systems expert Ben Taylor about why many organizations get stuck experimenting with AI instead of implementing it in a way that produces real business results. 

Ben shares a practical way to cut through the AI overwhelm: start with the problem, not the tool. Instead of asking, “What AI platform should I use?” businesses should first ask, “What is costing us time, what is costing us money, and where are we missing revenue opportunities?” From there, AI and automation can be applied strategically to simplify processes, improve follow-up, reduce repetitive work, and free teams to focus on higher-value activities.

This conversation is a must-listen for business owners, leaders, and teams who want to move beyond AI hype and into practical execution. You’ll learn why AI should support your existing workflows—not complicate them—and how mapping your processes can reveal where automation can make the biggest impact.

Key Takeaways

  • Why AI is becoming a core part of business operations
  • How to avoid “AI experimentation” without measurable results
  • Why businesses should start with pain points before choosing tools
  • How workflow mapping makes automation easier and more effective
  • The importance of measuring time savings, cost savings, and revenue opportunities
  • How AI can enhance operations without overwhelming your team

Resources:

Nexiserve

PlaybookAIPartners


#Podmatch

SPEAKER_00

How do you currently operate? What are the systems that you're using? What are the current processes that you follow? And what we do is we build around that because uh AI can be quite intimidating, and trying to uh implement new platforms or trying to squeeze in all these fancy bells and whistles into uh your current way of operating can be a bit disruptive. So, what we found over the years is just if we can keep things as similar as possible, follow the processes that work, but try remove the manual parts of that, use the existing systems that you use and build, I guess, that operating layer around your current business and not try to disrupt things or try turn your business on its head overnight.

SPEAKER_02

Welcome to Playbook AI Partners Podcast, the show that turns AI from overwhelming into actionable.

SPEAKER_01

Your host, Andy Kibling, is the chief playmaker, helping business owners and teams stop chasting shiny tools and start using AI in a way that actually moves the numbers, saving time, reducing busy work, and driving growth.

SPEAKER_02

Each episode features industry experts and real-world tactics, providing clear to the snack plays, simple AI workflows, and practical guard reps. So you can use AI safely, execute with confidence, and get results. Let's run the play.

SPEAKER_03

Are you still experimenting with AI tools just trying to figure it all out? You hear about workflows, automations, and prompt engineering, but how does it all fit together and why does it matter? To help us get into this topic, I have Ben Taylor on the show. Ben is the founder of Nexuserve, an AI systems company that builds custom AI agents and large-scale workflow automations designed around how businesses actually operate. His team integrates directly into existing tech stacks to replace manual processes with structured, scalable systems that drive efficiency and growth. Welcome to the show, Ben.

SPEAKER_00

Great. Thanks, Sandy. Great to be on. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely excited. You've done a lot of really cool stuff, and I love the cool factor. So why don't you start out by uh sharing your journey with us and how it's led you on the AI journey today?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. Well, nextly, sir, we've been going for two and a half years now. I guess a bit about me, my background into the space. So my background was in sales and business development, and a large part of that role was just a lot of manual admin. And over the years, I just became so sick of just constant repetitive work every single day. I I just from there just stemmed from becoming obsessed with building out different automation. So I used to build out different scrapers, I build out just smarter ways of doing my own role, and that obsession really just started from there. And then in uh then you had ChatGPT that dropped. So I started experimenting with tools like Zapier and Mate.com. But then when you had ChatGPT coming out, it really added that element of AI, so more flexibility to some of these workflows, and it just grew from there, and from there it stemmed to just reaching out to people I knew, business I knew, friends and friends, building out these automations and workflows out for free, which then stemmed going to trade shows and again just getting the reps in, building them out, getting more insight into some of these companies and how they work and what are some of the bottlenecks. And then from there it just grew. So we've we've grown into a team of seven now. We've worked with over 60 businesses across different industries, and every project is different. So, as you as you mentioned in the intro, our approach really is a case of how do you currently operate? What are the systems that you're using, what are the current processes that you follow, and what we do is we build around that because it AI can be quite intimidating, and trying to implement new platforms or trying to squeeze in all these fancy bells and whistles into your current way of operating can be a bit disruptive. So, what we found over the years is just if we can keep things as similar as possible, follow the processes that work, but try remove the manual parts of that, use the existing systems that you use and build, I guess, that operating layer around your current business and not try to disrupt things or try to turn your business on its head overnight. So I hope that was uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, no, awesome. And no, I appreciate that because a couple things come to mind. And I talked about this, I think, in episode two is a question I had, but is the AI hype really over? And I do there's part of me that says, yes, it is, but I still think there is a large group of people that are still kind of tootling along, and I don't say that in a derogatory way. I mean, that would we've all been there, but just trying to figure it out and maybe still in that experimenting uh phase or thinking about implementing, but they're just still experimenting. And the second part is just really, and I say this a lot, is overwhelm because every day there's a new tool or there's a new feature, and those of us that are in it to win it, I like to say every day can't even keep up with it. So, what do you tell people? How should businesses actually think about implementing AI instead of just experimenting with it?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's a good question. It goes back to the point of start with the problem, not the solution. So I would say the biggest thing that comes up for us is we get on the calls with clients or prospects, and it's a case of how can we squeeze this into our business? And that's coming from a place of FOMO or a a place of falling behind. And I need to update update, I need to bring in the latest updates, I need to be using the best in class. This sounds like a great idea, and that could work in our business, but at the end of the day, we boil things down to just three simple things: what is costing you time, what's costing you money, and where is their untapped revenue potential within the business, and then start reverse engineering from there. So, what are the pro processes within your business and what are the tasks and steps involved in that? And in that way, it becomes a lot more digestible to understand okay, well, what is eating up a lot of our time, or where we spend a lot of money, or where we maybe not doing as much outreach, or we're slow to follow up on certain things, and as a result, missing out on business because we don't have the right systems in place. So that's how we start and we break it up, chunk it up, because trying to tackle everything just overcomplicates. Whereas if you can just get these small wins, these small momentums, if you can give your team back. So I I'll give an example. We had a client there the other week, um, they came in looking for AI call agents across the business, which was brilliant. But when we had a look at how they currently operate, they were spending two hours a day on this one uh manually coordinating jobs out to their team. Now, two hours a day doesn't sound like a lot, but over the course of the year, I think it calculates 65 eight-hour working days, which is three months of work, which is an entire quarter. So if you could turn around and say, right, we'll give your team back three months of work to then take that time and put it in higher leverage activities, that's where you start to see real value and and not trying to squeeze in these fancy, overhyped solutions, but actually tackling the uh the business problem at the heart of of what that looks like, not causing too much disruption or um but yeah, that's how that's how we approach it, just simplify simple scales.

SPEAKER_03

No, definitely. And I think that probably leads to the statement in the title of the podcast AI is no longer nice to have, it's an operational infrastructure, because truly, if you can save that amount of time and um redo remove those redundancies and have your team, as we like to say, working smarter and not harder, then it's not a nice to have. It is an operational infrastructure. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. I feel, especially nowadays, everybody has access to the same tools, it's becoming easier and easier to use and adopt these solutions. So, like you said, it's no longer a nice to have, but if you can just apply it in the most effective way and not overcomplicate things as well. So it's finding that balance, but absolutely it it's it's all about efficiency.

SPEAKER_03

I found so it's so incredibly important to educate yourself. And and I also always say being a part of a community too, just because things are, and I'm part of several communities because things change so quickly. And so if you're trying to sit there and, you know, you have your job, I'm thinking at an organization and you're trying to figure out AI as well, and then implementing that, it's just really, really hard to do. And I think going to, you know, an expert to be able to say, hey, listen, we've we've done the homework, we figured out what tools to use because that's what I hear people say. It's like, okay, gosh, I'm so overwhelmed. And when you're so overwhelmed, and I know my listeners hear me say this all the time, but yet it's true, you you get paralysis. It's hard to move when you're so overwhelmed with what tool to use. Sounds like you guys, you know, look at the processes, you figure it out and and implement the the tool to to get to the the end result that that business is looking for.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. At the end of the day, you want to focus on where you're gonna bring real value within the business, whether you're the CEO trying to orchestrate everything, whether you're the sales director. So if you can just focus your time on your expertise and then bring in help, you can come in and implement what's worked across businesses, whether it be adjacent businesses or in the same industry, and come in with that knowledge and be able to walk through everything and not, I guess, take that worry away. Like you said, it can be a bit overwhelming, it can be stressful, it can be there's a lot to stay on top of. So having someone else to rely on that they can come in, but they also understand how we currently do things and that they can come in and implement this in a way that the team is gonna adopt. It's not gonna break what we currently have, and it's not gonna cause a huge disruption, but where we can still see value and return.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. Now let's go back just a little bit on that part. We talk about the efficiencies, the operational infrastructure, and all of that. That's great. But again, I know never know where anyone's at on the learning scale in terms of listeners. So let's talk automations. We hear automations, we hear workflows, we hear prompt engineer, we hear all these things, but let's focus on automations. So, what are automations? How do they work within creating efficiencies in your business? And really, how do you prevent them from creating more complexity instead of less?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So, in terms of automations, the simplest way to think about it is it's just breaking down step-by-step workflows. And how can we connect those steps within a workflow? How can we connect those systems that are involved within a workflow? Now, again, I don't want to uh another part of that question is how can you not overcomplicate it? And just break it down into layman's terms of what does that process look like? Map out the steps. So like map it out, and sometimes it's not as linear, sometimes there's multiple avenues to that particular process, and sometimes it's not always the one system, sometimes there's multiple systems, and that's really our approach, is just map it out, understand what are the steps that are involved, and then tackle it from there. But um that yeah, that's that's really it. And in terms of the benefits or the impact, as I said, measure it. Measure it in terms of how much time is this taking up, or how much are we paying externally? Are we paying contractors to do this for us? When you start to put a value on your workflows, it becomes easier on which processes to automate first.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Can you give like a tangible example? I know you kind of talked about a client that you helped, but just like even a basic process flow of where, okay, here's an here was the problem, and here was how we mixed it with an automation.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's a good question. I would say the biggest, the most common projects that we get asked are around lead generation. So if you take a simple lead generation, you might have your top of funnel that might be running paid ads. So somebody visits your website or they come across a meta-ad, whatever that might be. They fill out an application because they're interested. Again, a big constraint of that is when you have a team that's available Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. But what happens if somebody inquires Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning? It's not getting picked up until Monday morning when the team's back in office. So you have a team that's available Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, that's 25% of the work week. So you still have 75% of the week that's unmanned. So a big thing for us is how can you implement the system multi-channel, whether it be calls, WhatsApp, email, SMS, whatever channel you might be communicating with your clients, how can you capture it that you are the first to respond because studies show that if you are slow to respond and your competitor gets in there ahead of you, you're you're less likely to connect and convert with that lead. So that's a that's a common one. And again, breaking that up is once someone fills out a form, what happens? Does it go to an uh your CRM? Once it goes to the CRM, okay, what happens? Did they fill in about a particular product or a particular service, or did they leave any particular details? How do we follow up? And how do we follow up in a personalized manner? And maybe that's where you put your AI aspect into it, so that every single conversation comes across personalized and not as just as a template. And then after when it follows up and nobody answers, well, how do we follow or across different channels?

SPEAKER_03

First of all, I love what you talked about. It's so true. If you think about that nine to five or whatever hours, you miss a there's a huge opportunity that you miss. But I like to think too, and working on those processes, I mean, when is the last time that you that companies looked at a process? So you can actually now look at that process and identify is it working and maybe identify other areas to add on or delete, maybe as you're building that automation as well. I think there's a huge benefit for that to certainly benefit a company for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that's the thing. It's eliminate, then automate, then delegate. So if there's particular steps within that process that you don't need, and a lot of times we do overcomplicate it and we think back and reflect on it, we see, okay, well, maybe some of these steps are aren't necessary and let's get rid of them. So do that first. That's an easy job. And then it makes the automation part a bit easier. Not everything can be automated, or maybe some parts shouldn't be automated, and that's where you delegate or you have your team look after it. So it's it's all about breaking down, yeah, breaking it down into smaller parts.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I like that eliminate delegate sounds like a rap song. But so what do you tell someone that says, okay, this sounds really good? I I hear what Ben is saying. It sounds like some great things Nexus Serv is doing, but you know, I'm still on the fence. I've heard all the stories about people getting an automated chatbot or an AI automation or just people being dissatisfied, this is my business. How do you tell what do you tell someone that's kind of sitting on the fence with that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. And again, those thoughts are completely warranted because AI has also become a bit of a marketing buzzword, and we've been overpromised for quite some time now. And and I think it's built up this hype, and people's expectations are up here, and then they they see some solutions that have been implemented in the past, and maybe some very generic solutions, and it just it's it's a complete letdown. As I said, just strip it back and simplify it in terms of where are you spending time or what's costing you money or where's there on top revenue potential. I always just boil it down to those three points. And if there's certain things you're skeptical about it, as I said, you don't need to automate the entire process. You can have a human in the loop to approve things before they go out. A big part of having good results is having good inputs. So if you have good data and good context, so if you gathered the data within your business or you're giving it the right instructions, well then the output that you're gonna get is better. And that's why when you start off to begin with, there's often an iteration phase because the quality isn't there, but the quality is not there because you haven't given it the right instructions, you haven't given it the right context. It's the same if you bring an employee into your business for the first time and you're saying, Okay, well, go get me leads, and you they have to just go and figure it out, and you all you get is generic results. Whereas the more instructions, the more context you give, the better the end the input that you get. So that would be my part is just look at where you you look at where the problem is, look at the steps involved. What are steps that you're a bit skeptical of, and that's fine. You can have a human look after that, but automate the rest.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I love it. I always say this, you know, just take it bite by bite, right? Just one small step at a time to do that and then start seeing the benefits. You just don't have to to go from A to Z in one minute, right? You can you can certainly parse that out. So that was some definitely some great insights there and uh something to think about. Well, tell us more. You've talked about Nexus Serve a little bit, but tell us more about the industries you serve, locations. I know you're in the UK. Is it just is it or in in Ireland we talked about that, but serving more of the UK. Do you serve in in other areas as well? Tell us more.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, traditionally we've always just served in the UK because that's where a lot of our client referrals have come from, or that's where a lot of use cases, and then it just translates over. We do have some global clients, but a lot of our work has been in the UK. We are looking to expand that as well. But in terms of the industries that we saw, again, it is across the board. We get a lot in the real estate space, financial advisors, marketing services, trades as well, tends to be great, even though you you would think otherwise. But a lot of trades tend to be quite outdated with some of the systems that the users are there, tends to be quite a lot of manual or or even paper-based in some cases, whereas all they want to do is be on the field, be out there. And if you can just automate that back end, that admin uh stuff. So trades is another one, but it really is cross-the-board. Lee we've done legal services as well. Um we have some case studies on our website, but it really has been across the board, and that essentially stems from the fact that we are going out, we're going in and building around how you operate. Because what we found is you might have two businesses that are quite similar, but they still operate in a different way. They might use different systems or they might have particular ways that they approach their their process. And rather than trying to force someone else's process on them, how can we just follow what they're currently doing, cause as minimal disruption as possible so that the team will actually adopt this new way of operating? That's really been our approach. We're very much custom.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So I have to think about that. You mentioned finance, and I work a lot in the world of healthcare, and I know these are two industries, at least in the US, I don't know exactly how it is in the UK, but are very highly regulated businesses. And if you think about finance, you think about a lot of client data, and you you think about healthcare, personal health information that some people just it's called personal health information for a reason. But I think of data security and guardrails, especially those industries are pretty regulated, again, at least here in the US. But how do you uh how do you address the concerns around any data security, governance, guardrails around someone who just might be concerned, hey, we can automate this, but we're just a little concerned about protecting, you know, making sure that we're doting the ice and crossing the T's in terms of data security?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. It's a great question as well. And that's why, again, it's another reason that we take our approach. So we're not a product or a software and we're not handling, so we get everything is on our clients' infrastructure if full ownership. A lot of the time the data sources within the systems that they currently use. Um, and then when it comes to building out the workflows, we set that up in a self-hosted environment as well. From a cost perspective, but also to add that extra layer of data security. So we're very sensitive around that. And again, that goes to the point of what the systems that you're currently using, how can we just automate the bits in between? And doing so in, as I said, like a self-hosted environment.

SPEAKER_03

Now, well, I love talking with you. I feel so you just you've you've worked in this a bit, you've you've been figuring it out. So it sounds like some great services that you offer. So we will make sure and link to Nexus Serve in the the a show notes so people can reach out. But as we draw to a close, what are any final tips um that you would give to listeners that are thinking about AI or thinking about going that automation route? What final things would you say?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, as I said, it just it goes back to the point of just break down the problem. Stop trying to force the latest tools or latest solutions in. Just find out where the the actual problem is and solve that first. And as I said, don't try not to overthink or overcomplicate things, just break it up and start with the biggest bottleneck first and tick them off as you go along. And then lastly is as I said, the data and context aspect, because a lot of people have had that generic experience with AI from ChatGPT, for example, or um where the output that you're getting is just quite obviously AI generated. Whereas if you can just capture and put the time into getting the right data to feed these agents or workflows as well as context and really have a think about the rules and protocols that need to be built around it. But again, how you apply this, it will look different to every business. So just think what do you what do you really need? I'd stem it down to that point, is just start with the problem.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, start with the problem and let's solve the problem. And I think AI can really be to do that. So it has been a pleasure having you on. I appreciate your insight and really uh helping people break this down and think about you know what they can do to make truly um an AI or automation as an operational infrastructure. So really appreciate that today. And thank you so much for taking taking the time. Time out of your busy schedule to meet with us. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00

No, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03

I enjoyed having Ben on the show and liked how he broke everything down into simple steps to automate and solve the problem. Check out the link in the show notes to learn more about Nexus. In our next episode, I have Mike Montague on the show. Mike is a leading voice in human-first AI marketing. His company, Avenue Nine, is an AI-powered marketing agency helping small businesses scale without burning bridges and blowing out their budgets. Mike has worked with giant brands like LinkedIn, Uber, Zoom, Bud Light, and the Kansas City Chiefs. He's authored two books, LinkedIn, The Sailor Way, and Playful Humans, and his podcast of over 3.7 million downloads. Now he uses his decades of past marketing experience and the AI tools of the future to help small businesses amplify their marketing impact. I look forward to our conversation, so make sure you join us. Until next time, take action, execute, and let's run the play.