AI Workshop

AI: Overview

By the time this page is published, AI will have advanced significantly, underscoring the importance of this high-level overview. We aim to track AI’s trajectory and its disruptive influence on the economy, particularly for small business owners. The sections below will be updated regularly to reflect the rapid pace of change in the industry.

“Gradually, then suddenly.” This phrase aptly describes the evolution of AI. It traces its roots back to the 1950s, starting with Alan Turing’s groundbreaking concept of a machine simulating human intelligence. What followed were decades of research and technological advancements, particularly in machine learning and algorithms. However, the true potential of AI began to unfold at the turn of this century, propelled by an exponential increase in computing power and access to large datasets, enabling the development of more complex models. The public release of ChatGPT, which rapidly attracted over 100 million users, brought AI into the mainstream, opening Pandora’s box of possibilities.

While the future trajectory of AI remains uncertain, even to its creators, one thing is clear: the landscape is changing irreversibly. Some liken AI’s impact to that of electricity or the automobile. While the magnitude of its societal impact may be similar, the rate of adoption is unprecedented. The transition from horses to cars, and from gas lighting to electricity, unfolded over decades. In contrast, AI is driving changes daily, transforming jobs and industries at a remarkable pace. Jobs are evolving, or in some cases, becoming obsolete, as AI demonstrates its ability to read, write, and generate photorealistic images and art much faster and more cost-effectively than humans.

But what does this mean for the average small business today? While AI might not yet be able to perform physical tasks like opening doors or making coffee, its influence is undeniable and immediate. It’s reshaping industries and job roles in real-time, not years from now.

In the sections that follow, we will explore how small business owners can understand and adapt to AI, its impact, and strategies for integrating this transformative technology into their business operations.

WTF should I do?

The fist thing you should do is wrap your head around the fact humans are now scalable meaning a humans output can now be scaled up. This has never been possible until now before if you wanted to get more tasks done in a day you had to add more humans. Now AI can boost productivity, a simple example being a social media manager could come up with a few ideas, write the copy, design the artwork and publish a few posts in a day. Now with Chat GPT plus the same employee could use Chat GPT to come up with 50 ideas for social media posts, the employee could then decide which ones are relevant and add further context before promoting the GPT to write the copy for the social posts and create an image to suit each post. A whole month’s work can be done in a day freeing up the employee to do more creative work. 

The above example is a very simple use case but AI has ever increasing capbilities and right now can make a huge impact in the following areas of sales and marketing. Take a look at the below examples and think about how they can be implemented into your business.

Social Media: Building on the example above Chat GPT can also analyse documents and interpret data. You could upload your previous social media posts and provide data about your audience like age, location etc and have Chat GPT write posts for you that are written in a similar tone and style to your previous posts and aimed at your target market. 

Customer Service: A huge win is using an AI powered chatbot for live support on your website. Instant responses to customers enquiries make a huge difference to not only the customer experience but also to your bottom line. I have implemented chatbots for busineses that have had several thousand chats with customers which have not only cut down manual customer service by 80% in lots of cases the AI bot answered the query and lead the customer to making a purchase without the customer knowing it was a bot! Try my AI chatbot using the chat icon on the bottom right of this page who is trained on my whole marketing framework. Get your own chatbot set up from me here. 

Email Marketing: Here’s a great example of how a single AI tool (Chat GPT) can provide not only analysis and ideas but can than use that information and create the finished product in way that until recently wasn’t feasible for a small business to do. This particular example would have required a data analyst, a marketer, a copy writer and a designer and would have taken weeks and costs thousands. Imagine sending your customer highly tailored emails that take into account their date of birth, where they live, the previous purchase history combined with knowledge about your customer trends. You can upload an annonmised version of your customer database and mailing list from your CRM and ask. ChatGPT can that look at trend in that data and segment your audience for you. You can then import that data back into your CRM and mailing provider and then get chat GPT to get write an email sequence based on knowledge of marketing combined with your data. You can then programme those emails in using automated triggers and even ask it to produce relevant images to go in the emails. 

These are just three examples you can implement within a few days and will make huge difference to your business. Sound too complicated? Don’t worry look at the various tools and guides below to help you get started. If you still need help try chatting to my AI bot or go old school and book a call with me and I would be happy to help. 

why should I do it?

I think the answer to this question is obvious, if you don’t do it you will quite simply get left behind. Imagine if your competitor could all of a sudden hire 10x the main power and almost zero extra cost, that is the difference between a company fully integrated into AI competing with a company that hasn’t. 

How to do it?

Step 1: Take the AI Test to get a tailored AI Strategy with recommended tools and guides on how to implement. 

Step 2: Assign yourself or an employee head of AI and implement the strategy. New job roles like Chief AI Officer, AI Manager will soon be common. 

Step 3: Book a consultation with myself or another expert if you need external help. 

Step 4. Sign up to my newsletter if you haven’t already for weekly updates on the AI industry so you don’t get left behind. 

Step 5: Experiment with AI tools and plan out some pilot projects to run tests and collect data and feedback. 

Step 6. Deploy into your business and continue to monitor and make refinements. 

Step 7. Be sure to measure the impact so you can see the true results. 

The result

If planned out properly and excecuted carefully you can propell your business forward like never before. Remember this is a pivitol point in human history where a tidal wave of change is coming and it’s a sink or swim situation.