You're in another iPhone moment.

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In 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. Within five years, not having a smartphone went from normal to a professional liability.

I think we're in that same window with AI right now. Except it's moving faster.

Here's what I've noticed talking to small business owners: you already know you need to do something, but you don’t know where to begin.

Let me show you what this actually looks like:

The Proposal Problem Imagine you run a design agency and a potential client wants a proposal by Friday. Normally that's 12-15 hours you don't have - research, strategy, mockups, copy, formatting.

With AI, you're having a conversation. "Here's their website and competitors. Help me identify angles they haven't considered." Ten minutes later, you have directions you wouldn't have thought of alone. AI drafts the structure. You spend your time on creative vision - the part only you can do. Proposal done in 4 hours instead of 15. It's better because you had time to think instead of just execute.

Or even better, you trained your AI agent to provide the answers that would normally consume other peoples’ time.

The Repetitive Question Problem Picture an accounting firm during tax season drowning in "Can I deduct this?" emails. Or a consultant answering the same onboarding questions from every new client. Build a simple AI assistant trained on your most common scenarios. Clients get instant answers to straightforward questions. You focus on the complex, high-value work only you can do.

The Wearing Too Many Hats Problem You need to write a blog post, update social media, send a newsletter, and respond to 47 emails - all before lunch. AI becomes your first-draft machine. It doesn't write your final content, but it gets you 70% there. You're editing instead of staring at blank pages. That Instagram caption that would take 20 minutes? Done in 3.

The Can't Afford a Team Problem You need market research before launching a new service. Hiring a firm costs $15K you don't have. AI can analyze competitor positioning, identify gaps in the market, and summarize customer reviews across hundreds of sources in an afternoon. You still make the strategic decisions, but you're working with insights that used to require a research team.

The Scaling Without Hiring Problem A client emails at 9 PM with a question. Another needs a quote customized. A third wants to reschedule. AI can triage these by drafting responses, pulling pricing based on project scope, checking your calendar. You review and send. What used to take an hour of your evening takes 10 minutes.

Where do you start?

Pick one repetitive task that eats your time every week. Not your whole business - just one thing. Maybe it's writing customer emails. Drafting social posts. Summarizing meeting notes. Creating first drafts of proposals.

Start with a free tool like ChatGPT or Claude. Give it context about what you need, show it an example of your work, and let it create a first draft. You edit and add your voice.

Do this for two weeks. Get comfortable with the back-and-forth. Learn what prompts work.

When you feel like AI has been helpful and you have been getting good results, it’s time to put it in practice with work that actually matters in your business. 

• Financial analysis

• Legal Review

• Policies and SOPs

• Strategic Initiatives

The list goes on. But this is what is really going to elevate your game and get your time back. The problem is all the free tools shouldn’t be used for that purpose. Additionally, you want to train AI on the FULL breadth of your company information for the best results.

The only way to do that is to take AI private and contain it within your own environment.

This is when you need to prepare for AI readiness for your company, because a tool trained on bad info is going to produce even worse info.

Let me know if you would like to see HOW to think about AI readiness for your organization?

Until next week,

—Jared 

Text Me: 314.806.3912

Ways To Support Me

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