Episode 394: AI Taking Over? Your Top Business Questions Answered
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the business landscape, empowering business owners to streamline operations, foster efficiency, and drive growth.
In this episode, Adam hosts Charlie back to the podcast for a dynamic discussion on how businesses can effectively leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI). The two tackle a variety of listener-submitted questions in a fast-paced, informative format designed to offer practical insights for business owners.
From exploring AI’s role in improving efficiency to addressing misconceptions and future predictions, this episode is packed with valuable advice for integrating AI into everyday business operations.
Show Highlights:
- AI can drastically improve business efficiency by streamlining operations and facilitating quicker decision-making.
- Common misconceptions about AI include fear of replacement and misunderstanding its potential, which can hinder businesses from realizing its benefits.
- Industries that rely heavily on decision-making and human intelligence stand to gain the most from AI integration.
- Despite fears that AI could replace human workers, it is suggested that AI serves better as a tool for enhancing productivity and efficiency.
- Familiarity with AI tools and adaptability are crucial for business owners to keep up with industry changes and maintain competitive advantage.
Links Mentioned:
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Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
0:00:00 Adam: If you’re a business owner listening, everyone on your team, you want to train everyone on your team to be using AI. Everybody should be using AI. Even the smallest, littlest, tiniest decisions, even your cleaner can use AI. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Business Growth Secrets. I am super excited to welcome Charlie back to the podcast. How we doing, buddy?
0:00:28 Charlie: Good to have you. Yeah, good to be back.
0:00:30 Adam: He’s sharpened up his haircut a little bit since last time.
0:00:33 Charlie: You know, you know, he’s looking.
0:00:36 Adam: Yeah, okay. Pretty okay. So some of the episodes with Charlie before were a lot of fun. This episode, we’ve had loads of questions in on AI and people asking, how do I use AI for business? And all these different ones. We’ve collected up an abundance of questions and we’re now going to answer those questions in shotgun style. So if you new to the podcast, please remember, if you want the best business information, business strategy to subscribe so you get your notifications.
0:01:11 Adam: And if you’re new, this is the shotgun one where we take one minute to answer one question to give big impact. So buckle up, put your seatbelt on. We’re going to go fast. We’re going to go far into the topic of AI. So, Charlie, you’ve got all the questions that come from the school group. We’ve got one minute each question. You got the timer next to you. Are you ready to rock and roll?
0:01:34 Charlie: We’re ready, yes. We got loads of different questions from social media platforms, Author of AI and Business. So the first one here is from Jada Thompson on Instagram, and that is what is AI in simple terms?
0:01:43 Adam: So in simple terms, AI is computers that mimic human interactions and intelligence. So there are literally a computer that can learn from human interactions, whether that’s the Internet from all different data sources, and start to think intelligently and answer intelligent questions. Now, the reason this is mega powerful and you want this on your side, you want it in your business, is human intelligence is something you usually have to purchase for vast sums of money in a business and it’s now becoming very, very affordable to all. So it’s an incredible way that you can use AI to further your business and get better results and do it cheaper, do it faster, and get it right 95% of the time because you can really trust AI to have bigger data sources to make decision making. So it’s really cool.
0:02:42 Adam: Great first question. And that actually sets us up for a really good way to, you know, for people to understand exactly what we talk about here.
0:02:47 Charlie: So, so next one is how can AI Improve efficiency in business operations.
0:02:53 Adam: So efficiency in business operations AI. I love these questions being one minute, that’s a broad one. Right. But essentially the way that it helps the most, the way we use it in this business really effectively, is we allow the humans that we have, you know, the staff, the team, the employees, to use AI to gather data, gather research, gather intelligence, and do it faster. So one of the ways that you can become more efficient in and your operation and the way you run the business is getting all of your team using AI rather than them having to use constantly their brain, figure things out. It can allow people to do stuff so much faster, which can further your business, make your streamline your operation and make it much, much better. That was only 46 seconds. So that hopefully people can see the value in that. And if you’re a business owner listening, everyone on your team, you want to train everyone on your team to be using AI.
0:03:50 Adam: Everybody should be using AI. Even the smallest, littlest, tiniest decisions, even your cleaner can use AI. It’s like you got a stain on the wall and she can’t quite get it out. Hey, got this stain on the wall. What would be the very. And I’m. You got mimicking voice. I do everything by voice. What would be the best way to clean this stain out of the wall? What chemicals would you use? Put a photo in. Bang.
0:04:13 Adam: Got an answer. That’s a faster result. Rather than trying six different cleaning products, we get an answer that gets us there faster because we’ve got this endless array of knowledge to help us do things faster, do things quicker, get better results. That was probably longer than a minute, but there you go.
0:04:28 Charlie: Just take the whole research aspect of it, doesn’t it? It gives it the research straight away. You don’t have to go and look at five different things. You know what I mean?
0:04:35 Adam: Absolutely. I’ll give you another example, right? Imagine that you wanted to get a much better haircut and you weren’t sure.
0:04:45 Charlie: Taking haircut advice.
0:04:45 Adam: Where can you.
0:04:46 Charlie: I’m taking haircut advice from this guy.
0:04:49 Adam: Business advice?
0:04:50 Charlie: Yeah. Never haircut advice. Right, well, next we’ve got.
0:04:54 Adam: Hey, everyone, hope you’re enjoying the podcast. We’ve got a free training that I’m doing right now online from the comfort of your own home called Standout Brand. What this does is it shows business owners how to get noticed on social media, stand out, get more leads and get more sales. So if you want to make more money in your business, head over to adamstott.com sob that’s adamstott.com sob and join us on the free three day workshop standout brand.
0:05:26 Charlie: So this is a bit of a myth busting one. What is the biggest misconception about AI in business?
0:05:33 Adam: I think there’s a lot of misconceptions, there’s a lot of fear. People are usually afraid of what they don’t understand. And when the precursor to AI has been Terminator, you know, AI robots are going to come and kill you. It’s going to be this, it’s going to be that. And that’s what AI was first introduced to people as. You know, it’s got a bit of a stigma around it and the reality of that is that stigma stays with people.
0:06:02 Adam: So when you say, you know, what is the some of the myths around there, I would say misunderstanding it, misunderstanding how to use it, misunderstanding what to use it for. And this is the thing, you know, what I’ve noticed is that people that don’t use it are less efficient, are wasting more time, are guessing on different things that they don’t have to guess on. And people that are using it are progressing faster in their businesses, in their careers.
0:06:34 Adam: So you want to be a user, even if that starts very small, you want to get used to this and start using it because it’s going to help further you over the long term. The more efficient you become at using it, the faster you’ll start to get things done in your life and create great results. That was longer in a minute. Yeah, but I think the important, I.
0:06:54 Charlie: Think it’s important to, to put that out there. And I think a lot of people think that it’s going to replace a lot of things and it does in some extent, but it’s more a tool that advances time and efficiency. It’s not necessarily a replacement for like all of these other things.
0:07:09 Adam: And this is a big thing actually about business in a whole. A lot of business owners don’t like change. A lot of business owners want things to be done the way they’ve always been done. But the only thing you can almost guarantee in business is that things are going to change, landscapes are going to change the way we do, things are going to change.
0:07:28 Charlie: So always adapt. And that’s what you’ve always said, like you always have to adapt with the times and if you don’t, then you’re just going to be stuck.
0:07:32 Adam: Absolutely. And you get left behind. People get left behind. So they got to got to adapt, got to change, got to embrace. It’s much better to just embrace things, test it, try it, who knows you might like it. Right. You know, give it, give it a go. Right. And start to lean in.
0:07:48 Charlie: 100%. No 100%. Next question. What industries benefit the most from AI? Right. Now go.
0:07:57 Adam: Anything which requires human intelligence to make decisions benefit the most. So for example, if you’re a content creator and you’re sitting there before and you were working out what content should you be creating, you can get instantaneously ideas in seconds. If you are a HR business and you want to get some consultation on what it is you should be doing in a certain circumstance or a certain case that can give you information, it’s unnecessary, going to give you the answers.
0:08:29 Adam: But what I think it does is it clears your mind and clears your thinking to get you thinking much, much more strategically and smarter.
0:08:36 Charlie: Inspiration.
0:08:37 Adam: Yeah. Basically a lot of people suffer from procrastination, perfectionism. I’m looking at the time. A lot of people, right? Yeah, perfectionism, procrastination. And you don’t have to now because you can spark, you can light the fire of progress with AI in seconds. So anything that requires human intelligence will go further. Great, great.
0:08:55 Charlie: And that’s high 53. Just under a second over. But yeah, you got that, we’ll give you that. So the next one is what is the role of AI in customer service? And that is from Aisha Patel on Facebook.
0:09:07 Adam: It’s got a huge role in customer service. Huge, huge role. And we’ve seen customer service throughout. Well, there’s so many different uses, hundreds of different uses. Let’s take some quick ones. One, your team, they work in customer service. They can use AI to solve difficult problems, difficult queries they can consult on. I’ve got this client, I’ve had this thing posed to me. What would be the best way to deal with this and handle this?
0:09:34 Adam: That would be one usage that you could use it to make your team better. Another way that you can use it is actually use it as in app, and get customer service queries being answered. Yeah. And actually get that support. You can use it in writing scripts, you can use it in writing emails, you use it in about 100 different functions. But the problem is, and I’m going to take longer on this, the problem is most people think, well, I need an AI bot and that AI bot is going to take over everything. I don’t really know how to build an AI bot and oh, that’s going to take me some time. I hate this tech stuff and therefore they do nothing.
0:10:11 Adam: Where actually your person that’s sitting there dealing with your clients could just be using ChatGPT, Claude, these different outlets to consult, say, hey, I got this client. They’ve said this. What would be a great way to respond to that?
0:10:23 Charlie: Bang. Yeah. Better responses.
0:10:25 Adam: And actually team training is another way that you can use it. And that is not techie at all. Anyone could do that. Right. Which is really, really cool. So that’s another way that you could use it.
0:10:34 Charlie: Yeah. So I sort of queried this a little bit. The next question is, can AI completely replace human workers? Why or why? And that’s from Sophia Garcia on school.
0:10:46 Adam: That’s a really good question. Can it completely replace human workers? Who knows? I mean, yeah, but what I will say is, from the people I know in the field that are really doing incredible things with AI, they’re very optimistic the human workers and human workforce will rapidly reduce because of AI. I’ll give you an example. The very best employee I have is my new gardener. And my new gardener is a robot lawnmower that goes around my acre and a half field and cuts it every day.
0:11:25 Adam: Perfection. Really nice rains. It’s out there. When it snows, it’s out there.
0:11:30 Charlie: Yeah.
0:11:31 Adam: Right. When it’s freezing cold, it’s out there.
0:11:33 Charlie: Yeah.
0:11:34 Adam: Sasha, my girlfriend, even said, adam, do you feel bad for the robot lawnmower? So it’s a bit weird, but I do because he’s sitting there going along and it’s always grafting. He goes 24 hours a day, never stops. Don’t have. Well, you don’t have to. You had to pay. I had to pay a lot to get him. Yeah. But now he’s paid. He’s paid and he’s doing the job. Yeah, Right. That actually opened my eyes to, oh, my God. What can you imagine?
0:11:57 Charlie: Yeah.
0:11:57 Adam: If you had a robot chef there and they’re cooking all your meals.
0:12:00 Charlie: Yeah.
0:12:00 Adam: You know, could you imagine that if you had, you know, other. Other robots, robot laundry and the washing and. And these different things? It will happen.
0:12:11 Charlie: Yeah.
0:12:11 Adam: There is no doubt. Now, one of the things, I had Piers Linnie as a guest at Gold Circle recently. Our Gold Circle mastermind. We bring celebrities every month. And. And he’s got a really great business around AI. And he said, Adam, 50, 60 years. Said, you won’t. It’ll be illegal for humans to be on building sites.
0:12:32 Charlie: Really?
0:12:32 Adam: He said he literally thinks that building sites will be run by robots and robot workers. And you won’t see building sites being run by actual laborers. He said, it might be 100 years, it might be 50, 60 years, but there’s going to be Significant change.
0:12:46 Charlie: It’s like a factory in it. A factory used to have workers in it and now it’s all automated machines and things like that.
0:12:50 Adam: Exactly. And that’s exactly the direction that this is going in. And you got to embrace it. So if you don’t embrace it, you’re going to end up paying for not embracing it. And you’ve got to roll with the changes. So I think it’s a significant thing. I think it’s actually a really great question. I hope it opens the eyes to a few people that are listening that the prospect of AI doing lots of human work soon is happening. It’s happening now.
0:13:17 Adam: Decade by decade, it will be more and more and more to the point where things that are going to be valued by. And there’s different industries you’ll have to look at what industries are going to be valued, what not. But human entertainment will be a big industry, actual entertainment, sports as well.
0:13:38 Charlie: You’ll never be able to get rid of that like human error. And that’s what AI doesn’t have. It doesn’t have that human error. So that’s why we might be able.
0:13:44 Adam: To get behind a robot and sort of cheer for a certain robot over another. You don’t know. But it’s hard to predict which industries can be eradicated. But there is no doubt that many industries will be eradicated. Now, the best tip that I’ve heard on this, and this is the tip that I would give to the audience. Good shot.
0:14:01 Charlie: Con question.
0:14:02 Adam: Yeah, I know we’ve definitely gone a bit longer, but it’s an important topic and it was a great question. The tip that I would like to give to the audience on this is it’s the people that understand how to best utilize AI will be in the best positions and will be in the leadership positions. So it will be. It’s very important that if you understand how to use as the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years comes in, the people that understand how to use it the best will leverage from it the best.
0:14:30 Charlie: Right. So it looks like we need AI to make the time a little bit more strict. So we’re going to actually try and run through these.
0:14:36 Adam: Let’s do these. I’m all waffling. All right, let’s do it. Go for it.
0:14:39 Charlie: So the next one is what some AI tools every business owner should know. So roll me off some.
0:14:45 Adam: I think, you know, I use chat GPT every single day frequently. I mean, every single hour, I think for video. Sorry, video. And is. Is definitely something you want to be looking at. In terms of tools like Runway is super, super good.
0:15:02 Charlie: Yeah.
0:15:02 Adam: I think there’s a lot of amazing photo tools that could save creatives a lot of time. Ideogram and all these other different tools which are really incredible. And then just your usual applications that you’re using, using the AI features, using the AI features within IE Monday for a workplace, using the AI features within Canva and getting used to that is super important. Really, really important to lean into all the AI features of the current applications you use as well.
0:15:34 Adam: There you go.
0:15:34 Charlie: Bang.
0:15:36 Adam: There you go.
0:15:36 Charlie: Wallop. Right next one. How does. Right, next one. How does AI enhance marketing strategies?
0:15:45 Adam: It enhances marketing strategies with ideas. So you can use it for ideation. Go to AI, get ideas on what the concept of your campaign should be, on the type of imagery you want to use for your campaign. The copywriting, it can improve copywriting. You shouldn’t rely on it entirely for copywriting because you can often tell when it’s been an AI. Definitely take inspiration, but you can take inspiration. It can get you started.
0:16:11 Adam: I’d use it more for the spark rather than the finish to get out the perfectionism, the procrastination. But you’re talking copywriting, ideation, campaigns, all these different things. And the ideation, the ideas part, ideas for videos, ideas for ads, ideas for every part of your marketing, email sequences, everything can be done through AI. It’s incredible. Everyone in our marketing team is a frequent AI user because you know, just save some loads of time. There you go. Got that one too.
0:16:40 Charlie: Smash. Rolling through them, rolling through. This next one’s from Priya Reddy on Instagram and she’s asked what are the risks of over relying on AI in business?
0:16:50 Adam: I don’t actually think there is a risk. The only risk is creating too much generic information. That be the only risk at the moment in that they say you did you over relied on AI for all of your copywriting.
0:17:05 Charlie: Yeah.
0:17:05 Adam: Your copyrights are going to come out generic and it’s going to start to look the same.
0:17:09 Charlie: Yeah.
0:17:10 Adam: And you really need to manage that and manage that effectively because otherwise that’s the only kind of over the other over reliance. You could argue that you’re going to need to use your brain less if you’re going to completely go all in on AI, you’re using your brain a lot less.
0:17:28 Charlie: So losing that spark and creative.
0:17:30 Adam: Yes, losing the spark and the creative. But my argument against that the other way would be you use it to get you started. You’re then as a human brain analyzing what comes back and Making decisions off of what comes back. So that’s the way I would use it. I would use it to get started, to give you data to analyze. And then further. There we go.
0:17:49 Charlie: Wallop. Get through this. Okay, so the next one is from Daniella Morales on school, and she’s asked, how can AI help businesses make better decisions?
0:17:59 Adam: The way that AI can make better decisions is use it. First of all, get everyone in your organization using it. Depend on the size of your organization. One of the things you should be using in every area, like we use it for note taking in meetings. We used to have to have somebody sit in and do the minutes.
0:18:17 Charlie: Summarize it now.
0:18:18 Adam: Yeah, it just does the whole thing. Right. So you want to be using it. You want to be taking information and data and inputting problems into AI to get solutions back and really relying and relying and using AI as consistently as possible.
0:18:37 Charlie: Collect more data.
0:18:38 Adam: Yeah, collect more data. Analyze data. You can put data in and say, hey, look, here’s a spreadsheet.
0:18:45 Charlie: Reformat it.
0:18:45 Adam: Yeah, reformat it. Or tell me what your analysis are starting putting your profit and loss in. Tell me what your analysis is on and you’ll get someone say, well, okay, I think that 23% on wages is too much. And I think it will give you actually real analytics on it. There you go.
0:18:59 Charlie: Thank you. Just a quick one on that. I know you can. People have been putting in their Instagram profiles and going, rip my Instagram profile. Let me know what I need to, like, act as a social media expert and analyze my social media profile. What do I need to improve on? And they’ll give them improvements on that so you can get them to literally analyze anything. Which pretty.
0:19:15 Adam: Do you say rip because like, rip. Like, can you rip another child sort of thing?
0:19:18 Charlie: Yeah. Basically means like, yeah. Can you slate it?
0:19:23 Adam: Give it. How old are you, Charlie?
0:19:24 Charlie: 24.
0:19:25 Adam: 24. It talks a complete. You taught a different language.
0:19:28 Charlie: You are like 60.
0:19:30 Adam: 60, 65. He’s got a completely different language. If you like Charlie’s language, tell us in. Tell us in the comments.
0:19:36 Charlie: Or you like my hair, let us know.
0:19:38 Adam: Yeah, I wouldn’t expect too many comments on that, mate. And if you’re listening to this on. On the podcast and you’re not actually watching the video, just to give you an example of what Charlie looks like.
0:19:49 Charlie: Here we go.
0:19:51 Adam: Charlie’s hair looks like a Rod Stewart in his prime. Right? That’s the kind of the best example. Or if you imagine that Rod Stewart had been electrocuted, then that’s kind of how the hair vibes coming over.
0:20:05 Charlie: Okay, so the final question we have here is from Jack Turner on Instagram, and he’s asked what are the ethical concerns surrounding AI in business?
0:20:14 Adam: I think it’s a really great question, but it presupposes, you know, from Jack’s question that you’ve got any control.
0:20:23 Charlie: Yeah.
0:20:24 Adam: And you don’t have any control.
0:20:25 Charlie: Yeah.
0:20:26 Adam: So the reality is AI is happening.
0:20:29 Charlie: Yeah.
0:20:30 Adam: And you will be a user of AI, which means that you can sit on the fence for the next year, the next two years, the next three years, the next four years, the next five years, if you want as much as you want, and you can debate as much as you want, and you can resist it as much as you want, but the bottom line is you will be using it because it is filtering into every single area of our lives. So rather than, you know, if you’ve heard the old phrase, if you can’t beat them, join them.
0:20:56 Charlie: Yeah.
0:20:56 Adam: And that’s the reality. You can’t control mass concepts and. And people need to understand that you can’t control mass concept. So you need to get on board with it and start to understand it and start using it in order to sort of maximize your business. And hopefully that’s a good lesson for somebody to hear that might be resistant or hasn’t. Hasn’t used it.
0:21:19 Charlie: I think that’s the overall theme of all the questions we’ve answered, is that it is happening and people should be open to educate themselves on it and get on board with it. I think that’s overcome their fear for.
0:21:30 Adam: Sure, and I think that’s been really good. So thanks for coming back, Charlie. Well done, mate. You’ve been great. It’s been a lot of fun. If you enjoyed Charlie being on the podcast, let us know in the comments or let us know in your review if you’re listening on the podcast. Big thank you. And look, another great episode, hopefully you really enjoyed of business growth secrets. And if you haven’t already, the way that this podcast grows is through shares and reviews.
0:21:59 Adam: So if you know someone that’s asked about AI, has spoken about AI with you, that doesn’t 100% understand it or you want them to understand it, or maybe you got some team or some employees, you could forward the link over, get them to listen to the episode, because rather than you trying to change their mind, hopefully we can have an impact on them that can impact your business. And also tell us your questions in the comments or inbox us your questions in. They will feature at some stage on the podcast.
0:22:28 Adam: Big thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing you in person very soon. Hi everybody. Adam here and I hope you love today’s episode. Hope you thought it was fabulous and if you did, I’d like to ask you a small favor. Could you jump over and go and give the podcast a review? Of course. I’ll be super grateful if that is a five star review. We’re putting our all into this podcast for you. The delivering you the content, giving you the secrets and if you’ve enjoyed it, please go and give us a review and talk about what your favorite episode is. Perhaps every single month I select someone from that review list to come to one of my exclusive Academy days and have lunch with me on the day, meeting hundreds of my clients. So if you want that to be you, then you’re going to be in with a shout if you go and give us a review on itunes.
0:23:19 Adam: Please. Of course do remember to subscribe so you can get all the up to date episodes. Peace and love and I’ll see you very, very soon. Thank you.