Is AI Ready for Your Business?
One day my son looked at an old phone jack on the wall and asked me, "Dad what is that?"
I replied, "Believe it or not, but at one time, phones were tethered to the wall."
He simply replied, "No they didn't."
Times change quickly and over time, drastically.
Leaders across the globe are asking how they can use AI to better their business. This is a valid question.
But have you started to ask how AI is going to use your business to solve someone's problem? Have you started to think about how AI will pull in your services and products to satisfy someone's need? These times are not just coming, they are already here.
Do Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, and the like even know about your business? What you offer and how it helps your customers? Does it find you by searching the web and if so, what does it find?
I'm not just talking about AEO and optimizing how you are found in AI related search. But what about having your services and products integrated into the AI experience for your customers?
Can AI understand your business?
Can AI confidently recommend your business?
Can a customer transact with you without leaving the AI experience?
A homeowner asks an AI assistant how to replace an aging water heater. Does the assistant understand your service area, capabilities, availability, and pricing? Can it recommend your company, schedule an estimate, or begin the purchase?
A customer asks an AI assistant how much PVC pipe do they need to order for the job they are on, does it pull your pricing details and allow them to respond, "Can you turn that into a PO so I can pick it up at Acme Supply?
There was a time when the internet didn't exist, when phones were tethered to the wall. Now you can find and get anything on the internet. There was a time when you didn't even conceive of a chatbot being able to help you sell your products and services directly to your customers at the moment they ask for them. Now that time is here. How long will you wait to get your business integrated into this new wave of innovation? How long will your competitors?
You need to prioritize, you can't do everything at once. You need to start with a strategy. You need to make a decision about when and how you will begin to adopt this change.
You need to define the best opportunities to get your products and services at the finger tips of your prospective customers in how they use this new technology.
You need to keep cash flowing and operating as you do today. This is a transition, not a spontaneous wholesale change.
Start by asking a simple question: If one of your ideal customers described their problem to an AI assistant today, would your business become part of the answer?
..not having a plan…might just be planning to be tethered to the wall.
We want you to navigate these changes with less stress and we can help you define your customer facing AI strategy. We'll put a plan together based on your business priorities. We'll help you budget for the cost and determine the timing that is best for your business. There is no one right answer.
But whether you integrate with AI today or plan to do it in the future, not having a plan…might just be planning to be tethered to the wall.
Want to learn more?