Why your biz needs to embrace AI now
Today in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
✔️ The harsh and uncomfortable truth about bots
✔️ The jobs that AI is actually coming for—and how to protect yours
✔️ A killer quote from my favorite philosopher to remember for your biz
✔️ 11 ways to give your biz a boost with bots
✔️ How to generate cash in the robot revolution
Everyone is talking about ChatGPT and AI
You shouldn’t be surprised if you’ve been paying attention. AI can make award-winning art, sing like Dolly Parton, and make trippy videos. It can also hold a chat conversation that’s so real you’ll be convinced it’s another person on the other end.
That’s why my 2023 prediction is that AI advancements this year will make 2022 look like a middle school science fair project but without the cool baking soda volcanoes.
AI will make millionaires and billionaires, build and bankrupt companies, create and absolutely demolish jobs…and, most likely, entire industries.
It’s just getting started and YOU need to understand it.
If you think your business doesn’t need AI, think again.
Roughly 95% of people have no idea that AI is happening nor what it can do for them.
Keep reading and you’ll be one of the 5% who do.
UNIVERSAL DISRUPTOR
The harsh truth about AI
AI will make kings and paupers. It will be dominated by who knows the right questions to ask, how to control it, what the tools are, and when to execute.
Your main job as a startup founder or employee is to figure out how to get AI to do 90% of your work and still get paid the same amount for doing it.
Imagine a world where typing words on a computer gets you answers to every test question. Or where a bit of Java code can instantly convert to Python, thereby doing the job you’re paid to do in minutes instead of hours.
My husband works for a Founders Fund-backed AI company that uses satellites to track boats around the world. He also worked at another fast-growing AI startup, so I have a bit of an inside seat at this point
I’ve sat in the basement of an AI tech meetup where they discussed hyperspectral lasers that can see through any cloud cover, and another that can measure paint on an atomic level.
Why would you want to do that?
So you can use AI and lasers to analyze the paint job of a boat that says it’s made in Italy—but was actually made in Iran.
My point: AI will mean the difference between you working as one human or as 100.
You shouldn’t just read my thoughts on AI and ChatGPT… go listen to the nerds who deeply understand it.
BUT you should maybe listen to me about AI and making money.
Why? Because I own 24 boring businesses in a portfolio that does $50M+ a year and have done hundreds of investment deals. My businesses use tech to make money, simplify processes—and my life—and be profitable.
I also wrote a Twitter thread on 11 ways AI will massively accelerate or eviscerate you and your businesses.
It went viral.
So, I wanted to dive deeper. Which I did. Keep reading for the good stuff.
MENTAL FRAMEWORK
The jobs AI will actually replace
I'm convinced those who leverage AI in '23 will make 3x more than those who don’t. Want to be part of that crowd?
Then let’s get into what SMBs need to start doing—and what the ones who get left in the dust will fail to learn.
Last decade, we thought AI would replace the three Ds first:
Jobs like flipping burgers. I actually almost invested in one of these AIs: Flippy, the burger-flipping robot. And, although we do actually have the first completely automated McDonald’s, a peek behind the curtain reveals what ACTUALLY happened.
AI came after the writers, marketers, and coders first.
Turns out people in down-and-dirty jobs like plumbers, tradespeople, and construction workers may ultimately be the LAST people booted from their jobs by AI.
In 2017, experts looked at how AI would shake out. They predicted AI would start outperforming the NYT bestsellers and math competitors around the same time. Followed by surgeons and math researchers. Then 118 years from today, ALLLLL human jobs will get taken over. Hmmm… time shall tell.
The point: lean into it
AI will eventually be able to do everything.
And while the robot uprising might not come in our lifetime, it’s surely going to come in our kids.
Maybe that’s why the elite have begun preparing us for universal basic income (UBI), where we get paid to just breathe.
To me, that would be a tragedy.
Ever sat around on vacation with no purpose, nothing to create, nothing to build, and nothing to do? The first day is glorious. The second and third days are still pretty great. But after a week or two, you start itching to check emails or pitch blue sky ideas on a whiteboard...
You’re a contrarian. You get this.
If humans have no purpose, we become purposeless.
As my favorite existential philosopher Rollo May says:
It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when they have lost their way.
My thought, however, is that luck favors the prepared.
If a business cash flows while using fax machines, it will grow 2-3x more by using email, a website, and Google Ads. If a cash-flowing business has basic tech down, it will soon be able to grow 2-3x (or more) by using AI.
11 ways AI gives your biz an unfair advantage
Here are 11 ways you can take AI and become the smartest person in your company—or the most profitable company.
#1: Get the most out of your ad dollars
Use AI products that can:
- Predict the ROI of ad campaigns
- Personalize ads for different users
- Discover, adapt, and automate ideal social media posting times
This tech alone could 3x revenue for many bizs.
One tool I love: Albert by Zoomd. Think of it as a robot digital marketer that can get you 3000% return on your ad spend. It can run and analyze ad campaigns as large and small as your digital advertising budget allows. Oh, and it handles everything from testing to budgeting for you.
I’m telling my ad guy to see what the robot can do with $5K and I’ll let you know the results.
#2: Inject AI into EVERYTHING you do in tech
AI is going to be added to nearly every piece of your business in the next few years.
You can already see some companies making big moves on this front.
Microsoft is looking to buy ChatGPT to create the ultimate Google killer.
Meta and Google are pouring billions into their own personal AI labs.
Zapier now works with OpenAI, which basically means visitors to our website can get their questions answered with ChatGPT.
What does this mean for you? If you can, start integrating some of the more powerful tools into your workflow now.
Use ChatGPT to help create outlines for articles, blog posts, and slide decks.
If you have access to Dall-E, create images to use for your business (more on this later).
Streamline your customer service experience with AI chatbots.
One tool to keep an eye on: Make-A-Video by Meta AI.
I do gifs for our weekly newsletter which goes out to almost 300,000 people. I pay $50 per image, and it usually takes 48 hours to get them… so I’m emailing Meta to see if I can get access to this tool.
Come on, Zuck. Hook us up!!
#3: 3D models for boring businesses
Imagine the custom equipment small businesses could use if they had access to this.
No more waiting for parts. No more spending way too much money on a simple product.
It’s not sci-fi. You can buy a 3D printer and make objects ranging from simple knick-knacks to incredibly complex machines.
Sure, you probably can’t 3D-print a new computer monitor or brake pad for your car (yet). BUT eventually, AI will hook up to industrial printers like this and lower the cost of just about everything.
One tool to keep an eye on: OpenAI’s Point-E, an AI that cranks out 3D models. A tool like this will one day be used to help design objects for printing, architectural models for buildings, and infrastructure.
#4: Will Home Depot and IRL stores die???
We’ve all been there: you’re at Home Depot, looking for a tool for a home project but the one you want or need is out of stock. You find an associate in an orange apron to help you out but after a lot of back and forth, you end up leaving empty-handed and with one hour less in your day.
In the future you won’t need to waste the trip. Instead, you’ll take a photo and send it straight to Google or Amazon to order. In a few days, it’ll be waiting at your door.
We already have something like this with Google Lens. Using your phone’s camera, you can snap a pic of an object and it’ll find it for sale online. Within seconds, you can purchase something just by taking a picture of it.
This will soon be the case with AI wearables. If you’re in the trades or work in design, this will be a game changer.
#5: Let the robot write your newsletter
I’ve made tens of millions from newsletters.
But they are A LOT of work.
Luckily, you can automate every step of a newsletter with AI that:
- Scans your website for top-performing content
- Adds relevant articles
- Adjusts every issue as it learns about your customers
One tool I love: Promo is one of the front-runners for this tech. With just a few clicks of your mouse, you can “write” a newsletter in minutes. The way it works is easy: you put in, say, your Shopify store. It scans all your content, products, services, copy, and whatever else. Then it creates a great-looking newsletter and ideas that you can fire off to your loyal customers—saving you a whole lot of time and headaches.
#6: Make your employees (or yourself) less miserable
Doing routine work sucks the life out of you, doesn’t it? A Salesforce study from 2022 found 89% of workers are happier using automation.
And why wouldn’t they be? Automation helps them:
- Focus on meaningful work
- Make fewer errors
- Be more efficient with time and resources
And trust me: we’ll say all of these same things about AI in a year.
#7: Answer the same question from your boss 27 times
Let’s be honest: we’ve probably heard the same questions from our boss and coworkers a million times—and we’ve given the same answers a million times.
Here’s a sneaky (slightly evil) tip: let ChatGPT be your personal assistant and answer those pesky questions for you.
Just go to ChatGPT, type one of the questions into the prompt like, “How would you answer [X ANNOYING QUESTION] in 27 different ways” and boom, there are your responses.
In all seriousness, ChatGPT is an incredible inspiration generator. Using the right prompts, it becomes an incredible tool for business research, and can also help get your creative juices flowing when you just keep hitting a wall.
Anyone who’s ever had writer’s block knows what I’m talking about. You can also save time on research too.
BUT (and this is a big but), always double-check anything you get from ChatGPT. As “smart” as it is, it gets things wrong a lot of the time.
#8: Communicating using AI
Fast, sloppy texts are par for the course in a growing business.
Hell, it’s par for the course with me and my friends and family.
Check out how my friend responds to me:
You know when you have that email or text message or Tinder message or whatever sitting in your inbox and DMs… and you have NO idea what to say? You freeze. You’d rather do anything else but respond. By the time you do, it’s too late and too awkward.
Enter ChatGPT.
It can take a lot of the cognitive load off you and your employees when responding to these pesky emails (maybe don’t try it with Tinder, though).
#9: Offload unpleasant customers
Let’s be honest: customers can be a pain in the ass.
But you don’t want to burn any bridges—no matter how annoying they might be. Let a robot mediate so you don’t say something you regret.
Use ChatGPT to draft responses to mean Yelp reviews, emails to irate clients, or even scripts for an awkward phone call you might need to have with a cranky customer.
#10: Ban all stock images
Most stock images on places like Unsplash or even Getty are overused and boring AF.
Use Dall-E instead—especially when all you need is a quick and easy pic.
TBH, it can still come up with horror movie material 50% of the time.
But we're inching toward fully usable.
#11: Rethink outsourcing
Mark my words: one day, we’ll cut marketing and admin roles by 85% or more.
We’ll see a new kind of VA appear:
- At the lower level, we’ll see AI Prompt Specialists, who come up with the right questions to ask the AI to get the right answers. We’ll also see AI Response Editors, who make sure the bot didn’t give them complete nonsense that’ll destroy their biz.
- At the highest level, we’ll see data scientists who teach and operate personalized AI systems for your biz.
If you are a lower-level worker, NOW is the time to figure out how to use AI so it doesn’t use you.
Folks, the robot uprising is HERE. No, it’s not a gun-toting Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s a chatbot that helps you write emails to your annoying boss.
So tell me, how are you going to use AI for your biz? Shoot me an email. I want to know.
- AI can even predict how we might age… will Justin Bieber ever look old?
- It’s Obvious… controversy about a biz using AI to create high-value art is not new
- 15 amazing 3D creations - your next biz idea might only need a decent 3D printer
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