AI Today (Aired 11-27-2024): Choosing the Best AI Tools: Step-by-Step Guide for Businesses

[00:00:31] Welcome to AI Today. I'm your host, Dr. Alan Badot. [00:00:35] Got an exciting show this week because we're gonna, we're gonna dive deep into tools, AI tools, figuring out how we can best leverage them, how do we choose them, how do we know we've chosen the right one? And then how do we measure what our success is? I know that there's a lot of angst amongst, you know, the, the emails that I get and the, the folks that watch the show around. [00:01:05] How do they choose? How do they take that first step forward? Because that's always going to be the hardest part. And the, the, the problem is, is that there's so many tools out there that are available to, to folks and it's, it's really hard to, to really get through those weeds and try to figure out which one is going to be best for you. So we're going to talk about how you can pick the right tool, how you can pick the right problem that you have. Even more important, and then again, how do you measure success of an integration, you know, with, you know, making sure that you are getting exactly out of the tool that you had planned for? The, the challenge that we all have, right, is, is really just taking that step forward. It's hard to say this is a bigger problem than another one sometimes just because you may not have enough information, whatever. But aligning a tool to your specific problem is always going to be key because if you can't do that, then it's really hard to justify the investment that it's going to take. Because in reality, this is not an easy button. You can't just hit the easy button and have things work immediately. It's going to take a lot of time. It's going to take a lot of investment from your part and, you know, financially as well, to make sure that, you know, it's tailored the right way to make sure that it's doing the right thing that you want. [00:02:38] Is it supporting your customers or is it internal needs? We're going to look at support some of those things and I'm going to show you some charts to, to help you understand the complexities of these decisions and the environments that are out there and make sure it's tailored specifically toward you. One of the challenges that we always have is, you know, after you've, you know, done enough research, you have figured out what your problem is. Well, now what do I do? Do I just go buy it and, you know, and hope for the best? Well, hope is not. Hope is not a business solution. Right we all know that. So making sure that you can, you know, affordably deploy this capability and really reap the benefits of what you're trying to do is going to be important. Now there's a lot of nuances and complexities that go along the way, right? There's clearly the ethical side. You've got to make sure that everybody's data is protected. You've got to make sure that your customers information is safeguarded. You've got to make sure that your information is safeguarded. And then you've got the debate on, okay, now that I use AI, what does that mean for my employees? Does that mean I get rid of my employees? Does that mean I don't have to hire more employees? There's always that, that ongoing debates talking about the impact of AI on, on the workforce. And that's something that we'll, we'll talk about at a later show. But the only thing I do want to say is, is that, you know, every metric that you see out there, it's a projection. Okay. You know, and so keep that in mind as you're using and choosing what kind of tool you're, you're gonna, you're gonna deploy. Now the other thing to, you know, align yourself, there are some basic fundamental things that you have to do even before you get the tool or figure out what tool you're going to use. I mean, you've got to have a business plan, got to have a strategic growth plan, and you've really got to have an implementation plan or an IT plan to make sure that it fits into those, because you don't want to create an awful lot of extra work outside of that AI project because you can very easily start to spend money that you didn't need to spend. You're investing more time than you, than you had to. You're trying to boil the ocean, right? So you've got to have a really tight plan to make sure that you are deploying them, you're choosing them, and then you're using them the right way. So, you know, we're. Well, well, there's really going to be, you know, three other discussion topics where we're going to really touch on, you know, the first one is going to be looking at, you know, the landscape of tools that are out there and choosing the right one for your space and the right one for your goals. So we're going to really dive deep into what some of those tools are, how those tools are going to be able to, to be leveraged, and then how you're going to deploy them because fundamentally that's what we're trying to do. We're going to talk about, you know, the age old software problem of build versus buy. Now I'll tell you as a small business, you're going to be better off buying your solution for now, especially if it's going to be a pilot project. Because, you know, the challenge is, is that from a development perspective, one, you may have to go buy the skill sets. Two, you might not know exactly what you're, what you're going to do yet, but you want to, you want to dabble in it a little bit. You know, if you're trying to build some of these things on your own, that can get pretty complicated, it can get pretty expensive. And then you've got to think about the other costs that are outside of the AI tool itself. The cloud computing costs, the storage, you know, the, the expertise that, that goes into that. [00:06:37] So, you know, keep that in mind and we'll, we'll walk through some of those things and we'll make sure that you feel pretty good on, on that when we come out on the other side. [00:06:47] Then how do you deploy it after you've, you know, gone through and you've chosen the tool, what are you going to do after that? How are you going to integrate that into your environment? [00:06:56] You know, when do you get your employees involved in these types of things? Because, you know, again, you know, having a good communications plan is, is really vital to success of deploying a tool so, such as this. So you've got to, you've got to keep that, you know, in mind as you, as you are looking at some of these things. And then, you know, it's really, you know, that usability of the tool, especially if it's something that you want your customers to use. You know, you've heard me say hundreds of times on, on, on the show that it's more important for your users to have a fantastic experience with whatever tool that you're using than it is to be technically, you know, cutting edge or, you know, some of these other capabilities. Because there are so many stories of, you know, technical personnel, technical people, scientists, those sort of things where they have a, a really fantastic tool that is solving some huge problems, but it's impossible for their users to, to be able to understand it and use it as efficiently as, as they want. That's a big problem. [00:08:10] Right? And so if your user experience is awful, then your adoption is not going to be very, you know, high. And then you're gonna, you're gonna waste money. So you've got to look at some of those things, you know, as you're putting your, your plan together. Now the, the important thing to think about too is it doesn't matter if you're a large business or if you're a small business right now, I'm going to say that again. It does not matter if you're a large business or a small business. [00:08:41] You know, customizing, making sure that tool, choosing the right tool is right for you and what you are trying to do is just as important and it's just as critical as it is for any business that's out there. And it doesn't matter the industry that you're in. We'll talk about, I'll show you some use cases here in a little bit about how small businesses that are doing things like, you know, and running things like restaurants are benefiting just as much from the AI as, as a, a large business that's, you know, building, you know, you know, weapons or, or something like that. Right? So it's just as important to, to make sure that everything is really in line with each other. You've toed the line, you've, you followed your plan and then you have, have really stuck to it because you know that is going to be key. You're making an investment. [00:09:36] Your time and your money, your employees time, the extra time that they're going to have to, to spend with, you know, with this and learning it and going through that process. It is not insignificant. I don't want anybody to think that it's going to be a cheap, easy, like I said, easy button solution, because it's not. But it is a game changer. [00:09:58] Fundamentally, it is a game changer. [00:10:02] 72% of businesses in 2024 did something with AI. If you're in that 28% that didn't. That means that you are already behind your customer or your, your competitors. [00:10:18] That's not a good statistic going into 2025. It's only going to accelerate and it doesn't matter. Again, if you're a large business or a small business, this is one of those fundamental things that is a, a game changer because there's so much that you can do. It doesn't matter what industry that you are in. The only thing that matters is that it's specific to what your goals are. And if you can drive through this process, if you can select the right tool or tools in some cases to really accelerate that, then that's how you're going to win. And that's what we're trying to do here on the show. We want you to win, so stick with us. We'll talk about in the next segment how you know where, how you can look at the landscape, how you can choose what problem that you're going to try to solve and how you're, how you're going to eventually pick that right tool to solve your, your challenges and, and really, you know, help your business take off. So stick with us. We'll be right back after a few short commercial messages. [00:12:00] Welcome back to AI Today. I'm your host, Dr. Alan Badot, and we're talking about AI tools this week and the complexities of making sure that you're choosing the right one. In a landscape where there are hundreds of tools in each of the different market spaces out there, that makes it extraordinarily difficult to feel good about whatever choice that you, that you wind up making. You know, going out and just buying a car, you, you know, on a whim, you know, you always hear about buyer's remorse or, oh, you're just going after a shiny object. That's not a good feeling, and it's not a successful plan like we talked about. So what I'm going to do is I want to walk you through a basic checklist and how I choose AI tools for customers, how I choose them for myself, and then just give you an idea on, you know, some things to think about as you're going through the process and trying to see, okay, you know, this is what I'm going to use it for because it is my most important, you know, money maker, for example, or it is my biggest obstacle in allowing me to grow. So we're going to talk about that really quick. [00:13:29] Now, there's a couple of things that you have to think about as you're really trying to pick which tool is going to be best for you. And it's really hard to know where to start without feeling like you're just spinning it around in quicksand. So there's some easy things that you can do to help identify what the problem is that you're going to want us try to solve. Okay, so the first one is, do I want to use it internally for my people, my employees, or do I want to use it externally? Now, what's important is you need to think about your employees the same way that you think about your, your customers. [00:14:12] They are engaging in using a new tool that's going to allow them to do something. Okay. And it's very important that everybody has a good experience so the first thing that you want to do is, you know, is your team, are your customers, are you, are you struggling with, you know, inquiries, responses to customers, responses to employees, what's that engagement look like? And then you have to think, okay, if that's the problem that I want to solve, well, do I need a chatbot to help with that or do I need another tool to help with that? And so we'll think about it in general terms like that, and then that helps you look at, you know, identifying or at least starting down the path of where you want to go. Do I have a data management problem? [00:15:11] Do I have so much data that I don't know what to do with it? [00:15:15] I can't analyze it quick enough. I can't do this. I can't get the metrics out of it that I want. It's not very clean, you know, I don't know how to use it. All of those questions are important to be able to say, you know what, data is my number one problem and I need to, I need to try to tackle that with AI. You know, if analytics, data driven decisions is something that is really your biggest problem, then that's where you should focus. And then you have to look at some other AI tools that are out there in that data driven decisions or, you know, do what you want to buy a complete platform. There's a whole bunch of different things, but you've got to identify if that's your biggest problem from a sales and marketing perspective. Is it? You know, what, if I could just do my campaigns faster, get my information to the customer quicker, then I, man, there's nothing that would stop me from, from growing. If that's your problem, then can AI help you really start to target a specific segment or a market that is going to be more effective? [00:16:28] Should you go to social media? Should you, do, you know, radio? Should you do TVs? And yes, you, you may laugh at radio, but guess what? Radio in the car. A lot of, a lot of drivers out there, they're not watching tv. [00:16:42] A lot of people don't think about that kind of stuff. So, you know, would AI help me generate those things in media a lot faster? [00:16:50] If sales and marketing is your problem, then your tool segment is different. Maybe it's a CRM tool. Maybe it's like a salesforce or, you know, a servicenow or something like that with some automation in it. There's some things to think about with that is inventory my biggest issue. I own a business, I deal in widgets. I'm Trying to get as many widgets off the shelf so I can, you know, you know, really take advantage of, you know, that, you know, that supply that I have and get it out there. [00:17:22] Are you overstocking? Do you have too much? Are you not stocking the right things at the right times? [00:17:29] You know, we, we. I always joke around, you know, having pumpkin spice in early August. Well, there's a reason for that. The reason is, is because they've got some metrics that are in some AI that have shown them that, you know, what, people are still buying it in August. I better get it out there as soon as I can. Same thing with Christmas. There's. I'm sorry, there should be a rule. You should not be able to put Christmas decorations or hear Christmas music playing before Halloween. Sorry, that's. That's my AI talking right there. So if inventory control is something that you want to tackle, then you've got to think about. Okay, I've got to look at a different segment. [00:18:08] Is it administrative back office? Am I not getting my invoices out fast enough? Am I not getting the accounts receivables done quick enough? You know, can I automate, you know, report generation? [00:18:23] You know, it's pretty standard now to, you know, take financial reports and have them pushed out for, you know, executives, those kind of things. You know, can I save time and money by doing these things faster? Are they repetitive? Meaning somebody is just doing it over and over and over again and driving themselves crazy and, you know, in that, that mundane, you know, activity. Can I take automation tools and streamline that? You always hear about me talking about bad processes means when you apply AI to it, you're just going to have bad processes that work faster. That's a problem. Okay. And so if administrative issues are your number one problem, then you should look at a different sort of tool set. And then the last one I'm going to touch on for really, you know, problem set thoughts are around financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, more predictive, you know, instead of reactive type, you know, activities that you want to tackle. [00:19:34] Well, what AI tool is going to be able to help me do that? How can I accelerate the activities that take place? How can I become more efficient in my ability to financially plan, understand the capacity of my employees to take on either more work or you are just overworking them and you are, you know, pushing them to a boundary that is not healthy. How can AI help me solve that problem? [00:20:05] Because, you know, those are sort of the things that you've got to think about as you're walking through this process because you have to identify what that top problem is that you are going to tackle. Now I always say don't try to boil the ocean. That's exactly right. And you can break it these, you know, these high level thoughts and themes down to smaller chunks and attack them. And that's what we'll talk about here in a minute. But you've got to at least start somewhere and identify what that biggest pain point is that you're trying to, you know, attack. So if you think about it, let's flip it a little bit differently and think about. Okay, now I'm a retail store owner and I want to increase my sales online. How can I use AI to do that? Well, you know, maybe you can use AI to implement some recommendation engine to help personalize, you know, product suggestions. [00:21:05] You guys probably get these all the time. You'll be talking about something and then all of a sudden it'll show up on YouTube or you'll, you know, do something online and then you'll get some advertisement. There's reasons that folks are doing that and AI is, can be a huge help from that perspective. If you are a restaurant manager and you are, you know, buying food and it just seems like there's so much waste at the end of the day and that is a profit killer. We all know that. [00:21:40] Well, maybe you can use AI to do some predictive analytics around forecasting the demand of, you know, what your customers are eating most. Most of the times, you know, you, you go into these restaurants and you see these menus that are know as thick as the, the King James Bible and you think how in the world can they, can they do all this? [00:22:02] Well, a lot of times those kind of restaurants don't survive because they have so much inventory that their customers, you know, can't keep up with that. And so they'll oftentimes pare back things or they get to a smaller menu or they go out of business. So can you use AI to look at what your customers popular choices are, focus your menu down and then really, you know, hit that sweet spot of being able to, you know, to cook and to make money at the same time. [00:22:35] Are you a service provider? And it doesn't matter the service. It can be hair and nails, it can be health spas, it can be consulting. But how can you improve your appointment scheduling? [00:22:48] Do you need to deploy AI to, you know, assist in managing your bookings or managing your team and how you deploy them? So you know, that's, that's just as Important. [00:23:00] And from a flow perspective, right? And, you know, it's, you know, I went from the high level of, oh, sales and marketing down to a restaurant manager. But there are key things along the way that you've got to pay attention to. Is it in line with my strategic plan? I've said plan probably 50 times already. I'm going to say 50 more to get it through, you know, to, to everyone so they embrace that. And then what are the processes that I go through to do that? Because you want AI to augment these processes to allow you to do things better, faster and cheaper. Let's face it, those are your three goals. How can I do it better? How can I do it faster? And how I can. How can I do it cheaper? And so you've got to map those out to make sure that you understand that. And then you just. Plain and simple, you've got to look at the cost. As I am walking through, and I'm choosing where I'm going to deploy my AI. If I. Bigger, bigger problem oftentimes means more expensive. If I can take a subset of that big problem and that's going to be my focus point, then I can put all my time, my effort and my money into that, because that's when you're going to get the largest roi. [00:24:17] And that's what it comes down to. We all want to try to do the best we can, be efficient and be successful. And if you can walk through those checkpoints, think about, you know, what the biggest problem is, apply it to your specific needs, then now you're ready now to, to start to look at that tool landscape and really pick one. So stick with us. We're going to dive right into, you know, the number of tools that are out there for different audiences, different segments of industry. And we're gonna, we're gonna try to pick the one that's most appropriate for you. Stick with foreign. [00:25:31] Welcome back to AI Today. I'm your host, Dr. Alan Badot, and we're talking about AI tools this week. First segment, we talked about making sure that you've, you know, you're. You're prepared to take that first step and some of the implications around that last segment, we talked about, you know, some of the ways that you pick the problem that is going to be most beneficial for you and how you may apply AI to it independent of what market space that you're in. Because remember, like I always say, it doesn't matter, you know, if you're, you know, from a, you know, sanitation engineer all the way up to, you know, the CEO of a company, you all have the same issues. You're trying to optimize your, your profit margins and you're trying to make sure that you, you know, have a great work life balance. And AI can apply across all of those segments. Very broad, very diverse, but strategically very easy to find something that AI will be able to, to help with and help accelerate. And choosing tools is the big, is the, you know, really that big hurdle that folks have to overcome. Now we're going to talk about the age old being honest with yourself. Do you buy it or do you try to build it? Now I, of course, am just as guilty as everybody else. I see something on tv, I can do that. [00:27:09] Yep. [00:27:10] And I try to do the plumbing and it is awful. I am handy, but when it comes to plumbing, I'm terrible. [00:27:18] I know if I have an issue that I need to have fixed, I know I need to call a plumber. If it's electrical, happy to jump on it. If it's, you know, anything else, happy to do it. If it's plumbing, I'm done. [00:27:31] I've tried. It's not successful and I, I, it's usually 10 times worse than before I started. And buying or building an AI tool is one of those times that you have to be honest with yourself. If you can program, then hey, guess what, take a shot at it. Try to figure out how you can do it. [00:27:56] If you can't program and you really want to deploy this, not the right place to start. I have encouraged everybody to go out and play with tools, try them, see how you can apply them to business, see how you can apply them to your practical life and maintain that work life balance. But if it's really something that you are fundamentally going to do and it's got to be in production and it's got to be reliable and it's got to be all those other things that, that you need to be successful. Take a step back and put your ego on the shelf and go buy one. Okay. You know, there are pros, of course, to, you know, building, building your own because you can specifically tailor it to your problem. You will find out that a lot of cots products that are out there, cots means commercial, off the shelf. Okay. They say it's going to work, it's going to solve your problem. Oh yeah, it does that. Well when you actually get it. No, it doesn't. Not even close to that. And then you've got to tweak it and you've got to, you've got to go through and you've got to customize it. It's, it can get pretty tedious. But that's also why it's so important to have a pilot project. And we'll talk about that here in a second. [00:29:13] It'll also give you some sort of competitive edge. You've got your own tool, you can put unique capabilities into it. You can really put some new things that are going to be cutting edge into your tool set. Harder to do when it's a, you know, commercial product. Commercial product. So you've gotta, you've gotta, you know, keep that in mind because that is a significant pro because then you are driving the deployment timelines if you're doing it the right way versus somebody else with new releases and those kind of things. [00:29:44] Because that's really going to be significantly impacting, you know, how you go to market and how you're doing business. Because control over those features and the data around it and how it's, if you've got that experience, you keep that and you keep that in mind as you, as you're going forward. So think about that, understand the nuances around that and then you know, that will, that will help you understand some of the decisions that you're going to have to make. Now, from a buy perspective, if you're buying a commercial product, you know, there are some significant pros, right? You know, you're, you're buying it on the cloud, uh, it's ready to go, so you don't have the infrastructure costs that go along with, with building it. It's going to be faster, right, because it's ready or it's supposed to be ready. And, and so you've got an ability to really start to tailoring it to what your problem is as opposed to just trying to build a product. Okay. [00:30:43] And clearly there are lower costs associated with going the commercial route, you know, simply because you don't have to staff up. From a development perspective, even if you use AI to do the development, there are still time costs that come along with that. So you have a lower cost upfront when you're buying a commercial, you know, product, especially if it's a subscription based, you know, model, because it's, you know, you're buying it monthly more than likely and you know, gives you some abilities to really ramp up pretty quickly, get your team trained very quickly. Then there's also going to be vendor support. You're relying on the vendor to do the updates and you know, it's their issue to make sure that your team understands what they're supposed to do with it. From a training, you know, perspective, is it clear, you know, is it easy to use all those other things? And so those are, those are some significant benefits to buying a commercial solution. Now, I'm not going to pull the wool over anybody's eyes. We've all bought software that they have promised that it does something or something that is so important to you that that's why you bought it and it doesn't. [00:32:02] So the question is, is whose fault is that? Is that the vendor's fault for selling you something that maybe they didn't understand what you were actually trying to do with it, or maybe you didn't tell them because, because it's proprietary and you thought you could just get this tool and you'd mold it like clay and then apply it to your problem. [00:32:26] The customization options on commercial tools is often limited. The sooner you hear that, the better. So if somebody comes and tries to tell you that their platform or their tool can solve every single problem, you don't have to worry about it. [00:32:44] Think about that. That's a red flag, okay? That's one of my red flags. So that's a con. Okay? [00:32:51] Then you've got the problem of speed to market speed to your customers, those sort of things, because you are relying on the vendor to really make sure that they're updating things in a timely manner, make sure that they are driving new capabilities into the tool set. And so you are relying on them to put in the features and the support that you're going to need to grow. [00:33:21] That could potentially be an issue and definitely something that you've got to take into account as you're looking at what that choice is going to be. And then also integration. I don't know if folks have worked for the government in the past or if you've worked in commercial industries that have a whole bunch of different systems. [00:33:46] Taking a new tool and integrating it into an environment can be a challenge. We all know that successful businesses have been able to do this better than unsuccessful ones. [00:34:04] It can kill you, it can kill your profits, it can kill your time, and it can really suck up everything that you have in your being that you're trying to get this new tool to integrate with all these other systems that, that you need to use to do your, your day to day activities. So that can be a challenge too. So I don't want you to think that, oh, if I just go build it, it's going to be so much easier and so much cheaper, or if I Just go buy a commercial product. It's got to be so much easier and so much cheaper. It doesn't work that way. Okay. You've got to think about both of them, compare them, choose what's best for you, and then you're not going to have buyer's remorse. That is, that is going to be key. All right, now let's say that you've decided, okay, I've gone through the process. I figured out that I, I know I can't do it myself. I don't have any other choice. I've got to go buy it. [00:35:04] So how do you do that? How do you go through that process of buying a product? And I'm not going to do a specific AI tool because there's so many of them. You've seen in the chart that, that I put up there that. [00:35:20] I love that chart, by the way. That's something that I would come up with. It's fantastic. But you can see all the different AI tools that are out there. I can't cover all of them in one show, but I can tell you how to pick the one that's going to be best for you. First one, right off the top doesn't matter if it's for your employees or for your customers. Easy use. If it's easy to use, it's intuitive and your staff or your customers can, can pick it up and just run with it, then that is number one. Because if your users or if your customers have a bad experience, they're not going to want to use it. And if they don't want to use it, then it's, it's not going to give you the ROI that you're looking for? The next one is how does it integrate? Is it going to integrate easy, or do I have to program a bunch of things in, or, you know, go through a whole bunch of hoops to get something in there? If that's the case. That's a, that's a flag. That's a challenge. [00:36:18] Scalability. How does it scale? Can I just, you know, add licenses as I, as I need them and as my user base grows? [00:36:27] Very important. What kind of customer support are you going to get if you pick up the phone and you have a problem, or you send a text and you have a problem, or whatever the modal method that you're, you're using to contact support? Are you going to get assistance in a timely manner? The answer is no. Then it's probably not a good product for you to use. [00:36:56] And how do you, how do you make sure. That those four things that I just mentioned are, are going to be successful. Well, you do it by a pilot. You've got to do it by a pilot. And if you stick around with us, we're going to talk about the steps to run a pilot and how you can make sure that you're getting the ROI at the end of the day, and then how do you deploy it? So stick with us. And we'll be right back after a few short commercial messages. [00:37:57] Welcome back to AI Today. I'm your host, Dr. Alan Badot, and we're talking about AI tools this week. How do you pick the right one? How do you make sure it's being deployed the right way? And how are you going to really get the ROI that you're, that you're looking for? Last segment, we started talking about some of the things to think about as you are choosing this tool. Now I'm going to give you some advice that's going to help you really get there. Okay. The first thing is, is just don't just jump into it and think, oh, here we go, it's time to go. We've purchased it, now we got to deploy it. [00:38:36] All right, you got to talk to vendors first. Okay. You've got to make sure that the tool aligns to your objectives. [00:38:45] And then you've got to make sure that the capabilities of that tool are going to make it easy for you to deploy it, to meet whatever that goal is. [00:38:54] Because if you don't have a clear objective, you cannot apply a tool to be successful. So that's, that's, number one. You've got to start small. Like we've talked about. This is where a pilot, running a pilot project is really going to be beneficial for you, you know, in the long run, because it allows you to select a small test area that you want to do. It allows you to select a small customer base, maybe somebody that's very loyal, somebody that will help you in this process, not be, you know, really, you know, a negative, but somebody that will help you improve on what your offerings are or what you're trying, you know, to do. The other thing is you've got to make sure that you have the vendor involved and that you have your employees involved at the same time, because you know the vendor knows the product better than anybody. And if you're working a small test project, then they're really going to try to help you and help you succeed. If they don't, then of course, you don't want to use that product. But oftentimes they'll put an engineer on it. They'll put, you know, some, maybe a BD resource or something like that to help you through the process and use it the way that you're, you're trying to do. And that engagement becomes very important. It's no different AI. You know, we talk about AI replacing all these things. There are certain things that AI cannot replace, and engagement is one of them. You know, just because a tool does something doesn't mean that it's going to be supported. It doesn't mean that you're going to have a good feeling as somebody is trying to use it. It doesn't mean that if there's a problem that it's going to be automatically fixed. You've got to have a good feeling about that relationship. And then that's, that's a good, a good marker and, you know, a way to prevent a red flag from going up. You've got to make sure that you engage your employees. [00:40:56] If the first time they hear about an AI coming to, coming to the company and coming to the office that they're going to be expected to, to use, and nobody other than you has any idea about that, that's a problem, you're going to find that deployment of that is going to be nearly impossible. So for a pilot, you get some of your key workers, you get some of your best employees, you get some of your most vocal champions to use it, provide feedback so they feel like they are part of the decision. [00:41:36] And then you deploy it. Then you figure out, okay, you know, what, it does this well, this well, and this well. My best employees like it. They think that they can really do a lot of good things with it. And now I'm gonna, now I'm going to, now I'm going to take that next step and try to try to deploy it into the, the production environment or into my customer space or whatever that is, because those are your biggest champions. If you get them involved, then you're more likely to be successful. Tracking the progress is important, right? By a pilot. I want you to, I want you to think about something that lasts for a month, maybe six weeks, but not longer than that. Because if it's that, you know, if that's the case and it goes way beyond that, then you're, you, you didn't have a good test case chosen. You weren't specific enough, and you didn't focus enough on a specific problem that you were trying to solve. Okay? Keeping that in mind is going to be important because that's going to help drive how you're monitoring the success of the tool set as you go along. You've got to understand what the tool can do and what it can't do, how long it takes to do something, what kind of investment it takes for you to get it to do that something. [00:42:52] So understanding what that looks like in monitoring its progress is going to, going to be key. And you lay the groundwork for success in a pilot. You don't do that trying to go right into the full market, the full space, the, oh, we're deploying it out to everybody, every one of our customers. It's not going to work very well. And then of course, you've got to evaluate the results and you've got to be honest with yourself. Did it work? Did it not work? Was it too expensive for the ROI that I'm getting back and the improvement? Or was it, did it just take too much time to deploy? [00:43:32] This is your last chance of saying, nope, it's not the right, it's not the right fit for us. We're going to take a step back, we're going to reevaluate tools to solve this problem, and then we're going to move forward from there. You don't have to buy and deploy. Okay, I, I fear of missing out is not a driver and it's not a successful one in picking the right tool. Oftentimes you pick the wrong tool because you've picked it for the wrong reasons. [00:44:09] And that's important because a lot of times you feel like, oh, I've gone through this last six weeks and, and now I got to do it because I've invested so much. No, not really. You haven't. You really haven't. You haven't invested as much as you think, because put yourself in a place 12 months from now and if the pilot wasn't successful, it's only going to compound, it's only going to get worse, it's not going to get better, it's going to get worse. [00:44:40] So pull the rip cord and take a step back and reevaluate. Nothing wrong with that. Failing fast, you hear that all the time. Failing fast is important and pilots are the only way that allow you to do that. [00:44:57] So, you know, you heard me say a couple of times, just some red flags. I just want to talk about just some ones that I've run into. Lack of transparency is the first one. You know, how the AI does stuff, how it's measuring things, how it's looking at information, you know, very key in today's world, especially if you're dealing with customer data, especially if you're dealing with pii. Ask the hard questions. If they don't want to answer them or they don't answer them to a place that you feel satisfied. Walk away over promising capabilities. If you hear, oh, it can do this, it can do this, it can do this, think about it, take a step back. Somebody's trying to hit their sales goals and you know, you want somebody that's going to be open and honest with you because that's what you're trying to do. And when you have a problem, you know, going to the vendor and then coming back saying, oh no, it doesn't, it doesn't do that, we're going to have to modify it. It's not what you're going to want to hear. [00:45:58] Customer reviews look at other people that are used in the tool. [00:46:02] Very important. But again, take that with a grain of salt because like every customer review, oftentimes it's only the negative ones that you see because you know, they're, they're angry and they've decided to go out and vent, you know, on the Internet. And so make sure it's balanced. Those, those reviews. Because I've often looked at tools and they get awful reviews, but it's the one that I have aligned and that's my top choice for a specific problem. I've used it, I've done the right things and I'm successful with it, you know, and so that's, that's very important. And then we talked about the support and those other things. So, you know, think about those key concepts. But then at the end of the day, really, you've got to think and plan for bigger things, right? Because it doesn't end at the pilot. That's just the beginning. That's just the beginning of you using it to support your customers, support your employees. So you've got to plan for larger deployments, you've got to make sure that it scales. You've got to make sure that you have a timeline that you want to do it. A pilot usually lasts four to six weeks. Like I said, you can even do them quicker if you want to do a two week sprint, something like that, a seven day eval, whatever, whatever that is. You can define it really any way that you want, as long as it's meeting your goals and your needs. [00:47:34] But planning is key. [00:47:37] Again, have a plan that will set timelines and resources to how you want to integrate that into your production environment or your, your day to day work life. Because if you don't have that plan after the pilot, then you're going to lose time, you're going to lose time and resources, you're going to put more money into it and you're going to get behind and then you're going to try to catch up and, and that's not good. So while the pilot is going on, you know, midway through that, try to have your plan solidified that if you decide that it meets your, your criteria that you're going to deploy, having that plan ready to go means you're not losing any momentum. You bought it, now you're going to deploy it and then your people are going to use it and then you're going to get your ROI significantly faster. [00:48:28] Communication is key. You've got to think about what those communication markers are. How do you inform your team, how do you inform your customers that you're now using an AI tool and you're doing it for either them and, you know, improving their experience that they have or improving your employees experience and they can do more, you know, and increase their capacity to be successful. That's important. [00:48:57] So a lot of things that tie into that though are also going to be, you know, training that has to take place. Are you training your customers how to use it? Are you creating material that's going to be presented to them so it's easy for them to interact and use it? I hope so, because that's going to make you successful at the end of the day. And then it's the same goes with your employees. Are you giving them the tools to be able to do that? Because as you're looking at those things, you're going to see, oh, it's got uptime, it's great, it's accurate. But the most important metric is going to be, is it usable? [00:49:38] Are my customers happy? [00:49:40] Because if your customers aren't happy that you don't care how accurate it is, you don't care that there's, you know, no issues from a security perspective because your customers aren't happy. You're going to try to figure out how to make your customers happy by getting something else. So understanding that and using that is a key success metric is important. You know, you'll see technology shift, you'll see new AI models come out, you'll see new AI tools come out. And again, they're coming out all the time, they're coming out every day and it's impossible to keep up with them. The one thing that you can do is make sure that your customers are satisfied. They have a fantastic experience. With whatever tool that they're using because their experience is going to result in increased ROI for you. [00:50:40] Your employees are going to be happier, your customers are going to be happier. And then that's when you've known all along that you made the right decision. If you take these things that I've told you, follow some of these basic steps, don't get out in front of your skis, and just be honest with yourself, honest with your employees, honest with your customers. Then at the end of the day, that's how you're going to be successful. [00:51:07] So thank you. [00:51:10] Hope this show is going to be beneficial to you. It's going to be helpful. Again, don't be afraid to contact me if you need or have any questions or if you have a question about a specific product, AI product that you're trying to use, I'm happy to tell you. Yeah, I've got experience with it, and this is what my experience is. Or no, I don't. But I can go find somebody to help you. It is always good to get a little bit of outside perspective every once in a while. Not. And it doesn't have to cost anything. It's just something I want you. I want you all to be successful as you choose these things. That's why I'm doing this. That's why we're, you know, going through these. These sort of processes. I want you to be successful in any way that I can do that. I will help you as best I can. So thank you. [00:51:59] We will come back next week. We'll have another great AI topic for us to look into. Maybe I'll do another deep dive into a couple of different markets and market segments. But thank you. I appreciate you. And we'll see you next week. Bye. Bye. [00:52:17] This has been a NOW Media Networks feature presentation. All rights reserved.