The Right (and Wrong) Way to Use AI in Your Business

If you pay attention to the marketing industry or scroll through LinkedIn right now, you would think Artificial Intelligence is going to magically run your entire business while you sleep.

Every software vendor is suddenly an "AI-powered" platform. Every agency is pitching "AI-driven growth."

Let's cut through the hype and talk about reality.

The Wrong Way to Use AI

Many businesses are being sold a vision of AI that is essentially a parlor trick.

They are told to use ChatGPT to write five blog posts a week about generic industry topics, resulting in robotic, lifeless content that no human being actually wants to read. They are told to use AI image generators to create slightly-off pictures for their social media feeds.

This is the wrong way to use modern technology. It focuses on generating cheap content rather than solving real business problems. Your customers want to work with a real, trustworthy expert — not a robot.

The Right Way: Practical Execution

As a business owner, you should not be using AI to replace your voice or your expertise. You should be using AI to do the boring, repetitive, administrative work that your team hates doing.

The right way to use modern technology is for practical execution. Here is what that actually looks like in practice:

Lead Routing: Instead of an office manager manually reading every contact form and deciding who should call them back, AI can instantly analyze the inquiry and automatically route the lead to the correct person's phone.

Call Summarization: Instead of your team spending 15 minutes typing up notes after a customer call, AI can listen to the recording, instantly summarize the key action items, and drop them directly into the customer's file in your CRM.

Triggered Follow-Up: AI can monitor your pipeline and automatically trigger a personalized follow-up message when a customer misses an appointment or hasn't responded to a quote in three days.

Technology in Service of the Business

I do not chase technology for its own sake. I look for ways modern tools can support better decisions, better systems, and a better use of your time.

If an AI tool does not directly reduce friction, save your team time, or improve the customer experience, you do not need it. Focus on practical automation that drops straight to the bottom line — and ignore the hype.