”Really the truth is just a plain picture. A plain picture of, let’s say, a tramp vomiting in the sewer.” Bob Dylan
Previously at the Volcano Base I was encouraging people to stop working so hard. Since then, it’s been a mixture of progress and setbacks. So, “life” in other words.
Mission Briefing
Vomit comet
I must admit, on a few occasions this week, I was so stressed out by financial matters that I almost threw up. The current goal is to avoid having to sell the family home. Yeah, things are pretty bad. But you can’t expect to magic income out of thin air in just a few weeks.
On the plus side, there has been progress! I’m moving things forwards a little bit every day. Taken together, none of the following successes will pay for a family of four to eat for a month, but they’re strong indicators of movement in the right direction:
- training a charity’s leadership on AI
- another keynote speech about automation and AI (global agency this time)
- sold my first “packaged system” (the lead generation one)
So the demand seems to be out there. I went digging for a bit of evidence and found some research Salesforce did last month.
They found that 91% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) using AI say it boosts their revenue. The global data, gathered from 3,350 leaders of SMEs, highlights how forward-looking businesses are using AI to grow.
Being a skeptic of market research (having worked in the field for a few years) I was pleased to find some of the raw data. I wanted to learn about small businesses in the UK.
UK SME priorities and challenges
UK SME priorities and challenges - Salesforce
In case you can’t see the copy, the top priorities for UK SMEs were:
- Improving employee development/training
- Improving the customer experience
- Improving use of tools/tech the company already has
Their top challenges were:
- Increasing sales revenue
- Keeping pace with changing technology
- Acquiring new customers
“I can help with ALL of those!” I thought to myself. So why are UK SMEs so resistant to automation and AI? I looked into the attitudes of those SMEs that are actively using them.
AI benefits for UK SMEs
UK SME benefits of AI - Salesforce
- 87% said AI makes their operations more efficient
- 81% said AI helps them scale their services
- 81% said AI improves their margins
So, the implication is that UK SMEs that are using automation and AI are getting real benefits, tackling their main business challenges. I’m not surprised, but it’s nice to have some evidence.
This is encouraging data. I need to find a way to talk to SMEs about their options. They can stop working so hard AND solve some of their problems. For starters, I’ve taken a gamble with my dwindling reserves and joined the Federation of Small Businesses, and registered for a few local events. Another tiny step forward.
Classified Intel
Some interesting stuff I discovered on my adventures.
Full unbiased demo of OpenAI’s Operator
Cassie Kozyrkov was Google’s first Chief Decision Scientist and I have a lot of time for her opinions. Despite the title, nobody can be unbiased, but this look at OpenAI’s first real agent is worth your time.
Like me, Marco Serafini is a fan of Tana. In this video he demonstrates how he’s using it with Make for content ideas and generation. I prefer n8n but this video shows what’s possible with the next generation of PKMs (personal knowledge management systems).
Alex is a well-known strategist and was an AI skeptic for a long time, until recently. In this post he outlines how he’s started using ChatGPT as a “strategy buddy”.
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