September 3, 2025 • 37 mins
What does Greek mythology have to do with AI? In this episode of Over the Bull, we open with the story of Icarus—powerful wings that led to his downfall—and connect it to how even billion-dollar companies misuse AI. We explore customer backlash, why small businesses can’t afford the same mistakes, and how to balance automation with the human touch. Featuring real quotes, current trends, and a simple analogy that proves AI is just a tool—the build still takes strategy.
MARKETING TREND ARTICLES:
- https://www.techradar.com/pro/smbs-want-to-use-tech-more-in-order-to-grow-but-costs-are-proving-a-big-barrier
- https://www.techradar.com/pro/websites-still-matter-but-cant-survive-on-their-own
- https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/fashion/rushtok-and-the-new-rules-of-campus-marketing
- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/rise-of-generative-engine-optimisation-the-future-of-digital-marketing-in-an-ai-driven-world/articleshow/123606586.cms
- https://www.ft.com/content/cb859409-dd3d-400d-9225-4a14d351bd20
- https://www.techradar.com/pro/affiliate-marketing-in-2025-practical-insights-into-the-rise-of-alternative-channels-and-the-video-first-revolution
- https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2025/07/2025-small-business-marketing-trends-digital-strategies-community-focus-and-the-rise-of-ai/
Customer Backlash, Emotional Intelligence & AI Complaints
- ServiceNow (UK AI Customer Perception Study):
https://www.servicenow.com/uk/blogs/2025/how-uk-customers-feel-about-ai
Over The Bull is brought to you by IntegrisDesign.com. All rights reserved.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut
through marketing noise.
Here's your host, Ken Carroll.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
Are you familiar with the story of Icarus?
It's the story of where he hadthese wings fashioned from wax,
and he was basically warned notto fly too close to the sun.
And the story ends with himflying too close to the sun, and
the very thing that gave himfreedom is the very thing that
(00:30):
ultimately caused his demise.
Now, we're going to talk aboutgetting tangled up in this
episode of Over the You reallywant to stay tuned for this.
Hi, I'm Ken, and let's divestraight into the discussion.
So why I'm going to call thisepisode Tangled is that's
(00:51):
exactly what I'm sensing when itcomes to this whole idea of
artificial intelligence, smallbusinesses, what they can do to
use it, all the challenges thatthey face with it, and exactly
what to do.
Because the thing is, the righttool and the right application
can be powerful, but the righttool in the wrong instance could
(01:14):
be disastrous.
So let me start with a couple ofquotes here because I think it
will set the pace for thechallenges we're going to
discuss today.
So quote number one, manycustomers feel trapped in
endless loops with big techcompanies, AI chatbots that are
left waiting days or even weeksfor meaningful support.
(01:37):
Now, this is from customerexperienced trends of 2024.
Pull quote number two.
Working with large techcompanies can feel like shouting
into the void.
You get routed to forums orunhelpful automated responses,
and it's nearly impossible toget a real human to understand
(01:58):
your problem.
Now, this is from Global TechSupport Survey, also in 2024.
And let's go ahead and round itout with one more quote.
Sixty numbers of respondents inthe UK believe that AI chatbots
fail to pick up on emotionalcues like tone or frustration
leading to a decline in trust.
(02:20):
And this is from ServiceNowStudy 2024.
So the point is that ifbillion-dollar companies cannot
get this right on how toincorporate the AI tech, imagine
the danger that your businesscould sustain because you don't
(02:41):
have the resources, you don'thave the market control these
big companies have to make themistakes that they're making.
Now, it also shows you that ifthese very companies struggle
with how to use this technology,you can imagine that on your
scale, how to harness itappropriately could be a huge
(03:06):
challenge.
Now, for me, for example, I knowthat when I go to any kind of
chatbot system and I detect thatit's an AI mechanism, I just
typically ask for a person.
I don't want to talk to a chatsystem.
As a matter of fact, the waythat I interpret that a lot of
times is that the company that'sforcing me to do it doesn't care
(03:30):
about the customer service thatI get, and all they're worried
about is the bottom line, andthey're costing people jobs who
could probably help me out.
I also don't see a decrease inmy subscriptions.
And so I also see that they'remaking more money to boot.
So I do more of the work.
I have to do more of thefollow-ups.
(03:52):
They make the same amount ofmoney and they cut overhead from
their business.
Now, that's the way I see it.
Now, you may see things a littlebit differently, but as we
transition through this, if Ihad a choice to avoid some of
these tech companies, I wouldabsolutely do it.
But they have such astranglehold on the market, some
of them are hard to do.
Now, you as a small business,you probably don't have that
(04:17):
market share.
So for you to offer a premiumsolution for clients that is
good for them while embracingtechnology is the challenge.
So let's look at a few more ofthese situations.
I want to set this thing up alittle bit.
So here's why we can't ignoreartificial Well, first of all,
(04:41):
it's the momentum that it'spicking up is crazy.
You know, we've sharedstatistics about how popular AI
tools are getting and how peopleare circumventing a lot of the
traditional search engines infavor of things like ChatGPT.
So you want to go back and checkthat out if you've not been
(05:04):
following the podcast.
But one of those quotes is 96%Now, TechRadar 2025 put this
out.
So, as you can see, we'restarting to see the tension
(05:29):
here.
We're starting to see theentanglement of what's going on.
Let's look at this one, too.
Creators report conversion ratesas high as 98% through direct
messaging.
Okay, that's huge.
And then affiliate marketing isshifting into video-first and
social commerce experiences withplatforms like TikTok Shop and
(05:51):
Instagram Shopping driving thenext wave of success.
And again, this is TechRadar.
So the point is that artificialintelligence is not optional.
Now, the question is, how do youuse it?
Because there are multiplemechanisms that you need to
consider as you go through it.
(06:13):
Like, for example, when we startoff, we see that the
technological frustrations oftrying to go through an AI
system that typically puts youin a loop and causes frustration
and you have all these kind ofproblems.
But then on the other side, ifyou can properly harness
artificial intelligence in theright ways, then what you can do
(06:34):
is you can create a niceexperience and then you can
offer something that's a littlemore seamless when you have
smaller staffs and you have thechallenges that small businesses
have.
So the question is, is what doyou do about this?
Because if we were to reallyseriously look at what's going
(06:56):
on the internet today, we'reconstantly being, you know, just
hit with this concept that youcan do these things yourself.
And so the question is, can you?
Or are we dealing with justclever sales pitches that are
geared to make you think thatyou can do something, bypass
(07:16):
things?
Because in marketing, one of thethings that appeals to people is
being smarter than everyoneelse.
And if they think that they cansave money by doing things
themselves, then they feel thatthey've one-upped or somehow
came up with something that'ssuper clever that no one else
has thought of.
(07:37):
Now, some of this isintentional.
because they want you to thinkthat you can do that.
Now, the question is, as we'renavigating through today's
session, can you really do thatlegitimately?
And can you afford to makemistakes, especially when we
have these factors such as yourbudget that goes into the
(07:57):
equation or where you shouldspend your resources or your
business reputation?
When you start incorporating allthese factors into the mix, the
question is, can you do that?
Should you do that?
And I keep going back to theJeff Goldblum quote from
Jurassic Park, which looselyparaphrased is, you know, you
(08:18):
wondered if you could do it, butyou never stopped to think that
if you should do it.
And to me, that's becomingalmost my catchphrase for 2025.
So as we're looking at it, Iwant to kind of keep going
through a few more points, andthen I kind of want to go full
circle.
So The idea of search engineoptimization, let's flip the
(08:43):
coin and kind of put that inyour pocket, what we talked
about.
And then what I want to do is Iwant to talk about how search
engine optimization istransforming into something
called GEO, or generative engineoptimization.
So if we look at a pull quote,let's grab this one.
(09:03):
Generative engine optimization,or GEO, is the future of digital
marketing in an AI- This is fromEconomic Times 2025.
Now, this is really importantbecause a lot of you may fall
into this trap where if AI isgiving the answers and
artificial intelligence is doingall these things, well, what is
(09:26):
the value of having a website?
So TechRadar, they quickly, youknow, put that down by saying,
you know, websites still matter,but they cannot survive on their
own.
And so the idea is that, youknow, first of all, the idea of
a website standing on its own isnot realistic.
(09:48):
It's not been realistic for sometime.
A website is a home base.
It's essential for yourbusiness.
As far as I can see, it's goingto remain essential for your
business because it's going tofeed all these mechanisms that
are evolving.
Now, of course, we can't see thefuture, but for the foreseeable
(10:08):
future, this is your home base.
So do not think that you'regoing to be able to revert back
to, you know, some of the earlydays of the internet where one
of the recommendations was,well, you know, if you can't
afford to have a website, atleast have a Facebook page.
You know, those days are long inthe past and the complexity is
(10:32):
just getting more and more.
So as we move forward, let'stalk about a few other things
here Um...
So the idea is creating, one,creating content that is
valuable for, well, let me backout of this.
That's not really where I wantto go.
Where I really want to startwith this is to start with the
(10:57):
idea of taking AI, but thenusing it in the proper way, but
then also building your websitein a way that AI finds it
friendly.
And this is, believe it or not,this is really a complex And so
when you look at websites today,what goes into a website really
(11:21):
has to start dramaticallychanging.
And, you know, one of thoseterms that we talked about was
something called schema.
And so schema is a short code ornot a short code, but it's a way
to tell search engine or, youknow, AI and different things.
(11:41):
even traditional search engine,what your content is about.
So the idea is to properlyformat your pages, but also
properly structure your pages.
Because if you start to diveinto it, you start to find a lot
of nuances that have to becarefully thought through that
(12:02):
you just can't put into asystem.
And this idea of picking apretty template and then using
AI to build your content andthrow We're just seeing the
demise of that, but we're alsoseeing a lot of the companies
that provide these servicesstill flourish because they're
(12:23):
still selling the myth that thiscan be done really on the low
tech.
And what we're seeing is anavalanche of new technology, new
marketing strategies, neweverything that's burying these
services and only giving thefacilities that they need.
facade that they have theability to still function in a
(12:45):
way that's meaningful tobusinesses.
Now, the problem is, is thatthere's a lot of issues with
humans.
So the first is the herdmentality.
For example, if a bazillionwebsites or companies are using
it, then obviously it's workingfor them.
That's not true.
(13:06):
Most businesses underperform orfail.
And so the idea is to sell themsomething that is cheap and easy
is more just appealing to apsychological inclination and is
not an indicator of success.
It just says that the psychologybehind the product is working.
So when you think about it inthose terms, the herd mentality
(13:27):
is something that can reallypush you into the wrong
direction.
So as we move forward and startpushing through this, you're
going to see, hopefully, whatI'm trying to paint here as a
big picture.
So let's talk about balance, andthen let's talk about what we
(13:48):
do, and let's talk about how wehandle a budget, and let's talk
about how we build you a planthat makes sense for you.
And then as we talk about this,my ultimate goal is that you can
look at whatever resourcesyou're using and then saying,
okay, are these issueseffectively being addressed from
my current solution, or am Ijust following the herd?
(14:12):
Am I just using the sametechnology other companies are
using because that's what'sdone?
Because my big argument at theend of the day is that this is
going to become more and more ofa mistake because the tech
companies aren't even reallysure what to do.
Because keep in mind that if thehuge tech companies can't figure
(14:35):
out what to do with artificialintelligence, the smaller
vertical companies that are inor incorporating artificial
intelligence into their systemor incorporating chatbots or
whatever, they certainly aregoing to struggle with how to
use that system.
You know, the creators can't doit, so the trickle-down people
probably also cannot exactlyfigure out how to handle it.
(14:58):
Now, we also do.
I mean, let's be intellectuallyhonest here.
We also have to keep in mindthat it appears that, at least
from an tech companies don'treally care what you think.
And they're so big, they don'thave to care what you think.
And so maybe the haphazardnessof using this technology is just
(15:22):
from a fact of indifference.
I had a client talk to me justyesterday, as a matter of fact,
and he said, are there anyalternatives to Google for
advertising in his particularinstance?
And I said, no, you can'tabandon Google right now.
But there were certain things itmade him raise an eyebrow.
(15:44):
So you see that there's thatyou've got to put into this
equation too.
However, I think that we can allcome to the conclusion that if
they had it figured out and theycould easily do it and keep
people happy, they probablywould do it.
So anyway, let's talk abouthuman balance and automation.
(16:04):
So if we go to quantum metricreport in 2024, it says 42% of
consumers admit to being ruderto AI chatbots than to human
agents, largely because theydon't believe bots resolve their
issues effectively.
And this is why we need to lookat this idea, okay?
(16:25):
Do we incorporate chatbots, youknow, because that's something
that a lot of people ask.
Do we automate direct messagingin meta, you know, where people
can get more of a personalizedexperience?
Do we focus on citations so thatwhen ChatGPT is talking to
(16:50):
people about your business, dowe want that conversation to be
more relevant?
And of course, we're alltainted.
Like, for example, as I wasexploring this, I go, I hate it.
I just absolutely hate it.
When I go in there and I haveto, first of all, if I don't
know if it's a bot and I starttalking to it and I find out it
is, I feel like I've been kindof manipulated.
(17:12):
But then secondly, if I hit thebot right out of the gate, I'm
like, this is what a pain to sithere and take five minutes and
say, I don't want to talk toyou.
No, I don't want to describe myproblem to you.
No, I don't want to do that.
I just want to talk to a person.
And for me, I find thatincredibly frustrating.
But, you know, as we talkedabout in the last podcast, when
(17:33):
you talk about the differentgenerations, you start to see
different generations areaffected by different things.
Now, if the study that Ipresented last week is any
reflection on generationalinfluences.
The generations after mygeneration is going to be even
(17:55):
more sticklers about this andthis fine-tuning.
You get to the generation alphaand you find out that they're
resistant to anything that looksinauthentic, you know, which
would be, you know, manipulatingsomeone based upon what they've
been to or what what theyvisited.
So that balance is incrediblytricky.
(18:18):
And so finding out exactly whereyou should institute a chatbot
and where you should institutehuman beings, and even when you
say institute chatbots, youreally should put a question
mark there.
And I know that's kind of adramatic statement, but
depending upon your market anddepending upon the expectation,
(18:40):
you really need to be carefulhow you do this because you can
come across as being indifferentand you don't have the pull that
these big companies are gettingaway with right now.
So let's try to put all thistogether into something that you
can practically use for yourbusiness.
(19:02):
So the first thing that we cansafely say is that AI tools are
just like any other tool.
If you use them in the rightway, they can be good.
Use them in the bad way, theycan be bad.
What this should tell you isthat you don't go out and just
buy a tool because it soundslike it's going to be good,
(19:25):
because we're also trying tobalance our budgets at the same
time and make sure that oureffort is used effectively.
And so if you go out and youjust chase the latest and
greatest thing just because ithas the word AI attached to it
or a large language modelattached to it, I believe you're
making a mistake.
And the reason being is you haveto think of the grander scope,
(19:47):
your target audience, what theirexpectation is, and how you're
going to differentiate yourselffrom your competitors.
But you also don't want to missthis boat either.
Now, when it comes to buildingthe plan, the idea is that it's
getting more complicated.
(20:08):
It's not getting easier.
Like, for example, one thing Iwas exploring, to some extent, I
was exploring because I comefrom a traditional search engine
optimization background.
I've won awards on it and, youknow, historical awards, things
like that.
And so part of me was going, howdoes that change?
(20:32):
So I'll give you one of thethoughts that I was debating.
And that is typically when youdo search engine optimization,
What you do is you pick targetkeywords for each page, and each
page should have its own uniquetarget keyword, and then it
should have its unique titletag, unique, you know, whatever
may have you.
(20:53):
And the idea is you want to kindof create that content that's
all centric around thatinformation.
And the more you do that,typically the more that search
engines understand what thosepages are about, and then if you
follow best EEAT practices, thena lot of times that is a, well,
it is a big contributor in yourvisibility, which is huge.
(21:18):
Now, when you move to the ideaof artificial intelligence, it's
a little bit different becausethe idea is that it's more
conversational language.
So first, we got to get intoconversational language,
authentic language, andexpertise.
So those are things that arereally non-negotiable when
you're creating content.
(21:39):
So you can imagine a letting AIcreate robotic content that can
be detected by AI tools thatit's AI content.
You can imagine the problem thatyou would have if your search
engine optimization guy is justrunning through and cranking out
articles using ChatGPT or Grokor some of these other tools.
(22:03):
I believe there's going to be abacklash, and I think we're
already kind of seeing that withsome of the stuff going on with
YouTube.
And so So the idea is whenyou're going through and you're
trying to put together the gameplan.
So the new question is not onlythe content of conversation, but
(22:23):
also there's the question of howdo you lay out that content?
Because is it more important tolay out services on the homepage
and then have direct links?
Should we go back to puttingsitemaps in the footer of the
website to give quicker cues tolarge language models, AI stuff,
(22:46):
for GAIO, Google ArtificialIntelligence, et cetera, et
cetera.
And then the question becomestesting that out, and then how
should that lay out on a page?
Because if you start to lay outyour services in a different
fashion on the homepage of thewebsite to more accommodate AI,
(23:08):
then you're kind of pushingagain And to kind of navigate
those waters and find thosehappy spots without doing some
of the things which are quicklybecoming, you know, more and
more antiquated.
(23:28):
Like, for example, putting allthe cities you serve in the
footer of the website, you know,things that SEO people are still
doing because they traditionallywork as we're transitioning to
this brave new world.
world of AI, the question is, iswhat do you do?
How do you test it?
And what are those metrics thatwe're trying to target?
(23:50):
The other thing is, as I, youknow, as I've shared, I will, I
will definitely work with ChadGPT, talk to it, get information
that helps me make decisions.
Like, for example, I'm gettingready to look into build a pond.
It's just, I'm the a hobbyist.
(24:11):
I like working out in the yardand stuff.
And so I am referring to it.
But if I were to go to a storethat offers pond supplies for
building and I confronted AI inthat environment, I would be
very resistant to that.
But I'm very open to the idea ofdiscussing it on ChatGPT.
(24:31):
Now, the psychology behind that,honestly, I really don't know.
Maybe I have differentexpectations the more I get
closer to that point ofpurchase.
Maybe I want to transition froma bot experience to a human
experience, and one location isacceptable and another one is
not.
(24:51):
Now, that could also just be me.
So the idea is if I was yourcustomer, and I did all my
homework on chat GPT, and thenI'm ready to make a decision,
and then I hit another bot, andI have to start from the ground
up, and then I had thefrustration to get a call from a
person, you may have just lostme.
(25:12):
So you can kind of see thosemovements.
And then from a websiteperspective, let's take that
same pond company and let's justsay, let's talk about a pump
where you're going to pump waterup to a waterfall and then have
it kind of cycle through theartificial pond.
If you were to take that onestep further and I'm talking
(25:33):
about a pump and I'm asking ChadGPT about that and then you own
the pond store The question is,if I'm asking specifically about
pumps and pumps is on, you know,buried somewhere on your website
to where it looks like it's notas important to your company,
will ChatGPT more than likelynot refer to you on the pump
(25:57):
conversation, but maybe in moregeneral pool conversation?
So you can kind of see that thegymnastics to get around and set
up the website and then use theproper schema and setup and all
those things in the mix, you canimagine just the sheer
(26:17):
complexity of it.
So one of the things that Icompared this to a couple weeks
ago was in Meta.
One of the quotes I pulled wasto the equivalent that Meta is
going to equalize the playingfield for small businesses and
big businesses with their newmarketing approach using AI and
(26:40):
at the end of 2026.
And the idea is that that soundsreally good, but all that does
is just raise the floor.
It doesn't bring down theceiling.
All it does is say, now you'vegot to understand this level of
technology in order to evenplay, because that's the new
(27:02):
ground.
That's not the new ceiling.
And so the people that absorbthat new baseline and then are
able to use that and then dobetter from that point up, you
can imagine we'll do better.
And you can also imagine thosethat don't embrace that new
baseline are going to be belowthe baseline.
(27:22):
They'll be on the floor and notbeing able to even get to the
same point.
And of course, big businesseshave bigger budgets and that's
always going to be part of thiswhole equation.
And so how does a business likeyours go about it.
Well, if you could imagine notbeing able to address this and
(27:47):
not being able to reallyunderstand it, you can imagine
that with all of the inundationof the junk spammy emails, all
the people promising thatthey've got the best solutions
in the entire world, all thisnoise that goes on that just
makes you think that what'sgoing on, if you just start
chasing this stuff and puttingmoney to it, and then at the
(28:10):
same time hurting your businessreputation, you could imagine
the disastrous results thatcould happen from trying to
chase it without that directionin place.
And then, you know, one thingthat when I've always taught
people about marketing today, Iuse the example of an old watch,
(28:33):
you know, with the gears and thecogs and all that stuff.
And the idea is that if you havethem aligned you have a watch.
If you've got a missile on, youdon't have a watch.
Well, now you can imagine theintricacies of each one of these
gears in marketing because it'skind of like when you dive into
the human body and you startgoing deeper and deeper, you
(28:54):
realize that the complexity ofthe human body and the concept
of a simple cell was not there.
Well, now you can imagine thatdigging into each one of these
mediums and AI and choosing theright tools is just as complex
It's just not getting easier.
But the people that sell theproduct know you want easy, and
(29:15):
so they make it sound as thoughit's easy, and they have a
solution, which, of course, theydon't.
So that's where you're at.
And if you're frustrated withtechnology and business and all
that, this is why you're there,because you're kind of jumping
from point to point, and you'retrusting that for some reason
that tech companies arealtruistic, which absolutely
(29:38):
they are not altruistic.
They're out to make money justlike you are.
So how do you do this?
Number one is you start bybuilding goals.
If you start with goals, justlike if you were starting to
build a shed or a pond or ahouse or whatever, if you know
(30:02):
what the end goal is, then youknow the tools that more than
likely you need to use.
However, if you haven't built ahouse and someone tells you you
can do it yourself, you're goingto make a lot of mistakes.
So the idea of referring to to aprofessional is a way that you
can get around that.
But you got to find the rightprofessional because,
(30:24):
unfortunately, in this world welive in, people claim one thing
and they're definitely not that.
I mean, I've shared with youmany times where, you know,
there are courses going on rightnow where people are claiming
that someone can take a, youknow, what, a week course or a
weekend course or a six-weekcourse or whatever and then
(30:45):
become, you know, experts in webdevelopment.
You know, our team, we spendyears bringing people up to get
them to where they can domeaningful work and the work
that's produced is absolutelyamazing.
But it's not something that youcan just say, hey, go take this
weekend course and then comeback and now you have everything
(31:07):
you need to know.
Now, if you look at thecomplexity of what's going on
with the web, you're quicklyseeing that the hobbyist, the
weekend warrior, the freelanceanswer is going to get further
and further behind and the toolsthat they use to create things
with are going to be less andless effective.
So by setting goals and workingwith the right people, you can
(31:31):
isolate the tools so long as youcan resist the urge to chase the
next thing or the next salespitch or the person punching
holes in what your person who'sbuilding your plan is doing.
Your digital marketingprofessional.
(32:17):
there's also some rub.
So the rub is this.
Traditionally, creating contentthat is lengthy is something
that search engines like.
Now, when I say length, there'snot a recipe there for length,
okay?
But the idea is to, if youcreate something that's a
certain amount of content, let'sjust say hypothetically 1,200
(32:41):
words.
And that is strictlyhypothetically.
Don't mark that down assomething you should do.
But let's just say in thisparticular instance, a 1200-word
article, AI likes more succinctanswers.
It likes more directconversational answers, and it
doesn't like the lengthyanswers.
However, the lengthy answers isreally part of what we all
(33:04):
believe is still feeding thetraditional SEO model, which is
why you're seeing it transitionto GEO versus SEO.
So as you're diving through it,you know, this tangled web that
we're seeing and kind of likethis Icarus thing where we're
(33:25):
even seeing the people that, youknow, make the proverbial wings
of Icarus.
They can't even harness it.
They can't even figure it out.
I mean, they're doing such a badjob to where if they didn't have
just a complete stranglehold onthe market, they would suffer.
So you can't do that.
You can't afford to do that ifyou're a small business.
(33:46):
And if real companies customerservice is the thing that's
going to make you stand out,then maybe that's something that
you could focus on.
Hey, with us, you talk to realpeople.
By the way, that's somethingthat we focus on at Integris.
We don't think that, call mecrazy, but our clients, I just
don't believe, want to talk toan AI system.
(34:07):
Now, I could be wrong, and thetechnology could really start
moving in a more advanceddirection, but our thing is we
are those people.
So when you're working with it,and by the way, let's just side
note this, when you're lookingat a SWOT analysis, which are
(34:28):
your strengths, weaknesses,opportunities, and threats, when
you're thinking about thosethings, you know, one of your
strengths and what makes youoffset and what makes you better
than the other people is maybeyou do invest in a real company.
customer service situation.
(34:50):
And maybe you can find a marketthat's willing to pay a little
bit more so they don't have togo through the frustration of AI
systems.
Now, you could also be verydeliberate in how you use AI.
For example, some innocuousquestions, you know, like, you
know, hours of operation ormaybe quick points into the
(35:11):
right direction before you go tothe person, the real person or
things like that.
All those have been merit andthought, but they also need to
be carefully guided by someonewho doesn't just want to sell
you the tool, but wants to helpyou develop the plan.
So, as we're going through this,the challenge is to not get
(35:34):
tangled up in it.
The challenge is to realizethere's no magic bullets.
The challenge is to realize thatyou want to use everything very
strategically, and you want tohyper-focus on the expectation
of your customer while notgetting left behind by
completely ignoring technology.
(35:56):
And the best way to do that isthrough a professional.
So maybe this will help you asyou're trying to navigate those
waters and help you optimizeyour budgets and help you figure
out the best way to takeeverything we put into
consideration and then work witha professional and then avoid
the do-it-yourself systems thatare teasing you into making you
(36:19):
think that somehow you can savemoney or do this or do that.
Because remember, at the end ofthe day, the reason you're in
business is to be in business todo what you do.
You're not in business to gettied into all these nuances and
all these problems and spend allnight trying to figure all this
(36:40):
stuff out because we live it.
We have a team and we live it.
And the one thing that I cantell you is that it takes a lot
to authentically keep your handswrapped around it and not just
become part of the clangingnoise in the background that's
part of the confusion.
So I hope this helps you out.
I hope this gives you a littlebit of perspective.
(37:03):
And until next time, this is Kenwith Over the Bull.
SPEAKER_00 (37:06):
Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bull, brought to you
by Integris Design, afull-service design and
marketing agency out ofAsheville, North Carolina.
Until next time.
You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut
through marketing noise.
Here's your host, Ken Carroll.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
Are you familiar with the story of Icarus?
It's the story of where he hadthese wings fashioned from wax,
and he was basically warned notto fly too close to the sun.
And the story ends with himflying too close to the sun, and
the very thing that gave himfreedom is the very thing that
(00:30):
ultimately caused his demise.
Now, we're going to talk aboutgetting tangled up in this
episode of Over the You reallywant to stay tuned for this.
Hi, I'm Ken, and let's divestraight into the discussion.
So why I'm going to call thisepisode Tangled is that's
(00:51):
exactly what I'm sensing when itcomes to this whole idea of
artificial intelligence, smallbusinesses, what they can do to
use it, all the challenges thatthey face with it, and exactly
what to do.
Because the thing is, the righttool and the right application
can be powerful, but the righttool in the wrong instance could
(01:14):
be disastrous.
So let me start with a couple ofquotes here because I think it
will set the pace for thechallenges we're going to
discuss today.
So quote number one, manycustomers feel trapped in
endless loops with big techcompanies, AI chatbots that are
left waiting days or even weeksfor meaningful support.
(01:37):
Now, this is from customerexperienced trends of 2024.
Pull quote number two.
Working with large techcompanies can feel like shouting
into the void.
You get routed to forums orunhelpful automated responses,
and it's nearly impossible toget a real human to understand
(01:58):
your problem.
Now, this is from Global TechSupport Survey, also in 2024.
And let's go ahead and round itout with one more quote.
Sixty numbers of respondents inthe UK believe that AI chatbots
fail to pick up on emotionalcues like tone or frustration
leading to a decline in trust.
(02:20):
And this is from ServiceNowStudy 2024.
So the point is that ifbillion-dollar companies cannot
get this right on how toincorporate the AI tech, imagine
the danger that your businesscould sustain because you don't
(02:41):
have the resources, you don'thave the market control these
big companies have to make themistakes that they're making.
Now, it also shows you that ifthese very companies struggle
with how to use this technology,you can imagine that on your
scale, how to harness itappropriately could be a huge
(03:06):
challenge.
Now, for me, for example, I knowthat when I go to any kind of
chatbot system and I detect thatit's an AI mechanism, I just
typically ask for a person.
I don't want to talk to a chatsystem.
As a matter of fact, the waythat I interpret that a lot of
times is that the company that'sforcing me to do it doesn't care
(03:30):
about the customer service thatI get, and all they're worried
about is the bottom line, andthey're costing people jobs who
could probably help me out.
I also don't see a decrease inmy subscriptions.
And so I also see that they'remaking more money to boot.
So I do more of the work.
I have to do more of thefollow-ups.
(03:52):
They make the same amount ofmoney and they cut overhead from
their business.
Now, that's the way I see it.
Now, you may see things a littlebit differently, but as we
transition through this, if Ihad a choice to avoid some of
these tech companies, I wouldabsolutely do it.
But they have such astranglehold on the market, some
of them are hard to do.
Now, you as a small business,you probably don't have that
(04:17):
market share.
So for you to offer a premiumsolution for clients that is
good for them while embracingtechnology is the challenge.
So let's look at a few more ofthese situations.
I want to set this thing up alittle bit.
So here's why we can't ignoreartificial Well, first of all,
(04:41):
it's the momentum that it'spicking up is crazy.
You know, we've sharedstatistics about how popular AI
tools are getting and how peopleare circumventing a lot of the
traditional search engines infavor of things like ChatGPT.
So you want to go back and checkthat out if you've not been
(05:04):
following the podcast.
But one of those quotes is 96%Now, TechRadar 2025 put this
out.
So, as you can see, we'restarting to see the tension
(05:29):
here.
We're starting to see theentanglement of what's going on.
Let's look at this one, too.
Creators report conversion ratesas high as 98% through direct
messaging.
Okay, that's huge.
And then affiliate marketing isshifting into video-first and
social commerce experiences withplatforms like TikTok Shop and
(05:51):
Instagram Shopping driving thenext wave of success.
And again, this is TechRadar.
So the point is that artificialintelligence is not optional.
Now, the question is, how do youuse it?
Because there are multiplemechanisms that you need to
consider as you go through it.
(06:13):
Like, for example, when we startoff, we see that the
technological frustrations oftrying to go through an AI
system that typically puts youin a loop and causes frustration
and you have all these kind ofproblems.
But then on the other side, ifyou can properly harness
artificial intelligence in theright ways, then what you can do
(06:34):
is you can create a niceexperience and then you can
offer something that's a littlemore seamless when you have
smaller staffs and you have thechallenges that small businesses
have.
So the question is, is what doyou do about this?
Because if we were to reallyseriously look at what's going
(06:56):
on the internet today, we'reconstantly being, you know, just
hit with this concept that youcan do these things yourself.
And so the question is, can you?
Or are we dealing with justclever sales pitches that are
geared to make you think thatyou can do something, bypass
(07:16):
things?
Because in marketing, one of thethings that appeals to people is
being smarter than everyoneelse.
And if they think that they cansave money by doing things
themselves, then they feel thatthey've one-upped or somehow
came up with something that'ssuper clever that no one else
has thought of.
(07:37):
Now, some of this isintentional.
because they want you to thinkthat you can do that.
Now, the question is, as we'renavigating through today's
session, can you really do thatlegitimately?
And can you afford to makemistakes, especially when we
have these factors such as yourbudget that goes into the
(07:57):
equation or where you shouldspend your resources or your
business reputation?
When you start incorporating allthese factors into the mix, the
question is, can you do that?
Should you do that?
And I keep going back to theJeff Goldblum quote from
Jurassic Park, which looselyparaphrased is, you know, you
(08:18):
wondered if you could do it, butyou never stopped to think that
if you should do it.
And to me, that's becomingalmost my catchphrase for 2025.
So as we're looking at it, Iwant to kind of keep going
through a few more points, andthen I kind of want to go full
circle.
So The idea of search engineoptimization, let's flip the
(08:43):
coin and kind of put that inyour pocket, what we talked
about.
And then what I want to do is Iwant to talk about how search
engine optimization istransforming into something
called GEO, or generative engineoptimization.
So if we look at a pull quote,let's grab this one.
(09:03):
Generative engine optimization,or GEO, is the future of digital
marketing in an AI- This is fromEconomic Times 2025.
Now, this is really importantbecause a lot of you may fall
into this trap where if AI isgiving the answers and
artificial intelligence is doingall these things, well, what is
(09:26):
the value of having a website?
So TechRadar, they quickly, youknow, put that down by saying,
you know, websites still matter,but they cannot survive on their
own.
And so the idea is that, youknow, first of all, the idea of
a website standing on its own isnot realistic.
(09:48):
It's not been realistic for sometime.
A website is a home base.
It's essential for yourbusiness.
As far as I can see, it's goingto remain essential for your
business because it's going tofeed all these mechanisms that
are evolving.
Now, of course, we can't see thefuture, but for the foreseeable
(10:08):
future, this is your home base.
So do not think that you'regoing to be able to revert back
to, you know, some of the earlydays of the internet where one
of the recommendations was,well, you know, if you can't
afford to have a website, atleast have a Facebook page.
You know, those days are long inthe past and the complexity is
(10:32):
just getting more and more.
So as we move forward, let'stalk about a few other things
here Um...
So the idea is creating, one,creating content that is
valuable for, well, let me backout of this.
That's not really where I wantto go.
Where I really want to startwith this is to start with the
(10:57):
idea of taking AI, but thenusing it in the proper way, but
then also building your websitein a way that AI finds it
friendly.
And this is, believe it or not,this is really a complex And so
when you look at websites today,what goes into a website really
(11:21):
has to start dramaticallychanging.
And, you know, one of thoseterms that we talked about was
something called schema.
And so schema is a short code ornot a short code, but it's a way
to tell search engine or, youknow, AI and different things.
(11:41):
even traditional search engine,what your content is about.
So the idea is to properlyformat your pages, but also
properly structure your pages.
Because if you start to diveinto it, you start to find a lot
of nuances that have to becarefully thought through that
(12:02):
you just can't put into asystem.
And this idea of picking apretty template and then using
AI to build your content andthrow We're just seeing the
demise of that, but we're alsoseeing a lot of the companies
that provide these servicesstill flourish because they're
(12:23):
still selling the myth that thiscan be done really on the low
tech.
And what we're seeing is anavalanche of new technology, new
marketing strategies, neweverything that's burying these
services and only giving thefacilities that they need.
facade that they have theability to still function in a
(12:45):
way that's meaningful tobusinesses.
Now, the problem is, is thatthere's a lot of issues with
humans.
So the first is the herdmentality.
For example, if a bazillionwebsites or companies are using
it, then obviously it's workingfor them.
That's not true.
(13:06):
Most businesses underperform orfail.
And so the idea is to sell themsomething that is cheap and easy
is more just appealing to apsychological inclination and is
not an indicator of success.
It just says that the psychologybehind the product is working.
So when you think about it inthose terms, the herd mentality
(13:27):
is something that can reallypush you into the wrong
direction.
So as we move forward and startpushing through this, you're
going to see, hopefully, whatI'm trying to paint here as a
big picture.
So let's talk about balance, andthen let's talk about what we
(13:48):
do, and let's talk about how wehandle a budget, and let's talk
about how we build you a planthat makes sense for you.
And then as we talk about this,my ultimate goal is that you can
look at whatever resourcesyou're using and then saying,
okay, are these issueseffectively being addressed from
my current solution, or am Ijust following the herd?
(14:12):
Am I just using the sametechnology other companies are
using because that's what'sdone?
Because my big argument at theend of the day is that this is
going to become more and more ofa mistake because the tech
companies aren't even reallysure what to do.
Because keep in mind that if thehuge tech companies can't figure
(14:35):
out what to do with artificialintelligence, the smaller
vertical companies that are inor incorporating artificial
intelligence into their systemor incorporating chatbots or
whatever, they certainly aregoing to struggle with how to
use that system.
You know, the creators can't doit, so the trickle-down people
probably also cannot exactlyfigure out how to handle it.
(14:58):
Now, we also do.
I mean, let's be intellectuallyhonest here.
We also have to keep in mindthat it appears that, at least
from an tech companies don'treally care what you think.
And they're so big, they don'thave to care what you think.
And so maybe the haphazardnessof using this technology is just
(15:22):
from a fact of indifference.
I had a client talk to me justyesterday, as a matter of fact,
and he said, are there anyalternatives to Google for
advertising in his particularinstance?
And I said, no, you can'tabandon Google right now.
But there were certain things itmade him raise an eyebrow.
(15:44):
So you see that there's thatyou've got to put into this
equation too.
However, I think that we can allcome to the conclusion that if
they had it figured out and theycould easily do it and keep
people happy, they probablywould do it.
So anyway, let's talk abouthuman balance and automation.
(16:04):
So if we go to quantum metricreport in 2024, it says 42% of
consumers admit to being ruderto AI chatbots than to human
agents, largely because theydon't believe bots resolve their
issues effectively.
And this is why we need to lookat this idea, okay?
(16:25):
Do we incorporate chatbots, youknow, because that's something
that a lot of people ask.
Do we automate direct messagingin meta, you know, where people
can get more of a personalizedexperience?
Do we focus on citations so thatwhen ChatGPT is talking to
(16:50):
people about your business, dowe want that conversation to be
more relevant?
And of course, we're alltainted.
Like, for example, as I wasexploring this, I go, I hate it.
I just absolutely hate it.
When I go in there and I haveto, first of all, if I don't
know if it's a bot and I starttalking to it and I find out it
is, I feel like I've been kindof manipulated.
(17:12):
But then secondly, if I hit thebot right out of the gate, I'm
like, this is what a pain to sithere and take five minutes and
say, I don't want to talk toyou.
No, I don't want to describe myproblem to you.
No, I don't want to do that.
I just want to talk to a person.
And for me, I find thatincredibly frustrating.
But, you know, as we talkedabout in the last podcast, when
(17:33):
you talk about the differentgenerations, you start to see
different generations areaffected by different things.
Now, if the study that Ipresented last week is any
reflection on generationalinfluences.
The generations after mygeneration is going to be even
(17:55):
more sticklers about this andthis fine-tuning.
You get to the generation alphaand you find out that they're
resistant to anything that looksinauthentic, you know, which
would be, you know, manipulatingsomeone based upon what they've
been to or what what theyvisited.
So that balance is incrediblytricky.
(18:18):
And so finding out exactly whereyou should institute a chatbot
and where you should institutehuman beings, and even when you
say institute chatbots, youreally should put a question
mark there.
And I know that's kind of adramatic statement, but
depending upon your market anddepending upon the expectation,
(18:40):
you really need to be carefulhow you do this because you can
come across as being indifferentand you don't have the pull that
these big companies are gettingaway with right now.
So let's try to put all thistogether into something that you
can practically use for yourbusiness.
(19:02):
So the first thing that we cansafely say is that AI tools are
just like any other tool.
If you use them in the rightway, they can be good.
Use them in the bad way, theycan be bad.
What this should tell you isthat you don't go out and just
buy a tool because it soundslike it's going to be good,
(19:25):
because we're also trying tobalance our budgets at the same
time and make sure that oureffort is used effectively.
And so if you go out and youjust chase the latest and
greatest thing just because ithas the word AI attached to it
or a large language modelattached to it, I believe you're
making a mistake.
And the reason being is you haveto think of the grander scope,
(19:47):
your target audience, what theirexpectation is, and how you're
going to differentiate yourselffrom your competitors.
But you also don't want to missthis boat either.
Now, when it comes to buildingthe plan, the idea is that it's
getting more complicated.
(20:08):
It's not getting easier.
Like, for example, one thing Iwas exploring, to some extent, I
was exploring because I comefrom a traditional search engine
optimization background.
I've won awards on it and, youknow, historical awards, things
like that.
And so part of me was going, howdoes that change?
(20:32):
So I'll give you one of thethoughts that I was debating.
And that is typically when youdo search engine optimization,
What you do is you pick targetkeywords for each page, and each
page should have its own uniquetarget keyword, and then it
should have its unique titletag, unique, you know, whatever
may have you.
(20:53):
And the idea is you want to kindof create that content that's
all centric around thatinformation.
And the more you do that,typically the more that search
engines understand what thosepages are about, and then if you
follow best EEAT practices, thena lot of times that is a, well,
it is a big contributor in yourvisibility, which is huge.
(21:18):
Now, when you move to the ideaof artificial intelligence, it's
a little bit different becausethe idea is that it's more
conversational language.
So first, we got to get intoconversational language,
authentic language, andexpertise.
So those are things that arereally non-negotiable when
you're creating content.
(21:39):
So you can imagine a letting AIcreate robotic content that can
be detected by AI tools thatit's AI content.
You can imagine the problem thatyou would have if your search
engine optimization guy is justrunning through and cranking out
articles using ChatGPT or Grokor some of these other tools.
(22:03):
I believe there's going to be abacklash, and I think we're
already kind of seeing that withsome of the stuff going on with
YouTube.
And so So the idea is whenyou're going through and you're
trying to put together the gameplan.
So the new question is not onlythe content of conversation, but
(22:23):
also there's the question of howdo you lay out that content?
Because is it more important tolay out services on the homepage
and then have direct links?
Should we go back to puttingsitemaps in the footer of the
website to give quicker cues tolarge language models, AI stuff,
(22:46):
for GAIO, Google ArtificialIntelligence, et cetera, et
cetera.
And then the question becomestesting that out, and then how
should that lay out on a page?
Because if you start to lay outyour services in a different
fashion on the homepage of thewebsite to more accommodate AI,
(23:08):
then you're kind of pushingagain And to kind of navigate
those waters and find thosehappy spots without doing some
of the things which are quicklybecoming, you know, more and
more antiquated.
(23:28):
Like, for example, putting allthe cities you serve in the
footer of the website, you know,things that SEO people are still
doing because they traditionallywork as we're transitioning to
this brave new world.
world of AI, the question is, iswhat do you do?
How do you test it?
And what are those metrics thatwe're trying to target?
(23:50):
The other thing is, as I, youknow, as I've shared, I will, I
will definitely work with ChadGPT, talk to it, get information
that helps me make decisions.
Like, for example, I'm gettingready to look into build a pond.
It's just, I'm the a hobbyist.
(24:11):
I like working out in the yardand stuff.
And so I am referring to it.
But if I were to go to a storethat offers pond supplies for
building and I confronted AI inthat environment, I would be
very resistant to that.
But I'm very open to the idea ofdiscussing it on ChatGPT.
(24:31):
Now, the psychology behind that,honestly, I really don't know.
Maybe I have differentexpectations the more I get
closer to that point ofpurchase.
Maybe I want to transition froma bot experience to a human
experience, and one location isacceptable and another one is
not.
(24:51):
Now, that could also just be me.
So the idea is if I was yourcustomer, and I did all my
homework on chat GPT, and thenI'm ready to make a decision,
and then I hit another bot, andI have to start from the ground
up, and then I had thefrustration to get a call from a
person, you may have just lostme.
(25:12):
So you can kind of see thosemovements.
And then from a websiteperspective, let's take that
same pond company and let's justsay, let's talk about a pump
where you're going to pump waterup to a waterfall and then have
it kind of cycle through theartificial pond.
If you were to take that onestep further and I'm talking
(25:33):
about a pump and I'm asking ChadGPT about that and then you own
the pond store The question is,if I'm asking specifically about
pumps and pumps is on, you know,buried somewhere on your website
to where it looks like it's notas important to your company,
will ChatGPT more than likelynot refer to you on the pump
(25:57):
conversation, but maybe in moregeneral pool conversation?
So you can kind of see that thegymnastics to get around and set
up the website and then use theproper schema and setup and all
those things in the mix, you canimagine just the sheer
(26:17):
complexity of it.
So one of the things that Icompared this to a couple weeks
ago was in Meta.
One of the quotes I pulled wasto the equivalent that Meta is
going to equalize the playingfield for small businesses and
big businesses with their newmarketing approach using AI and
(26:40):
at the end of 2026.
And the idea is that that soundsreally good, but all that does
is just raise the floor.
It doesn't bring down theceiling.
All it does is say, now you'vegot to understand this level of
technology in order to evenplay, because that's the new
(27:02):
ground.
That's not the new ceiling.
And so the people that absorbthat new baseline and then are
able to use that and then dobetter from that point up, you
can imagine we'll do better.
And you can also imagine thosethat don't embrace that new
baseline are going to be belowthe baseline.
(27:22):
They'll be on the floor and notbeing able to even get to the
same point.
And of course, big businesseshave bigger budgets and that's
always going to be part of thiswhole equation.
And so how does a business likeyours go about it.
Well, if you could imagine notbeing able to address this and
(27:47):
not being able to reallyunderstand it, you can imagine
that with all of the inundationof the junk spammy emails, all
the people promising thatthey've got the best solutions
in the entire world, all thisnoise that goes on that just
makes you think that what'sgoing on, if you just start
chasing this stuff and puttingmoney to it, and then at the
(28:10):
same time hurting your businessreputation, you could imagine
the disastrous results thatcould happen from trying to
chase it without that directionin place.
And then, you know, one thingthat when I've always taught
people about marketing today, Iuse the example of an old watch,
(28:33):
you know, with the gears and thecogs and all that stuff.
And the idea is that if you havethem aligned you have a watch.
If you've got a missile on, youdon't have a watch.
Well, now you can imagine theintricacies of each one of these
gears in marketing because it'skind of like when you dive into
the human body and you startgoing deeper and deeper, you
(28:54):
realize that the complexity ofthe human body and the concept
of a simple cell was not there.
Well, now you can imagine thatdigging into each one of these
mediums and AI and choosing theright tools is just as complex
It's just not getting easier.
But the people that sell theproduct know you want easy, and
(29:15):
so they make it sound as thoughit's easy, and they have a
solution, which, of course, theydon't.
So that's where you're at.
And if you're frustrated withtechnology and business and all
that, this is why you're there,because you're kind of jumping
from point to point, and you'retrusting that for some reason
that tech companies arealtruistic, which absolutely
(29:38):
they are not altruistic.
They're out to make money justlike you are.
So how do you do this?
Number one is you start bybuilding goals.
If you start with goals, justlike if you were starting to
build a shed or a pond or ahouse or whatever, if you know
(30:02):
what the end goal is, then youknow the tools that more than
likely you need to use.
However, if you haven't built ahouse and someone tells you you
can do it yourself, you're goingto make a lot of mistakes.
So the idea of referring to to aprofessional is a way that you
can get around that.
But you got to find the rightprofessional because,
(30:24):
unfortunately, in this world welive in, people claim one thing
and they're definitely not that.
I mean, I've shared with youmany times where, you know,
there are courses going on rightnow where people are claiming
that someone can take a, youknow, what, a week course or a
weekend course or a six-weekcourse or whatever and then
(30:45):
become, you know, experts in webdevelopment.
You know, our team, we spendyears bringing people up to get
them to where they can domeaningful work and the work
that's produced is absolutelyamazing.
But it's not something that youcan just say, hey, go take this
weekend course and then comeback and now you have everything
(31:07):
you need to know.
Now, if you look at thecomplexity of what's going on
with the web, you're quicklyseeing that the hobbyist, the
weekend warrior, the freelanceanswer is going to get further
and further behind and the toolsthat they use to create things
with are going to be less andless effective.
So by setting goals and workingwith the right people, you can
(31:31):
isolate the tools so long as youcan resist the urge to chase the
next thing or the next salespitch or the person punching
holes in what your person who'sbuilding your plan is doing.
Your digital marketingprofessional.
(32:17):
there's also some rub.
So the rub is this.
Traditionally, creating contentthat is lengthy is something
that search engines like.
Now, when I say length, there'snot a recipe there for length,
okay?
But the idea is to, if youcreate something that's a
certain amount of content, let'sjust say hypothetically 1,200
(32:41):
words.
And that is strictlyhypothetically.
Don't mark that down assomething you should do.
But let's just say in thisparticular instance, a 1200-word
article, AI likes more succinctanswers.
It likes more directconversational answers, and it
doesn't like the lengthyanswers.
However, the lengthy answers isreally part of what we all
(33:04):
believe is still feeding thetraditional SEO model, which is
why you're seeing it transitionto GEO versus SEO.
So as you're diving through it,you know, this tangled web that
we're seeing and kind of likethis Icarus thing where we're
(33:25):
even seeing the people that, youknow, make the proverbial wings
of Icarus.
They can't even harness it.
They can't even figure it out.
I mean, they're doing such a badjob to where if they didn't have
just a complete stranglehold onthe market, they would suffer.
So you can't do that.
You can't afford to do that ifyou're a small business.
(33:46):
And if real companies customerservice is the thing that's
going to make you stand out,then maybe that's something that
you could focus on.
Hey, with us, you talk to realpeople.
By the way, that's somethingthat we focus on at Integris.
We don't think that, call mecrazy, but our clients, I just
don't believe, want to talk toan AI system.
(34:07):
Now, I could be wrong, and thetechnology could really start
moving in a more advanceddirection, but our thing is we
are those people.
So when you're working with it,and by the way, let's just side
note this, when you're lookingat a SWOT analysis, which are
(34:28):
your strengths, weaknesses,opportunities, and threats, when
you're thinking about thosethings, you know, one of your
strengths and what makes youoffset and what makes you better
than the other people is maybeyou do invest in a real company.
customer service situation.
(34:50):
And maybe you can find a marketthat's willing to pay a little
bit more so they don't have togo through the frustration of AI
systems.
Now, you could also be verydeliberate in how you use AI.
For example, some innocuousquestions, you know, like, you
know, hours of operation ormaybe quick points into the
(35:11):
right direction before you go tothe person, the real person or
things like that.
All those have been merit andthought, but they also need to
be carefully guided by someonewho doesn't just want to sell
you the tool, but wants to helpyou develop the plan.
So, as we're going through this,the challenge is to not get
(35:34):
tangled up in it.
The challenge is to realizethere's no magic bullets.
The challenge is to realize thatyou want to use everything very
strategically, and you want tohyper-focus on the expectation
of your customer while notgetting left behind by
completely ignoring technology.
(35:56):
And the best way to do that isthrough a professional.
So maybe this will help you asyou're trying to navigate those
waters and help you optimizeyour budgets and help you figure
out the best way to takeeverything we put into
consideration and then work witha professional and then avoid
the do-it-yourself systems thatare teasing you into making you
(36:19):
think that somehow you can savemoney or do this or do that.
Because remember, at the end ofthe day, the reason you're in
business is to be in business todo what you do.
You're not in business to gettied into all these nuances and
all these problems and spend allnight trying to figure all this
(36:40):
stuff out because we live it.
We have a team and we live it.
And the one thing that I cantell you is that it takes a lot
to authentically keep your handswrapped around it and not just
become part of the clangingnoise in the background that's
part of the confusion.
So I hope this helps you out.
I hope this gives you a littlebit of perspective.
(37:03):
And until next time, this is Kenwith Over the Bull.
SPEAKER_00 (37:06):
Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bull, brought to you
by Integris Design, afull-service design and
marketing agency out ofAsheville, North Carolina.
Until next time.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.