00:00 cody
What I believe will actually happen is that small and medium-sized businesses will become very smart about using AI in their business because they don’t have the same guardrails that many large companies have. So I’m very bullish on small businesses in the AI era, and I think you should be too.
00:20 Speaker B
So, if you’re running a small business, Cody, it’s a roofing company, a laundromat, a plumber. How do you think AI should be used today? What are some smart tools and tricks? How should you incorporate this into your business?
00:44 cody
Yeah, what I’m more worried about right now is what happens if you’re using AI and you’re doing what every tech CEO told us to do five minutes ago, which is spend as many tokens as possible. And the person who spent the most tokens, well, they are the most intelligent in the industry and are actually worth more. It was stupid then, and it’s stupid now. If you’re a small business and are using AI, you need to make sure you’re getting an ROI for every dollar you spend on AI. I think there’s a lot of so-called slop use of AI going on. At my small business, I’m looking to see if I can create reports more cheaply and without human intervention. Could you actually use AI to help you sell or respond to customers faster with a quick takedown system? This is actually the number one reason people choose small businesses. Not the cheapest. We are not looking for the cheapest handyman. Who will answer me back and be on time? I think that will be the difference going forward.
01:52 Speaker B
Cody, are there certain types of businesses that you think are resistant to AI, or even if not resistant to AI, that are less likely to be disrupted by AI in the next few years?
02:08 cody
Well, in a place called the boardroom, we analyze thousands of small and medium-sized businesses and help them grow. And you can actually see who is growing despite the AI intervention. And please tell me who it is. And in the boardroom, we see our average portfolio company growing about 25% every quarter. So what are the main businesses? Home services, professional services, HVAC, landscaping, handyman business, etc. One of the big businesses is actually a chain of restaurants. I don’t know about you, but I think it will be a while before robots actually make all the food, serve it to us, and show up in restaurants. This is actually a very high capital investment, so I don’t think it will happen anytime soon.
