She's Busy AF

EP 136 | How to Integrate AI into Operations & Revolutionize Business Efficiency with Weston Ferguson

• Lauren Loreto

Share episode

We've talked up and down about how to use AI in marketing, but what about to create more efficiencies in overall business operations? On this episode of She's Busy AF, Lauren brought on Weston Ferguson, COO of McGraw (a growth agency), to dissect the role of AI in reshaping business operations. They chat about how AI tools like ChatGPT are not only simplifying HR processes but also fostering a climate of innovation and efficiency that amplifies human talent rather than replacing it. They chat about the delicate balance between technology and the human touch, exchange stories and strategies for conducting tech stack assessments, and reflect on the sobering responsibilities of data management, ensuring client trust remains unshaken.


Find Weston online:

  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/westonferguson/


Find Lauren Loreto online:


Timestamps:

  • Common Misconceptions about AI in the Workplace (00:04:16) 
  • Role of Operations and AI Integration (00:06:29) 
  • Impact of AI on Productivity and Performance & Its Challenges (00:09:39) 
  • AI Implementation Examples (00:16:06)
  • Ethical Considerations and Data Privacy (00:18:32) 
  • Selecting AI Tools for Business (00:20:30)
  • Ethical considerations in AI usage (00:31:29) 
  • Accessibility of AI tools (00:36:03) 
Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of she's Busy AF, a podcast dedicated to founders, creatives and their teams to help them smash barriers and scale. I'm your host, lauren Loretto, founder of Bare Good Time, a dynamic marketing agency focused on content marketing and web design and development. Today's episode is all about operational excellence. You know how much I love this topic, because we believe operations have to be in order for marketing and brand growth to really do their best work. I decided to bring Weston Ferguson on the podcast today to talk about how she's incorporated AI into operations at the place where she works and the incredible impacts it has had for them. So Weston is a COO who has a passion for operational excellence, to scale the business from vision to victory, and she's always exhibited an innate interest in internal business development structure and strategy. She harmonizes multifunctional teams, she goes above and beyond to surpass targets and establish new performance records, and her drive to make a meaningful impact has been ingrained in her from a young age and she continues to propel forward with that drive today. So she is an executive at her company called McGraw, and she is fully devoted to fostering growth and enhancing profitability within her organization. Where she sits currently, she's not only excelling at managing their existing responsibilities, but taking on strategic duty of overseeing and refining revenue-generating initiatives throughout the company.

Speaker 1:

We had very interesting conversation around AI and how. I mean. Obviously, this whole conversation is around AI and how to incorporate AI to achieve operational excellence, and I'm going to give you a little bit of a tidbit of one thing I really was mind-blown about, which is using chatGVT as an HR tool. And that's all I'm going to give you, because you really need to tune into this episode. It's accessible to businesses of all sizes and can really again help push businesses forward.

Speaker 1:

So I really wanted to bring Weston on the podcast because she has this more corporate seat in the world. But I think there's a lot that we can learn from larger organizations and how to achieve operational excellence and achieve excellence as a whole. So tune into this episode. You're going to love this conversation. Here we go. Hey, weston, welcome to the podcast. Hey, thank you, lauren, for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, I think you are my first non-founder on the podcast, so someone who works at you know more of a corporate and more of a corporate environment. So I'm really excited of this conversation because it's not often that we get this insight.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm super excited to be here, just happy to kind of be in the executive table, so glad to share my experience.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I find your background really interesting, but what is something about your professional bio that we like? What is something that's not in your professional bio that we need to know about you?

Speaker 2:

So I like to dabble in my off time as a certified travel agent and I really actually created it, got my certification specifically to help myself, not even that many other people, I just love to travel personally. So I got my certification so I can kind of know the ins and outs of the business and it has helped me travel the world. So I speak multiple languages and I backpack through Europe and I've kind of gone all around. So it's just a little fun factoid.

Speaker 1:

That is so cool. I love that. I love that. I love when you have something you do and you're passionate about and then you find a way to monetize it but also leverage it. Yeah, that's so cool, awesome. Well, I kind of want to dive right into it with you. We're here to talk today about AI and what AI can do for a business, more specifically, in operations, and then how that bleeds into the rest of a company. So, before we even really get into that hardcore of a discussion, what are some common misconceptions around AI in general?

Speaker 2:

I think it's such a hot topic right now.

Speaker 2:

I think the biggest thing that people really think of and what people are most nervous about is job security, and I think AI is one of those things that you know.

Speaker 2:

It's kind of like the cloud, it's like in the air. People don't really know if they have access to it on a small scale or a large scale, and there's just general widespread fear that AI is going to be here to take your job. And you know, for me that's something that I wholeheartedly disagree with, because I feel like the guy who is scared that he's going to lose his job to AI is not the guy who is going in and using it to its best ability, and so, instead of losing your job to the technology, you may be losing it to the next person who's utilizing it to a better degree. So I think understanding how to really capitalize on using the actual software and the programs inside of your business will kind of, you know, make sure that you're not going to be that next person who may lose your job, because it's not the technology, it's your utilization of it.

Speaker 1:

Essentially, yeah, oh yeah, 100%. We're seeing that. You know, it's like I run a marketing agency and we're seeing that, even against our competitors. We're seeing that, like our competitors and we're trying to implement this now too, we're able to kind of do more for our clients, and do more definitely equates to let's just call it like a more cost effective way to work with other brands. So if we're able to like hyperspeed the content we're creating utilizing AI, but obviously monitoring it it's not things ever really copy paste in terms of creation content creation we're able to do more, create more visibility, see more results and like the companies who are so anti that we're starting to see like they're the ones falling behind. So it's just so. I mean, it's interesting what the implications are to like jobs in the way that people thought, like the opposite of the way that people thought. People thought it'd take away jobs, but really it's. It's pushing non efficient workers down and out.

Speaker 2:

Right, Absolutely so the increased efficiency levels. That really is going to set you apart from your competition, just like you said, and it's just really important to kind of to grab a handle on that and start using it within your own business so you can avoid avoid losing out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, totally Okay. So you sit in this role of operations. What does that entail for you? What do you like? What do you manage on a day to day basis?

Speaker 2:

So I really just I manage the revenue generating functions of our business. I review our channels, I make sure that not only our marketing department but our sales department is working cohesively, that our processes are in place so that no matter who steps out of whatever role that they're a part of, somebody else is able to come into it seamlessly and make sure that they understand our core values, they understand their mission and their role and they really just step into that role very successfully. So making sure that we are profitable, making sure that we are in alignment and that we're just making sure that we all feel like the wheel is turning in the right direction, yeah, so, okay.

Speaker 1:

So, in conjunction with AI, how have you integrated artificial intelligence into your role to help you with all of these things?

Speaker 2:

It's such a huge factor into what we do on a daily basis at this point.

Speaker 2:

There's so many things that we have brought into our business and actually created for ourselves using chat, GPT and its integration availability that we see it on a daily basis.

Speaker 2:

So I mean everything from that improved efficiency that we were talking about, being able to create more output for our marketing departments, increasing email campaign speed and copy creation and increasing the visualization and concepts of ideas so really pushing that efficiency forward. Other things that we also do we are an in-house data company, so we curate data for ourselves, but we also use the AI in conjunction to be able to analyze that at a really rapid pace. So not only can we use the artificial intelligence to pull the data for our customers and when we're using our platform to be able to deliver files and data for our customers, but we're able to analyze it at a really deep degree and make sure that we're not removing the human error of pulling data inefficiently and ineffectively, but also being able to analyze it on a daily basis and create reporting for it. I mean there's so much I could go into in terms of cost reduction and enhanced customer service. You just tell me when to stop, because we've got so much that we do on a daily basis.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm really interested in how it's influenced productivity and overall company performance, so feel free pick some examples. What are some hardcore, easy to digest, tangible examples of how this has impacted performance?

Speaker 2:

I think one of the biggest things that we really did to impact our employee performance on a day-to-day basis is actually using the integration tool from ChatGPT, like I mentioned, and we actually created an internal ChatGPT that we use, so that we call McGraw GPT, and what we've done is enhanced that space with all of our corporate documents.

Speaker 2:

So, whether that's all of our standard operating procedures, our core values, our mission, our statement, everything that has to do with us, and we use that as an onboarding tool for our employees. So if they have questions about what we do as a business, the AI has already trained into every part of our business, every department. They're able to ask it questions as if you're just asking the cloud. You know who is McGraw, what can I access? I need help with this sales document, what does this process look like? And so that's just one tool that we've used to increase that onboarding efficiency and it's really been incredible. I feel like the employees have responded really well to it and they're able to feel like they have a much deeper understanding of our business than just kind of asking either they're superior when they have time or their coworker at the desk next to them.

Speaker 1:

Is there a mainstream tool that exists that can integrate and aggregate all of this data? Because that is, I'm like my jaw dropped, like that's brilliant, that I just could see how that can alleviate so many questions among the team expedite onboarding Are there any challenges that well, first of all, tell me, are there other tools? Or like, do I have to go hire someone to create something like this?

Speaker 2:

There are free tools. I will say we have a. Our chief technology officer is really well-adapt at this technology so he was able to transform. It's just the open AI integration tools that chat GPT already has, so you can create them. You can create it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah it is totally possible without having to hire a company like us to do that for you. But yeah, it's incredible. I really think that the availability of information has made the onboarding process speed up by at least double, because they're able to sit there and ask questions when they're watching a video, or they're watching or they're reading through their binder, you know, and something comes immediately. Instead of slacking it to that next person, they're just asking that chat GPT, and it's spitting an answer out right to them. I mean, it helps to like really solidify not just our core values but exactly what that role is, and I think on my end as an operations director, like having that alignment from the team is critical.

Speaker 1:

Have you okay. So here's where my mind goes, and again it's like it's so funny, you start to age yourself really quickly when, like, new technologies come into play and you start to question them, you know. So it's like when tick tock came out, I'm not getting on tick tock like that's next thing. You know. You're on tick tock, you're like I love this. So I mean right. So my mind immediately goes to like do we lose a human element here and does the team feel potentially less supported, or is does it impact culture in any way to have to kind of point everyone to a tool and like how do you combat that? Like, is that a challenge that you guys face?

Speaker 2:

I. So me and me personally I alignment is something that is so incredibly important to me. I recently just finished a book from his name is Vern Harnish. It's called mastering the Rockefeller habits and it is something that I've incorporated on a daily basis, where we do morning huddles and at 1030 in the morning we spend 15 minutes a day, or 15 minutes a day every morning, touching base with top priorities, top top losses and anything that people need help with. So, whether you're brand new in the company or whether you're tenured, this morning huddle I feel like alleviates kind of that, that human, non human element, because if they come in and they're, they're either confused about a process or they are maybe not. I would stop feeling isolated, I suppose, but that human element is removed. I feel like it brings everybody back together again. So I don't think that that AI should remove any sort of touch base and touch points with your, your employees, on daily or weekly basis. I just think it helps to enhance the understanding.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because at the end of the day, what it sounds like to me is they use this tool to onboard and then people have it as a resource they don't have to like. Well, I mean, there's so many like I'm thinking back to, like my corporate environment and how, if I had a tool like that, I probably would have felt really like a lot less stupid going and asking questions when I could have like just had a tool that would help me with that. Definitely.

Speaker 2:

And on top of that too, it's not just for onboarding as well. We've created a separate tool for, like the marketing department, for example that you're able to upload your marketing copy and then they they're able to bounce that ideas back and forth between the AI and really just like the overall efficiency level with that personalized tool for your company is it's incredible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so after the onboarding process, it's not to say that, like you're still just only dealing with AI, like obviously, like you're you're, you're onboarding much more quickly and efficiently and can start diving into working with the team right away 100%, yeah, and it's just like you're picking up much quicker and feeling much more part of that team than I feel like before. Are there any challenges you guys faced in implementing something like this?

Speaker 2:

I think adoption in general is hard, especially with employees who wouldn't necessarily think to turn to the computer and ask it a question. I would say people from a little bit older than maybe you or I generation. It's not the first thing you think of. Maybe the first thing that they think of is turning to your binder and searching for those questions or going and asking the person next to you. And I think that just helping them understand by creating the tool, keeping it, showing them how to use it in their bookmark tabs on their screen or downloading it as like a shortcut in their desktop, it's just that adoption, I think, was a little bit of the harder piece. But once it was in place and they saw the value, I think you understand what it could do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's so cool. Are there any other examples of AI implementation outside of this tool that you've created that you guys utilize in the business?

Speaker 2:

One of the most important things for us. We did not create it. It is a tool called Fireflies, and it's actually a free tool. This is probably one of the most important pieces of our business as well, so it's an automatic note taker.

Speaker 2:

So, essentially, when you sign up for it, it joins your calls automatically. You don't have to kind of bring it in, it does it automatically because it's connected to your calendar and it becomes your note taking tool. So, no matter who it is whether it's the sales department, whether it's the fulfillment team or leadership it's able to create those notes for you, consolidate it. It actually has the ability to send out an action plan after your call.

Speaker 2:

It's becoming a little bit more widespread, but it was one of the first tools that we used in the AI space. That I felt created incredible alignment between departments and especially as a leadership team, to be able to monitor our sales team what wins, losses of that, of their conversations, as well as for the fulfillment team. We also saw a huge need because creative spaces and creative agencies run into issues where maybe a client misheard a deliverable or maybe a client thought that there was something promised that originally wasn't, and so there's a time that you need to access those tools. So being able to pull directly from the transcriptions, being able to search within the tool to find specific comments, specific sentences, it's extremely helpful.

Speaker 1:

Oh my God we've. So we used to order AI for a while. We backed off of it now because we just well, a couple reasons, but I mean it's an incredible tool Like, I think, fathoms another one, there's a couple tools like that that will do that take the meeting notes and then distribute and also create like summaries, and, oh my gosh, it has saved us a lot. Like we've maybe not taken notes on something, and three of us been on a call, and and then someone two weeks later is like so what did the client decide they wanted to do here? And then you're able to go back and search a transcription or search like a tool like that. It's so incredible. So with that though, you know, I think the skeptics out there are like data privacy, where's this being stored? So, like, how do you navigate the balance between, like maximizing the benefits, but also like addressing the privacy and security, and like ethical consideration side?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day it is. It is a concern and I completely understand that. I think that by respecting not only the privacy of our executive team but our clients and customers, and requesting permission to be able to to use these tools, I think is really important because you can't just automatically assume people will will fully support that. I think also, being able to ensure that your, your, your compliance is is in place, you have the tools to protect not only your data but also the data of your clients. Our chief technology officer is very, a very well informed person when it comes to creating the privacy around our data and our clients. So, at the end of the day, do we have necessarily control over what's being put into chat? You know we don't, but there's only. You know you have to do what you absolutely can by creating your own compliancy around that, writing your own standard operating procedures on dealing with that customer's data once it's in your hands.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, yeah, totally yeah. We have a whole like ethical AI policy in our handbook and kind of outlines like because it can be, it can be a really blurry line, especially as you onboard employees or even clients who aren't super familiar with AI. It can be really blurry on how much or how little to use the tools for, you know, security and just ethical practices. It's wild. Okay, so there's like a million tools, a million AI tools, and it's really funny too, because when I'm explaining AI to people, sometimes you like, okay, like, what tools should I be using? I'm like, have you ever used Grammarly? Like that one's been around for years, years and that's that's. That was like early stage AI.

Speaker 1:

I feel like, so, when it comes to looking into tools like, what advice do you have for brands, business owners, operations, execs for? Because it's a lot to sift through. There's so many tools. I find myself in the position, like those, there's different tools for podcasting and, like you know, parsing out content from a podcast and it's really hard to cut through the noise of like what is the best tool without getting a demo, and then next thing you know my emails like swarmed. So what advice do you have for brands who are looking to pick specific AI tools for their company.

Speaker 2:

I think the first thing that you should always do which is what we struggle with too, because I totally understand what you mean you get excited about a piece of software and you're like, oh my gosh, that could be amazing. Let me just implement that right now, and then you're by the end of the quarter. Your tech stack is massive and actually most likely unnecessary, and I feel like that tech stack management is one of the most important things when getting started with understanding. Do I even need this piece of content? Have you reviewed, have you sat down with your technology whether it's your IT department or your CTO on a quarterly basis and reviewed what new tools the existing technology that you have in your business offers? Because I feel like people also don't realize how many native pieces of AI technology are now being offered within your platforms. Just as an example, you have HubSpot. Hubspot came out with its own AI tool called ChatSpot, and so we're HubSpot solution partners and we help implement that in other people's instances, and without knowing that, hey, chatspot, which is HubSpot's tool, now can build reports for you, it can do the personalization, it can automatically send text out, those things. If you didn't already review what those new features and the technology that you currently have in your business. You could be getting an unnecessary AI tool that you, all of a sudden, you're now using 15 different pieces of technology, when you really could have taken a little step back and said what do I currently have, what new features are available and what I do have, but let's just say after that you do go down the line to select more.

Speaker 2:

I think starting with their data privacy policy is really important, just like we were talking about what is their ethical code and what they do with their customers' data. That is really important. Are you implementing something in your business that they could turn around and resell your customers' data? That's something that is incredibly important. So that's one of the first things that I think I would look at. And then, second, does it align with our values and does it remove or enhance the human air within our business? I think that's kind of really the two things that it boils down to. Is it necessary?

Speaker 1:

That's really, really awesome insights. I love what you talked about with the quarterly assessment of the tech stack. I feel like it's so funny. It ties in hand-in-hand with us. I'm reviewing our monthly reports bookkeeping and finance reports and I'm always looking at software and subscriptions and I'm like how are we in over a thousand a month in software and subscriptions? And it's something I look at quarterly.

Speaker 1:

I've worked with someone in the past too, a platform efficiency audit Someone did for me and was like hey, here are all these tools, maybe check this one is cheaper or this one has these three things right here, these other three tools right here. This one tool is capable of handling. So I think that's so important, I mean from not only a cost perspective, but like an efficiency perspective. And then I also love that you took that a step further and you're like but also, what are their data privacy? Like, what is the data privacy policy? That is so huge and I think that's a big thing.

Speaker 1:

I mean, think about when Facebook came out. I don't know if you remember this you probably do but my parents were like you are not allowed on social platforms, like no Facebook, no Myspace, like none of those things. I never got to enjoy it, right, because they didn't know a lot about it at the time. There were a ton of online predators, and I don't really think AI is that different. I think that people, I think tools like this become available to us AI, social platforms, whatever and we're not sitting and questioning what is happening with the data and who has access to this information, and so I think bad things come when that happens.

Speaker 1:

And then you see TikToks, like did you remember the? Oh my gosh, what was the? It was like a reel that was going around on Instagram for a while. That was like hey, did you know? Like TikTok latest update tracks or goes into your phone and is like and then there was the whole like China gate of it all where they were like oh, they're stealing your data and like they can take anything off your phone because you've agreed to have the app there. So, yeah, I just think that consumer advisory right, like you have to be so careful and make sure you're reading the fine print, which no one wants to do, but can save lawsuits and headaches. It absolutely can.

Speaker 2:

And our company was created as a data company back in 2009. So understanding data consent is something that has been ingrained in us since before this whole explosion of AI. I would say so.

Speaker 2:

The way that we carefully protect that is just almost a pillar of our business, and I think that now that it is becoming a trend, people need to reevaluate how they are handling their data, their customers data, on a deeper degree. And I also think it's really interesting too. I don't know if you've seen the sales force ads that are going out right now with Matthew McConaughey.

Speaker 1:

I have they're so good.

Speaker 2:

Data is the new gold and I love that concept. I think that there's a lot to a lot to pack in there, but it is, it really is. It's like it's like the wild west now, so anybody can do anything with it. There's no, you know, there's no compliancy. There's very little compliancy that surrounds it. So for knowing where you stand and where your company stands on that topic is is going to be very important in the future, in my opinion.

Speaker 1:

That ad with Matthew McConaughey. I remember seeing that and like I don't look up for ads at all because they're mostly TV and they're mostly like car, auto, whatever. And that one I was like, okay, first of all, like, go, sales force, Good for you for tapping into this topic. That's like you know. No one's really talking about it yet. Number two Matthew McConaughey score. Number three Wild West. If you haven't seen the ad and you're listening to this, go look it up. Just sales force, Matthew McConaughey ad. It is the wild, like it's. It's him walking down, like whatever, the middle of a road in the wild west and it's yeah, it's, it is the wild west. It is really crazy, I think you know. Going back to your point about consent and just making sure clients know, I'd love to talk about that for a second too.

Speaker 1:

I recently we off boarded a client last October who had hired a web agency for their brand to redo their website and then manage it and then, within that, she signed on to blog like blog content creation, and she did not realize until a couple months end that they were using AI to write the blogs and but but she was, she was really pissed off about it because she was like the you know the blog content is she. She said she copy and pasted it and put it into like an AI detector tool and it came back like a hundred percent AI written or whatever. But what prompted her to do that is that it wasn't in the voice and tone of the brand. We had formerly been blogging for them and so I was like, well, you know, you were working with us humans to blog and we understand your voice and tone. We developed your guidelines, and then you're working with a brand who doesn't really know you. So, first of all, yeah, like you're going to question probably the first couple pieces of content, and then, at the same time, you're just realizing there's not a lot of shift and change in this. It doesn't feel original.

Speaker 1:

And so that led her to looking it up and I'm not sure what was true or not, but she was led to believe that, like she was, she was not aware or nor was it anywhere in her contract. So she reached out to the brand and said or the company, and was like I can tell you're using AI. Like this is completely unacceptable. I wasn't aware of this. And they were like, yeah, as of this new plan that you signed into. That's what we use, but it wasn't in fine print, it wasn't in the contract and it really burned a bridge for this client. So you know, like, have you guys run into any issues with clients who are not okay with it? And yeah, really, what advice do you have for sharing with clients or, like even contractually, like working this in and making it so it's extremely transparent? Like, what about your services handle AI for clients and, like, what doesn't?

Speaker 2:

That is such a huge topic in our office because we used to also outsource some of our SEO tools and some of our other tools, and I feel like we actually ended a relationship with somebody because of that exact reason. And I think it's really interesting because it absolutely needs to be inside of your contract if your entire job is actually being done by an AI. Not number one, because why am I paying for that when I could do it? Number two, you need the human component, and so I felt we felt a little. We felt exactly the way she felt, and so I think that absolutely those things not only should be spelled out for you, but I think it's also the responsibility of the person who's hiring the company to maybe ask those questions. Now, because of the fact that we know copy is so easy to get. You know me personally, I can tell when things are written by AI at this point because I'm so involved like it's the same structure of sentences, the same tone of voice.

Speaker 1:

And so unlock a level unleash.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it's the same. It's the same like intros to sentences. So maybe my eye is trained enough so that I can notice these things quickly and then I can tell okay, this company is using AI. I don't take them as seriously, but that doesn't mean that it we. Even though we use AI so inherently in our business, we that doesn't mean that it takes away that human element, and I would never want to provide my client with something that you can run through a detector, because that exists now and all of a sudden it's that it's an entire, it's entirely written by a robot.

Speaker 2:

I don't love that. I think that it should be spelled out if you are going to use it, especially if we can say you know and I feel like we're very transparent with our clients saying our concepts could be driven, where we can bounce ideas back and forth with the actual software, but that doesn't mean that it should be written by it at all. And I think it's not only the responsibility of the provider to tell you that they're going to be using that software to create what they're doing, but it's also, I think, now our responsibility as operations or as an owner to say I'd like to understand your process. Do you guys use AI tools to create or to write and if you do, what is the degree in which you and which you produce it and give it back to us? Is it 100%? Is it 50%? Is it concept driven? Please describe that.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Yeah, I mean. Part of that too is like we have to know and understand that AI is working off existing information. It's not pulling, it doesn't have the ability to be innovative in a sense, you know, like it's not pulling ideas no one's ever heard of before, it's pulling from all the ideas across the internet, right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so with that, like it's just how you want to ethically work that into what you do. So we're just transparent with clients that hey, we're going to take that podcast episode of yours, we're going to put it through a tool that's going to give us headline suggestions, show notes, whatever, and then we're going to take that and adapt that to your brand voice and tone manually. That's how we, that's how we use it in our business. And, oh my gosh, like if we didn't have that tool, I would not be furthering our SEO content on our own website. I would be spending probably twice the amount of time writing show notes, timestamps, like descriptions, everything for like a podcast episode and I'm very open about that too Like it creates so much efficiency and like talk about accessibility even.

Speaker 1:

Like I wasn't putting timestamps in any of our podcast episodes prior to having a tool that was helping me do that. And like it just chapterizes everything and shows you like if you want to skip ahead to a different topic, you can, but but anyways, that's my other hand right there. But yeah, I just think where brands are getting it wrong is not being transparent. I imagine that's going to probably be one of the first places that starts to get regulated.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I agree completely.

Speaker 1:

Just like there's data transparency, I think there's going to be like OK, you have to be transparent about you know how you're working with AI tools.

Speaker 2:

And, on top of that, I actually think I've heard rumblings, but I've been very careful to watch I feel like there's going to be some sort of push on search engines like Google to reduce the exposure of, like AI driven articles AI created ads, because I just, I just think that I really don't think that it's you know, there's going to be some sort of security and and unwillingness to put those ads ranking higher than the human element. I think that it's too automated, almost, so you should never lose that human touch when it comes to writing your ads for search engines and and creating that individualized copy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. There's a huge creative component that AI could never replace and that's just like the idea section of our brain. I mean, look at the writer's strike, look at, like you know, look at like a ton of these other things like Super Bowl. I honestly like there's not been a good movie or TV show that's come out in the last two years and I'm like, is this because of AI? No, but I just, yeah, I think that's going to be.

Speaker 1:

That's going to come down to like ethics and what people decide is going to be a moneymaker or not, which I could go on and on about. But, you know, because I feel like, I feel like money drives those decisions typically, you know, if people are going to spend more money on the platform and use AI like they're still going to prioritize it, but I don't know. I would hope that these platforms would air more on the side of creativity and and the creative minds that are out there that are coming up with things that are original and different, 100% 100% and you know, at the end of the day, we use it so much that it's just.

Speaker 2:

you know, I never want, I never want listeners to feel like, oh it's, it's a bad thing, it's a negative thing because it is so wild west. But I really feel like, as long as you're being careful and understanding your own limitations and you're, like we said, the transparency, it's still about something that people should shy away from.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, totally yeah. I think the general jest and theme of this conversation is like AI should be a resource, but not like the end all be all means to an end.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. It's just there to enhance.

Speaker 2:

And I think that that's exactly what we use it for, not to replace. So enhancing, not replacing. And I think that also what people think, too, is, oh, it's maybe it's too hard to implement or there's too many things to do, and or it's only meant for large scale enterprise level clients. You know, I feel like I never want people to feel like they couldn't do that. Even if they're a startup, even if they're a small one person band, there's free tools that you can use that would help you achieve those the goals of getting into the AI technology as well. It's not just for enterprise level clients.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, totally Well. Kind of on that note, and to wrap this up a little bit, what are what are like three of your favorite besides Firefly? I think you said that one was three, but what are some of your favorite free tools?

Speaker 2:

So I would say the I know I mentioned it before, it's one of the ones that we created, but it's essentially just breaking down the chat GPT integrations that you're able to use with your, your native solutions that you already have.

Speaker 2:

I say chat GPT even though it's as widely used as the most popular AI function, but you're you're able to use the API and so many different solutions. The opportunities are absolutely endless. Chat spot, I guess, would necessarily be a free tool for some that are not paying for a higher level use inside the HubSpot account, but I think chat spot for us is something that's largely important. Hubspot does offer free accounts and you're able to use it at that point, at that level, but it is, it is a little bit limited. However, the, the API that chat GPT offers, I think is one of the most important things because you can really implement that into anything, into into any CRM that you're using to help enhance your email marketing campaigns, your, your output. It's incredible. So I would say I would say the free API tools, maybe even using Zapier to help, kind of to help influence the, the native integrations that API offers through chat GPT.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, awesome. I love that. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. Before we truly wrap up here, where can people find you online, connect with you and like see more of your thought leadership?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely LinkedIn. I would love to connect with any and all. My name is Weston Ferguson, so I'd love to you know, be able to chat with you on that platform. I really do post a lot of content regarding AI, and then also through our website as well. So, mcgrawnowcom, we just we have a lot of opportunities. We run webinars for AI to. So all those opportunities you can kind of see us talking more about it.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1:

All right. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of she's busy AF. We will see you on the next one.