Dashboard: Gene Marks Expects an A.I. Backlash

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard brought to you by our sponsor of the great game of business I'm Lauren Feldman and I'm here with Gene marks welcome Jean hello Lauren how are you I'm doing great great to have you here appreciate it Jean you uh wrote recently uh about what you call a looming AI backlash against Microsoft and Google you actually sounded kind of offended in the piece which surprised me because you've been a big proponent of AI um not to mention a a reseller Microsoft tools what's going on well no I am a big proponent of AI and I've been speaking a lot about it and writing a lot about it on Forbes and um excited about the future and all that kind of stuff but I I I think that both Microsoft and and Google are making um um a mistake and you know as usual I could be wrong but um what they're they're they're both coming out by the end of this year or early 2024 um their their AI tools for their for their work space apps so in other words uh if you're an Office 365 user uh you're going to start seeing Microsoft co-pilot and if you're a Google you know workspace user you're going to get a Google duet and you know both these companies are competing against each other so the features they're offering are very similar and they're fun they're exciting and they're they're going to help in productivity uh they're going to help you write you know your Word documents do quotes um they're going to help you write emails uh attend more than one meeting at the same time if you can believe it analyze and get answers from complex spreadsheet you've told us about you've gotten us excited about this in the past it's all good but here's the thing um they're going to charge for it you know they're going to charge each of them are going to charge $30 a month a user to use these AI tools on top of what you're already paying yes and I I don't I'm not going to pay that and I don't well I get it for free actually because I'm Microsoft partner just don't tell anyone but uh my my my clients I don't know how many of my clients are going to be paying that either it's it just seems like a dumb move I mean for starters and I and I wrote about this first of all we all know that anything that comes out of Microsoft I mean thank God this company doesn't build airplanes you know I mean you know they're they need like three versions of anything before they finally get it right you know it's going to suck when it first comes out it's gonna it's going to be fun and exciting but you know it's going to need a lot of tweaking you know um so that's number one number two is is that like people aren't don't really know what they don't know so the only way to really get them using these AI tools is for them to like is to put it in front of them you know what I mean and and let them start playing with it and then start realizing like oh wow this is really cool and that's what you do with it you know like most of my audience that I talk to which are business owners I asked them about Ai and chat GPT Lauren and they don't know what you know they they they really aren't as familiar with it as you think so there's that you know and then like we're already paying for office or work space a lot that's one of the points you made in your piece which is that they kind of convinced us to do this software as a service thing where we're paying a monthly fee and they constantly upgrade what they offer but they don't charge you more every time they do an upgrade to me it's like a feature of office for example this co-pilot not a separate app and you know the fact that they're they're now asking for more money it's like hey man you got us into the cloud we're now prisoner to your you know you know to your monthly fees that you charge us you know we got no choice now um but okay keep bringing on the features to to to bring value into my life and uh and here they are saying well if you want this great feature you're going have to pay extra for it and I just think it's a mistake I I think there's going to be a backlash and I think that a lot of businesses particularly small businesses I don't think they're going to buy into it I really don't until uh it gets out there further and I bet you that they're going to start revisiting their their their payment plans for this and start you know offering that doesn't happen very often do you really think they might do that I really do I I think you know when you look at any cloud-based software they always have different like tiers of software they offer you know the free version that does the Minimus amount of things and then the standard and then the professional version like every software company does that including Microsoft when you look at versions of office and I really think that if they if they don't start offering some of this stuff for free um with like higher tiers that you pay for once you start getting into it um I just I I I think people are not going to adopt into it very quickly and uh I think they're going to they're going to have a problem do you think this is specific to Google and Microsoft or is it an AI thing uh that the backlash could affect AI in general that's a really good question actually you know what I I'd like to write about that you know like I've been focusing on Microsoft and Google meanwhile bunch of other companies are coming out with their AI offerings and um you know like you accounting softwares and CRM softwares and all of that and an example like again okay we sell Microsoft products we also sell Zoho Zoho has a bunch of AI stuff that they're that they're have been offering already and are introducing more but they're not charging extra for it I mean it's just part of you know the platform you know what I mean and it it's again it's designed to keep you using their product so um you know I I don't I don't know if other companies are are going to be doing this and um sometimes I think it's like it's just um seems like a very short-term approach yeah short-term thinking yeah it really is it really is so my prediction is is first of all I'm telling our clients don't buy it yet I mean first of all it ain't going to work very well so you're going to be disappointed uh you know you don't buy this until it gets you know out there and really tested and you hear the feedback um and then you know let's wait and see what Microsoft and Google do because I just can't imagine they're going to keep charging for this but you've told us about using chat gbt and chat gpt3 correct me if I'm wrong is free but but four you have to pay for are you paying for four no and I'll tell you the reason why I'm not paying for four I'm not a software developer you see the reason why you pay for four is because you license their it's an Enterprise version so you can license their their chat GPT uh you know their their apis and other software tools so you can build uh systems for your business you know including you know obviously software and large language models um the average consumer or the average small business person isn't doing that so they're just using the free version of it that makes sense interesting all right next topic you also wrote recently about automating the paying and sending of invoices um is is this AED at someone who's already handling invoices digitally or someone who's really still writing checks this is all about getting rid of your accounting staff that's what it is and the vendors that sell this stuff they're not going to say that obviously because it ain't politically correct but you know what Lauren you and I are friends and I can say politically correct things and this stuff is all about firing people and and good for them because accounting staff are overhead I'm an accountant and a lot of what accounting staff does can be automated and will be automated and accounts payable is the perfect example so this was a piece I wrote for the Philly inquire last week it is a um and it's all about accounts payable Automation and there are some great country great products out there Avid exchange bill.com ramp those are three that I I used as an example um where once you get it set up you know your suppliers your vendors your contractors I'm doing this by the way this year um they just email or text their invoices to you um and then it they they go right into your accounting system after being set up by the payables management platform for approval and then payment so it you know you it it cuts down on time you don't have the same kind of data entry mistakes uh it it helps you manage your cash flow better it gives you good reporting um and most importantly it just it it cuts back on the amount of time it takes for people to do this kind of stuff which means you cut back on people and that's what this automation is is doing it's using AI as well um to intelligently read this data and code it um know when to ask for approval and when not to uh it is it's really good stuff and I've been seeing a bunch of my clients migrate to it and we're going to do the same thing any concerns about losing control not eyeballing everything that's going out no because it's not it doesn't have to be everything I mean you set your controls on your payables so you know 80% of our payables are pretty routine so they don't really need that much review you know they're common expenses every month but then there are certain payables if it's over a certain dollar amount if it's from a certain vendor you can flag them so that they don't get paid until uh I get an alert about it and then I I look at it and approve it you know so if somebody doubles the their fee and just sends it into your system it's not doesn't have to automatically pay it yeah it'll get flagged and and the best thing about it is that it gets flagged uh whoever you want gets notified like say me and say I'm traveling and I will get that notified on my phone I can look at the invoice on my phone and say okay yeah that's fine and say approve it and then it goes whereas accounts think just think an accounts payable person runs into this problem and then they got to email you and then they got to come back and maybe they have a question or maybe they didn't notice it at all who knows you know what I mean um so it's it's just better it's just better how complicated is it to set up one of these systems it's a pain in the neck so uh you'll you to I mean this is not and of course the vendors won't tell you that easy you know either but you know I mean you got it's got to be integrated with your accounting system you know your vendors have got to get on board with it your accounting staff has got to get on board with it and these people are not stupid they see the rating on the wall so there's there's definitely issues you know you know to get over it I've been pushing my but this is not being offered by the people like you know QuickBooks or whoever that you're already using seems it should be you think it should be you're right you really think it should be and it's funny it's it's offered by these by by various vendors like the three that I mentioned which then integrates uh with QuickBooks but weirdly enough uh into it has not gotten into that game yet and in fact sage and zero and some of the other larger uh accounting software vendors aren't you know doing this yet um will they buy one of these you know automation companies you think yeah you would think um but build thatc has been around for a long time and I think they're publicly held as well so you know they're they're you know they're not new to this game and no one's bought them yet so you know we'll have to wait to see is there a wide range of prices that these Services charge there is yeah they're mostly B based on the number of transactions that you have um they provide the services to help you get set up and obviously all the support but you know it's based on you know so yeah I'm a little Dipsy Doodle company so we're paying like the lowest price I forget what it call per month but it ain't that much um but larger companies are processing hundreds of invoices will certainly pay more all right let's talk about insurance everybody likes to talk about insurance it's such an exciting topic uh do you know we pay so much when I look at our monthly budget just personally how much we pay in like life insurance and health insurance it's nuts I'm not this isn't even a business thing I'm talking about personally you know Insurance sucks but you gotta have it right nobody wants to think about it nobody wants to deal with it until something happens right so last week I highlighted a story in the morning report about a survey that said a it was a survey done by a business that sells Insurance to small businesses and this survey found that small businesses aren't buying enough insurance can you believe that yeah I do believe it I do believe it you know by the way I'm not I'm not getting your morning report can you check on that for some reason this isn't where I expected to have that conversation but yeah I'm I'm not getting that in my inbox anymore and it's definitely not my spam folder because I I'm distressed to hear that I will look into it as soon as we're done here make a note I should because I read that I like that morning report anyway back to Insurance yeah does it surprise me that small businesses are cutting corners and um not buying things that don't give them immediate gratification you what a shock uh you know and then you know different small businesses depending on where they're located you know sometimes are having a hard time getting Insurance you know property insurance in California all right we'll get to that in a second but but just the basics um this survey found that most businesses are underinsured and in you know particular areas um do you find that with your clients I mean is this something that you look look at and discuss with them yeah people people do not have um enough Insurance um there's there's these business packages um that you can buy um which cover like the bare minimum and then you should be buying like an umbrella or general liability on top of that um we do I have uh you know I I have a service what what's the word for it um in case we screw stuff up um uh Insurance malpractice insurance right so I mean you know that's important to me um we've never ever had to tap it but it it gives me a little bit of comfort and I learned that you know the hard way I mean we almost had a big issue years ago and you know we got through it but I was like I am not going through that again without insurance so I I do strongly recommend that people pay and have that kind of coverage business Interruption insurance is another thing I was going to ask do you have that yeah they yeah we do we do um the business Interruption um um exposure that a lot of businesses have it's not necessarily being hit by a hurricane he being hit by ransomware you know and you know you're down for weeks potentially uh that's really important and then there's cyber Insurance uh which a lot of insurance companies are writing and some of them are really making them money off it but it's it's another you know growing need that businesses need to have I'm big on insurance and I think that people need to have it and I don't see enough business owners buying insurance so it does not surprise me do you stop and go back and review your Holdings from time to time yeah here's my beef you know like it it's not only just with my business but I I use the same Brokers for my business and then I'm a treasurer of like a nonprofit and it's like Jesus Lauren it's like just getting there they're not proactive with me at all insurance people I'm sorry man there's something about that industry they are just not proactive you know it's like they sell your insurance policies to you um and then it's like you don't hear from them again until it's time for a renewal and then you're basically just getting like an invoice you know from them and I realize it's not every Insurance person but I'm telling you man you know there are a lot of insurance people out there that I think really underserve small businesses and it's the small businesses that need need it the most the most guidance and unless you're proactive it's like you don't get you know you don't get the results so if you're a small business owner you need to be beating up your insurance broker two months before so it's not a you know it's it's not a you know fire drill you should be you know going over your whole list I have a spreadsheet that lists out my policies the terms the coverage the premiums and I'm literally doing this right now with an insurance broker it's like four days for her to respond to my email it's like my my head's gonna blow off my neck um you know and I finally got her attention and I said next time I'm I'm just I'm Gonna Leave You I'm GNA go to somebody else like you can't you know but anyway so we you know we have an appointment scheduled in two weeks from now to go over our coverage so I can make sure 2 months in advance that we're in good shape and if not I need to know it now so I can make sure we you we're budgeting for any insurance increases but um I just think these insurance companies um I guess small businesses are such Small Potatoes we tend to just be ignored by the insurance industry and go ahead if you're an insurance broker and you disagree with me go ahead reach out to me I mean I challenge you and if you think you can do a better job by all means reach out to me I will happily move my business over to you how does that sound I think got to hear from somebody good good reach out to me I've got I'm on the edge you brought up the uh growing issue of uh places where you can't even get insurance uh last week uh I highlighted another story in the morning report this is a terrific story from the Wall Street Journal about the owners of a home in West Palm Beach Florida they had been paying $115,000 a year for home insurance so it was already you know a little bit High uh then they got this year's renewal notice which was for $121,000 now they wound up finding another company but the rate they're paying now only 110,000 nope 33,000 so it was a lot less than that but more than double what they had been paying um and they were lucky to get insurance because a lot of their neighbors haven't been able to and some of them have decided to to just you know go naked and yeah I think the plan is if they're wiped out in a in a hurricane which can happen in Florida uh they'll just sell the property and and that's that so A couple comments on that couple comments on first of all if uh if you are in Florida or California I mean if if the the insurance needs you have is for like natural disasters or whatever one thing to keep in mind is that um you know the small business administration when an area is caught into a disaster area they they offer very lowc cost uh loans to get businesses back up on their feet and they do that directly now you might be like hey man I don't want to go into debts that's not you know what I'm looking to do but in all honesty if you advertise that out over the length of the loans it it might actually be and you you would have to do the math a better deal than getting insurance at those rates you know you think to yourself like guess they're a problem you know when I would be paying monthly to pay back a small business in SBA loan you might even be less than I be paying monthly for insurance premium you know so you might just take the attitude of saying you know what we'll wait for something to happen and when it happens I'll go to the government and I'll get the low the low interest rate from them and you know and something might not happen for 5 years you know and then when it does happen you advertise the cost over all the years that it didn't happen and you weren't paying premiums so it's one approach that you know you might want to consider um the second thing is is that uh States like California and New York they're having these Insurance you know these insurers pull out I mean ultimately the states are going to have to step in and do something about that I mean that's just G to happen I mean most of them do have some kind of insurer of Last Resort um in in place but they're getting overwhelmed yeah yeah well that's just going to have to be some issue and again the the insurance are the insurance are pulling out from what I read for a number of reasons it's not not not just like the risk of wildfires but you know in California in particular I know there's a lot of regulations and whatnot and blah blah blah so it might not you know it might also be a case of the state taking a look at how they're treating that industry and giving them more incentives to come you know and write policies back in the state again so but the state's going to have to step all right anything you're working on that we should look for this coming week yeah a lot so I'm going to write for the inquire next week how Philly businesses are preparing for [Music] Halloween what are you going as Jean I've got a I'm going as a uh uh a fan of a baseball team that's about that will win the World Series that's what I'm going at um the other one I'm writing about Lauren which you'll get a kick at um one that just came out yesterday Sunday uh from the guardian that we can talk talk about uh next week uh where I talk about expense reports you're going to have a good time with that article uh and we can have a good about how people play around with their expense reports and my thoughts on that and then the following week during the week interesting yeah this week I want to write about um United Airlines came out uh with a new boarding approach and uh so as a business traveler because this ties into business you travel a lot I do and I have I have many thoughts on that as well so we're I'm going to write about that for the guardian and we can that'll be something we'll talk about you know in the following week that sounds great G marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquire the Washington Times the Chicago Daily Herald Forbes and entrepreneur you can also hear I'm on ABC radio's eye on the world with John Bachelor Jean host two small business podcast with paychecks Corporation and the Hartford this episode was brought to you by the great game of business which helps businesses use an open book management system to help build healthier companies you can learn more at Great game.com thank you Jean thank you Lauren we see you next week have a great week everyone [Music]