Maybe AI Won’t Destroy My Business

This week, Paul Downs, Jaci Russo, and Sarah Segal revisit a question that came up on the podcast more than a year ago: Is artificial intelligence going to doom professional service firms like Jaci’s branding agency and Sarah’s PR firm? So far, both Jaci and Sarah are feeling pretty good about their prospects. In fact, they’re seeing changes in the market that suggest AI may be helping rather than undermining their businesses. Paul, meanwhile, has encountered a different kind of AI mystery. For years, his custom conference table business has depended heavily on people finding him through Google. Recently, he discovered that his organic search traffic has fallen about 35 percent. That sounds alarming—except that his business is doing great. Paul says his tables are selling like “hotcakes,” and he’s backlogged into February. So what exactly is happening when traffic falls but sales keep growing?

Plus: In our latest Beyond Small segment, sponsored by Grasshopper Bank, Paul, Jaci, and Sarah talk about the financial processes they still insist on doing manually—even when technology could probably do more of the work for them. In each case, part of the reason is that doing the work themselves gives them a view into their operations that they don’t want to lose. As Sarah puts it, while she already knows how to handle public relations, “I am learning how to be a business owner every day.”

Show Notes:

Here’s the episode where Alan Pentz predicted that professional service agencies are doomed.

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