Hey, I hope you had a great week!
This week, a few AI news stories stood out to me because they all pointed in the same direction. AI isn't just getting smarter—it's becoming more practical. At the same time, your customers are beginning to use AI before they ever reach out to your business.
I also came across a story about a Meta-sponsored workshop where more than 45 small business owners learned practical ways to use AI in their businesses. What struck me wasn't the workshop itself, but what it represented: AI education is becoming mainstream. Business owners aren't asking whether they should pay attention anymore—they're asking how to fit AI into the way they already work.
Let's dive in.
AI Assistants are Helping Customers Narrow Their Choices
One article from The Deep View introduced the idea of a new customer intent gap. (That sounds technical, but the concept is simple.)
Increasingly, your potential customers are using AI assistants to research companies, compare services, summarize reviews, and narrow down their choices before they ever visit your website or pick up the phone.
In other words, AI is becoming part of your customer's buying process.
For the last two decades, marketing focused on getting found first. Going forward, success will depend more on helping potential customers answer the questions AI is trying to answer for them.
That means your website, service descriptions, FAQs, reviews, and expertise become even more valuable because they're helping both people and AI understand what makes your business different.
This shift won't happen overnight, but you’ll want to address it now, because it's changing how customers choose your business.
AI Models are Becoming Faster and Cheaper
Another story from The Deep View covered Google's newest Gemini models.
At first glance, it sounds like another announcement about AI models.
But it’s more than that. Google is building AI that's smaller, faster, cheaper, and designed for specific jobs instead of trying to do everything.
It’s unlikely you are using these models directly. However, the software you already use—whether it's Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, HubSpot, Constant Contact, Gusto, or countless other platforms—will be able to add smarter AI features faster and at a lower cost.
This helps the likeliness that AI will continue showing up inside the software you're already using.
One of the best habits you can build is paying attention to the product updates from the software you rely on. You may discover you're already paying for features that can save your team time.
This Week’s Takeaways
This week's stories point to two important trends:
Your customers are increasingly using AI before they contact your business.
The software you already use is becoming more capable because AI is being built directly into it.
AI isn't changing business through one revolutionary product. It's changing business through hundreds of small improvements that affect how customers find you and how your team gets work done.
The businesses that benefit the most will be the ones paying attention to how AI is improving the software they already use—and adapting to the way their customers are making decisions.
That's it for this week.
Hopefully this gives you a clearer picture of how AI is changing the way small businesses operate without getting lost in the hype.
Yours in success,
Kathleen
P.S. If you know another business owner who's trying to make sense of AI without spending hours reading the news, feel free to forward them this newsletter.
