Episode 91
95% of People are Still Using AI Wrong in Business
You're using AI wrong. Probably. Most small business owners treat it like a magic answer machine. The owners actually getting results treat it like something else entirely — and that difference is costing the other 95% real money. Paul Boomer, Leah Bumphrey, and Dennis Collins break down what that shift looks like, why it matters, and how to start today.
In this episode:
[00:29] Treat AI Like an Intern, Not a Magic Machine — give it context before the task, the same way you'd onboard a new hire
[02:24] Always Keep a Human in the Loop — why you'd never let an intern send a critical email unedited, and AI is no different
[03:51] Use AI as a Thinking Partner, Not Just a Task-Executor — how to use AI to poke holes in your own ideas before you even get to the to-do list
[06:26] Give AI the Full Picture Before You Ask for Priorities — why "prioritize this for me" only works once AI knows what's actually on your plate
About Paul Boomer
Paul is the co-host's resident AI expert and author of The Secret Formulas of Artificial Intelligence.
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Transcript
Stop thinking of AI as something as the
Speaker:college professor that was
Speaker:inaccessible and remember that.
Speaker:We have as one of our co-hosts, a subject
Speaker:matter expert on AI.
Speaker:His name is Paul Boomer
Speaker:and he wrote the book on it.
Speaker:The secret formulas of
Speaker:artificial intelligence.
Speaker:As a practical matter,
Speaker:give me that first step.
Speaker:Think of it as an intern, somebody who
Speaker:you do have to babysit, that you do have
Speaker:to at least understand that they might
Speaker:have different motivations.
Speaker:They might have different thoughts.
Speaker:They might have different, uh,
Speaker:inabilities or abilities.
Speaker:Treat them first going in as an intern.
Speaker:They're new to the company.
Speaker:They don't understand what's going on.
Speaker:You have to give them
Speaker:that information first.
Speaker:So practically pick one small thing in
Speaker:your business that you think could be
Speaker:automated or that you would
Speaker:like to give to somebody else.
Speaker:Once you know what that is,
Speaker:and it can be something really tiny,
Speaker:really small, such as
Speaker:how do I respond to an email?
Speaker:Then go to, then go
Speaker:to, to AI and provide it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Here's the background of this.
Speaker:This is the information that you need to
Speaker:know before you even start the task.
Speaker:Then once you do that, then
Speaker:you ask it to do the task.
Speaker:But Paul, what I keep hearing and it all,
Speaker:it says it, if you use any AI bots,
Speaker:there's a little sentence at
Speaker:the end of each one, right?
Speaker:What does it say?
Speaker:Don't trust me.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I can be wrong.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So let's say I started up my small
Speaker:business and I'm all about it.
Speaker:Uh, I'm all about AI and I say, yeah, I'm
Speaker:going to get AI to, to respond to emails
Speaker:and it gets it wrong.
Speaker:It gets it wrong.
Speaker:Now what I'm embarrassed in front of my
Speaker:staff and my customers.
Speaker:How, what's the
Speaker:likelihood of it getting it wrong?
Speaker:It is very likely.
Speaker:Would you have, would you have an intern
Speaker:respond to his critical email for you?
Speaker:No, ever.
Speaker:Without looking at it, without editing
Speaker:it, without checking it out.
Speaker:You'd never do it.
Speaker:Of course not.
Speaker:Of course not.
Speaker:Never.
Speaker:Always have a human in the loop.
Speaker:No matter what, especially when it comes
Speaker:to external or even internal
Speaker:communication, make sure that whatever it
Speaker:creates for you is indeed what you would
Speaker:create if you were to have done it.
Speaker:But so then why don't
Speaker:I just do it myself?
Speaker:Stop thinking of AI as something as the
Speaker:college professor that was inaccessible.
Speaker:And remember that you're never too late.
Speaker:It's about jumping in there and starting
Speaker:because wherever you start
Speaker:from, that's where it is.
Speaker:Small business owners, they have this
Speaker:much time and this much
Speaker:stuff and this many goals.
Speaker:These are the people
Speaker:that we're talking to.
Speaker:So I would even go before deciding to,
Speaker:okay, like your example of an email
Speaker:fantastic, but make a list of the stuff.
Speaker:And we know what we mean, what I mean
Speaker:when I say stuff, the stuff you don't
Speaker:want to be doing the stuff.
Speaker:Make a list of if you could have this
Speaker:perfect intern, just
Speaker:rolling it out for you.
Speaker:And you just have to check their work.
Speaker:What would it be?
Speaker:And then play with it,
Speaker:play with it a little bit.
Speaker:Boomer, I'm going to turn to you.
Speaker:What other stuff should that small
Speaker:business owner be looking at?
Speaker:Honestly, if you step back even further,
Speaker:you should be using it for
Speaker:internal cognitive thinking.
Speaker:Internal cognitive thinking.
Speaker:There you go using those big words again.
Speaker:What I mean by that is use AI to think.
Speaker:Not to execute, but to think
Speaker:what is allowing you to do.
Speaker:However, is you have a thought.
Speaker:I want to do this or I
Speaker:don't know how to do this thing.
Speaker:Instead of having a conversation with
Speaker:somebody else, let it be your spouse.
Speaker:Let it be an employee.
Speaker:Let it be your, your, your coworker who
Speaker:might have judgment behind it.
Speaker:AI has no judgment.
Speaker:Spit your
Speaker:conversation, your ideas out to AI.
Speaker:Say, I'm trying to do this thing.
Speaker:I need an expert.
Speaker:This is now I'm telling you as AI, this
Speaker:is the role that you're playing.
Speaker:This is who I need you to be.
Speaker:And ask it, poke holes in this idea,
Speaker:because it is going to reveal things that
Speaker:you didn't think of because you can't
Speaker:read the label from inside the bottle.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:So let AI do that for you.
Speaker:So instead of thinking and go, instead of
Speaker:starting with a task, because yes, you're
Speaker:right, everybody's saying, oh, task,
Speaker:task, task, task, email, email, email.
Speaker:No, step back even further.
Speaker:What is going to help a business owner
Speaker:who as Leah said, has so
Speaker:many things on their plate
Speaker:that they don't have time to think,
Speaker:use AI to be that thinking partner.
Speaker:I would even challenge that you can ask
Speaker:AI and I've done this.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I got,
Speaker:prioritize this for me.
Speaker:What I want.
Speaker:This, this, this.
Speaker:Oh, what, what should I prioritize?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Get this done first.
Speaker:This one, this will roll into this.
Speaker:It will answer that.
Speaker:And that comes, and again, I'm against
Speaker:personalizing AI completely, except you
Speaker:do form a relationship with it.
Speaker:It's not a person, but
Speaker:it will get to know you.
Speaker:It will get to know your quirks.
Speaker:You'll get to know its quirks.
Speaker:And that's why it's
Speaker:important to pick your AI.
Speaker:Pick your AI. I
Speaker:have a question for you.
Speaker:Did you also tell, prioritize this, but
Speaker:did you give it background of this is
Speaker:what is on my plate and these are the
Speaker:things that are important to me.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:This was going on in my life.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And then it gave you the
Speaker:prior to the prior situation.
Speaker:It can't judge what's
Speaker:important in your life, can it?
Speaker:But you can say based on
Speaker:the fact, I have three hours.
Speaker:I have 17 things that I have to get done.
Speaker:I have four people waiting for this.
Speaker:I need to do this and it's going to
Speaker:inform this for the rest of my week.
Speaker:It will give you a,
Speaker:it'll spit out a to-do list.
Speaker:Give us some real examples.
Speaker:Like what?
Speaker:What are the worries of
Speaker:small business owners?
Speaker:Recruiting, materials acquisition,
Speaker:training issues, any kind of writing.
Speaker:It took me anything
Speaker:from brochures to emails.
Speaker:That's just limited.
Speaker:I was even going to back up even further.
Speaker:Ask AI, Hey, what
Speaker:should my priorities be?
Speaker:Or what are the things that I as an HVAC
Speaker:company need to pay attention to from a
Speaker:hundred thousand foot view?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Ask it.
Speaker:I have this business.
Speaker:I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker:Tell me what I should be doing and keep
Speaker:asking those questions to narrow it down
Speaker:to your field of your thinking.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:HVAC.
Speaker:I have an HVAC business in Chicago.
Speaker:I have a $3 million company.
Speaker:I'm trying to expand
Speaker:as a business growth expert.
Speaker:What things should I be thinking about?
Speaker:What areas of my
Speaker:business should I analyze?
Speaker:Again, you're having a conversation with
Speaker:an intern who has unlimited knowledge.
Speaker:When you tell them, Hey, now you have
Speaker:unlimited knowledge or you
Speaker:have knowledge in this area.
Speaker:It's like a library, right?
Speaker:I mean, you got to know
Speaker:which section you're going to.
Speaker:You got to tell the librarian.
Speaker:Otherwise you got, you're
Speaker:starting with the ABC book.
Speaker:I don't need to know that anymore.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So, so us trying to tell business people,
Speaker:business owners, owner led companies,
Speaker:what you focus on, we shouldn't be
Speaker:because everybody's individual.
Speaker:And when, as Leah said,
Speaker:as you use AI, it gets to understand who
Speaker:you are and how you operate
Speaker:and what your background is.
Speaker:And it will help you again, think about
Speaker:what matters to you.
Speaker:Let's all summarize what we heard.
Speaker:Paul, you are our subject matter expert.
Speaker:What should our listeners go away with?
Speaker:What should they take away from today?
Speaker:Think of AI as your intern, invest the
Speaker:time in using your intern, because
Speaker:usually when you have an intern, they
Speaker:become some of your best employees.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a good point.
Speaker:Leah, any summary for our folks?
Speaker:Yes, it's not too late.
Speaker:It doesn't matter if I
Speaker:can be jumping into it.
Speaker:If, if any, like you can do it at any
Speaker:point, the problem is
Speaker:when you don't jump in.
Speaker:Because what we do right now, think of
Speaker:our physical health, what we do right now
Speaker:informs how we're going to be living in
Speaker:five years with our business health.
Speaker:What we do right now informs how our
Speaker:business is doing in
Speaker:six months, in a year.
Speaker:It's quicker.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Just jump in.
Speaker:What's the cost of not
Speaker:doing it is what you're saying.
Speaker:And the cost is going to
Speaker:be huge of not doing it.
Speaker:So you're going to continue to be afraid
Speaker:and you're going to stop.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And you're, you're going to be behind
Speaker:that fear that you have right now that
Speaker:you might already be behind.
Speaker:It's only going to get worse.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:My tidbit is this.
Speaker:You don't have to be
Speaker:a techie to use this.
