What AI looks like in the non-tech world
Read Time: 4 minutes
In 2025 it felt like it was all AI this and AI that. Everything was about AI.
Tech companies pivoted entire business plans to focus on AI.
Gurus talked about “leveraging AI” like it was the key to all business success.
It felt like every company was cramming AI into everything they could. Like seriously? Why does my refrigerator need AI?
Here are my perceptions on AI and how I use it as a non tech business operator.
AI is currently in an arms race
Tech companies that sell software to non tech companies are all rushing to push their AI products onto their customers. In some ways, whoever gets in first has the best chance of winning that customer over. In other ways, whoever is most integrated will win.
Here’s an example:
I get about 5-10 cold emails in my inbox every week pitching me on an AI receptionist. The concept is simple. All the employees are working and so no one is able to pick up the phone. An AI receptionist picks up and does it’s best to take care of the customer.
It’s a cool idea, and it’s a tool we actually use.
We tried Zyratalk first because they were the first one to get us to do a demo. We could use our Lennox Co-op points to help pay for it. The only problem was they didn’t integrate well with our CRM(Jobber) so it was pretty handicapped.
I did a demo for Redcar which had a big focus on outbound strategy. I didn’t feel like it was significantly different from Zyratalk other than their outbound features. I’m skeptical about AI for outbound. Maybe I’ll write a follow up post on that next. So we didn’t move forward with that one either.
We ended up deciding that the best tool to use was Jobber’s very own AI receptionist. It reads our schedule and allows customers to book available times. It performs very similarly to Zyratalk and Redcar. In fact I would say they are identical and I wouldn’t be able to tell which is which.
Other AI tools I use
LLM(Language learning model) - Chat GPT
I primarily use Chat GPT mostly because it’s the first LLM that came out but it’s just a force of habit to go there. Even though Google Gemini is right in my browser it’s just my habit to use Chat GPT. I probably should use Gemini but I don’t think it really matters.
I mainly use it to generate ideas for trainings, look up quotes for me, or build complicated excel formulas. Here are a few prompts I’ve used in the past:
“In "Website Visitors" I have first and last names in columns B and C. In "Jobber Invoices" I have both first and last names in column b. Write a formula that returns me a numeric value of how many last names appear in both sheets”
Result: =SUM(--ISNUMBER(MATCH(C2:C1000,TEXTAFTER(’Jobber Invoices’!B2:B1000,” “,-1),0)))
I would have spent hours slaving over this formula to try and figure it out, and ChatGPT gave it to me in seconds. Pretty cool.
“Give a definition for a transactional salesperson.”
Result: A transactional salesperson is someone who focuses primarily on making individual sales rather than building long-term relationships with customers. Their approach is usually centered around closing the deal quickly, often emphasizing price, product features, and promotions over customer needs or deeper value.
I’ll have it give me definitions like this to help me brainstorm for trainings or coaching technicians.
I never have ChatGPT do my writing for me. It feels very cold and impersonal. That’s why you should subscribe to The Steel Road.
Peakzi
We signed up for Peakzi to basically do SEO but for AI LLMs. To be honest it is hard to tell if it is working. I regularly ask ChatGPT questions where it should recommend our business but it never does.
Peakzi has a bunch of other tools that we never use and I would expect we cancel it soon.
AI tools I want to use but haven’t had the time
Supposedly I can just tell Jobber to create a quote or an invoice for a certain customer and it will automatically do it. I haven’t played with it too much but it sounds like a cool idea.
In the HVAC industry we spend a ton of time consulting manuals and referencing manufacturer information. Apparently Bluon will make an AI that you can ask questions to and it pulls data from all the manuals to look up the answer. I could see this saving a ton of technician time in the field, but I haven’t had a chance to mess with it yet.
While we pride ourselves on being in a “non-tech” industry, AI and technology really can help us to more efficient and productive. I won’t spend a ton of time referencing AI in future newsletters because I think it’s way overblown and over talked about. However, it is worth talking about every once in a while because it really can be useful.
Let me know what AI tools you use down below.
Great practical take on AI integration outside the hype cycle. The Jobber receptionist decision is exacty the right call - native integrations beat best-in-class point solutions almost every time when operations matter more than features. Ran into similar issues with disparate tools that couldn't talk to each other properly. That ChatGPT excel formula example is low-key the most valuable AI use case for small biz - solving 3-hour problems in 30 seconds beats flashy features anyday.