Switchboard Connect #002

We’re here to help you stay ahead without the noise.

Every other week, I curate and share 5 quick pieces of AI & Automation content geared to help SMB teams and operators.

Let’s dive in.

While this post may seem geared towards financial firms, there are a ton of ideas for tools, automation, and AI that can be applied to inbound or outbound sales workflows for any type of company or industry.

We’ve had a chance to build variations of many ideas found in this thread and I hope you find some inspiration in here as well.

Speaking of VC’s, A16Z latest piece highlights some compelling trends that savvy SMB’s should note as AI becomes more applicable and accessible across teams of all sizes.

3 items that stood out to me for SMB’s to keep in mind:

1. Internal Applications Take the Lead Companies prioritize safer, internal AI uses over riskier external applications due to accuracy and PR concerns.

2. Buying Beats Building Apps There’s stronger opportunities right now in using and connecting pre-built solutions that offer specialization and ease of integration versus building tools from scratch.

3. Budgets Are Shifting to Recurring Costs Enterprises are moving AI spend from one-off innovation budgets to regular software lines, signalling a long-term commitment to AI.

Check out the full report:

As a big long time fan, if you’re not using Loom yet, now’s the time to start.

Beyond helping save a ton of time and avoiding meetings that could be emails, their latest AI-powered feature 'Video to Documentation' automatically generates SOPs from your videos, drastically simplifying workflow documentation and boosting team efficiency and alignment.

Zapier compiled a list of some of the best AI meeting assistants and having used many ourselves or with clients, this is a great list with something for everyone.

And if you’re wondering, Fireflies.ai is our tool of choice.

Need help finding the right AI tool for your task?

What AI Can do Today suggests the best AI solutions based on your specific needs.

With over 5,000 tools analyzed, it has consistently revealed effective options in our tests, some of which we had never encountered before.

Okay, that’s all for now. Chat soon! 👋