Switchboard Connect

Every other week, I curate a few relevant pieces of AI & Automation news and insights for SMB teams.

Let’s dive in.

🚀 The NYT shares some real world-examples of entrepreneurs leveraging AI to accelerate their growth and effectively compete with larger, established companies.

🧠 What's Happening:

• About 20% of businesses created in 2023 reported using generative AI for tasks like market research and contract reviews.

• Early stage companies are using AI more than others for tasks like sales, marketing, product development, and customer acquisition.

🔍 Between the Lines:

• AI is serving as a "bootstrapping technology," allowing small teams to do more with less and giving them a competitive edge.

• The technology is particularly attractive to young firms as a cost-effective, general-purpose tool.

💼 Case Studies found in the article:

• Skittenz: Used ChatGPT to navigate patent documents and legal agreements.

• Orb.net: Leveraged GitHub's Copilot to accelerate code writing.

• My Money Story: Implemented AI for their customers financial matching, saving time and hiring costs.

📰 Read the full article here.

I've talked a lot about how much better the new employee experience can be and how much time can be saved by automating so much of employee onboarding.

🚀 To show what this looks like in reality, we just launched a new case study that walks through how we transformed a company's onboarding process, saving time and delighting new hires.

⚙️ How It Works:

1. Automated offer creation and contract sending

2. Synced data across the tech stack, creating IT accounts automatically

3. Implemented a single form for new hires, updating data across tools

4. Automated creation of onboarding tasks and new employees "30/60/90 Day Onboarding" plans

5. Kept teams in sync with MS Teams notifications at key milestones

🔍 Results:

• 8+ hours saved per new hire

• New employees effective in their role 50% faster

• Integrated 6 separate tools with 1 source of truth and automated 18+ manual steps across 3 departments

• Reduced manual data entry and eliminated redundant spreadsheets

• Streamlined communication between teams

💭 Our Take: I've talked a lot about how much better the new employee experience can be and how much time can be saved by automating so much of employee onboarding. This case study shows precisely what that can look like in action.

⚙️ Check out the case study here.

🎙️ Bret Taylor shares grounded insights on AI's impact on businesses and brands in a recent Invest Like the Best podcast.

👂 Why I Listened: Taylor's perspective cuts through the hype, offering practical advice for companies navigating the AI revolution. And his track record speaks for itself:

• Product Engineer at Google

• CTO @ Facebook

• Chairman @ Twitter (in the good years)

• Co-CEO @ Salesforce

• Board of Shopify

• Current Chairman of OpenAI

🧠 AI Agents Explained: Taylor discusses AI agents - autonomous software programs that can reason, make decisions, and take actions on behalf of users or businesses. With GPT-5 coming, these agents are poised to revolutionize how we interact with technology and conduct business. He outlines three key categories:

1. Company agents (customer-facing): AI interfaces representing brands, handling customer inquiries and transactions.

2. Persona-based agents (job-specific): AI assistants designed for particular roles or tasks within an organization.

3. Personal agents (individual assistants): AI helpers tailored to individual users' needs and preferences.

💭 My Take: When Bret Taylor speaks about AI + business, it's worth listening. His ability to separate near-term opportunities from hype provides valuable guidance for businesses looking to integrate AI strategically.

🎧️ Listen here.

💼 CIO and Forrester report most IT leaders expect budget increases for 2025, but economic uncertainties are shaping cautious strategies.

Why It Matters: 91% of IT decision-makers anticipate budget increases for 2025. How leaders allocate resources in 2025 will determine which companies lead in modernization & digital transformation.

💡 Smart Strategies shared by Forrester:

1. Invest in AI and employee training for it

2. Cut cloud sprawl and redundant services

3. Automate manual processes

4. Reduce nonessential software

⚖️ Balancing Act: Execs are weighing investments in emerging tech against economic pressures. Some examples of what leaders are doing:

• SnapLogic: Betting big on generative AI across departments

• Freshworks: Focusing on automation & AI to reduce "soul-crushing busy work"

• Counslr: Projecting up to 25% budget increase, bucking industry trends

🎯 Bottom Line: With modest increases expected, strategic planning is crucial. Leadership must balance innovation with cost-cutting to maximize impact.

👀 Read the full article here.

That’s all for this week.

But before you go…

Chat soon 👋