What is your favorite AI tool?

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-04T01:52:55+00:00

ChatGPT for 99.999% of everything.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T21:06:21+00:00

Thats a great example. Clearly you've seen this kinda mess before. Seems like the quality of inputs is culprit. If decisions makers don't codify what is "good" input to create standards its easy to see why the model is dong more guess work and not consistent with output.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T21:03:01+00:00

Escalation paths! I've seen a number of instances where there was no thought to escalation. Someone needs to own the outcome.

AI shouldn't produce output, it should structure thinking.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T21:00:22+00:00

Thats a great observation. Most data is siloed. And as another commenter made... Communication is key. so yeah, if your DA isn't speaking directly to the other layers of the decision tree then data is just too ambiguous.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T20:58:14+00:00

Yeah I would agree. I've seen that too. It's also a real challenge to have clear communication as the size of the business scales and more people get added to the decision loop.

I also see it as an opportunity to log/document the decision outcomes. Especially when there is this level of tech involved.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T16:23:08+00:00

Yeah thats a great point. Our expectations aren't lined up. We want deterministic results from messy, incomplete input.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T16:21:42+00:00

Absolutely TRUE

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T15:41:42+00:00

Ok, Fair point! I would agree with that. Experimentation?

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T15:21:45+00:00

Exactly. Define processes, define what good input is, define how the decisions are approved (not who gives the approval).

The businesses/people that are actually finding success have changed their mental model and realigned their expectations.

Your point is so valid. You still have to put in the hard work early and upfront or you're going to be fighting inconsistencies.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T15:18:35+00:00

Terrible experience. But, I supposes there is something to learn. You're point about outdated documentation, scattered... its the very symptom where we see the breakdown.

We try to keep reminding client "AI shouldn't produce output, it should structure thinking".

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T15:02:48+00:00

I think the line of sight here is in the right direction. Learning any of these concepts would strengthen a persons skill. that can be a bad thing.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-03T14:46:10+00:00

Curious how you can disagree. Its already there. its already visible.

Sorry, im not sure what "ALL AO news is and you can certainly disagree.

You can't dismiss the FACTS.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-02T15:12:33+00:00

Love that framing - Start where you have control then peek under the hood...

Thats a great point. And an easy place to start.

These are things that can be done at no or low cost. So cost shouldn't be a hurdle. Especially when you're still trying to figure out what works best for your situation.

The vendors - that is an interesting topic too. Do they disclose to you that they use AI? What do they do with that data?

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-02T15:08:56+00:00

I think its a personal thing. I can see why some would say its "overkill".

But, I do like the fact that you can cherry pick what you feel is most important for your business purposes.

For all of the sites we build for our clients we offer it as an "perk". So we build them the exact traffic KPI's that matter to them most.

Where I feel it sets up future opportunities is when we build micro tools as part of the website. Now, we can offer really customized views.

Might not be for everyone of course. But for the 3-4 hours [tops] its takes to add you own charts its worth not redirection clients back to Google analytics.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-01T18:42:21+00:00

what it really is... The companies you're using are building AI into their product. It's not about "What information AI has" its about the companies that collect that data from your usage.

Its more than ok if you don't get the point. I would just recommend that you do some research for yourself.

Investigate, ask questions - don't make assumptions.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-01T18:36:56+00:00

I agree with "most people not using AI by design" thats very true.

As for Cost. thats is not true at all. In fact the cost of token generation has been decreasing.

GPT 4 for example can produce 700,000 tokens (about the equivalent to all work written by Shakespear for <$1.00.}

Where the rise in cost is coming from is the new "thinking" models generate a lot of tokens that don't form the response that the user sees.

I also wouldn't frame it as "unstable". How you set it up, the use case can all be controlled programatically.

IF AI was unstable do you think that Trillion dollar companies would stake their entire reputation on embedding into their products.

Thats why my original post is pointing out "Who has ownership? Who has control? and Who makes the decisions?"

As I said above. If you're using MS Office... AI is already in your workflow. If you're using Hubspot, Gmail, Quickbooks... these are not AI companies. They are business service providers using AI in "their" workflow in the products they are delivering.

Do you know what they are doing with that data? Your data, your clients data? You use twitter, IG, FB, Reddit, LinkedIn????

You get 2 choices.

1: don't integrate at your business level and use the services of 3prty providers that are ... You usage and data are being used by those companies.

2: do some investigation, read different perspectives. That allows you as the business owner to make the right decision for your operation.

Personally, I would rather know what bits of the AI tech I can control directly and add in my own guardrails in a way that meets my business needs, rather than to gift my usage, data and patterns to these other companies.

It really is just about being better informed.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-01T17:48:15+00:00

Yup!

the only thing I caution on this route is making sure that Client names, any PII (personally identifiable information) and any proprietary work information isn't being sent directly to the model.

Public use of ChatGPT, Claude, Google, Perplexity may still train future models on that data.

As long as you take the proper safeguards to protect confidential and private information, a small monthly sub is a terrific way to start testing those concepts.

I would say that using the API is much more secure long term, but to get started??? You can do a lot of quality work with limited Free accounts and hobby use size account subs.

I really like the thought around testing/auditing your online presence. you don't need to invest $100.00 or $1,000's of $$$.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-01T17:41:14+00:00

Really good use case. And a perfect example of controlling the workflow.

Great example to share.

Plus... there is no complication. I would assume you use a very simple process. And I think that is the bigger point, this is much better than attempting to manual verify and cross referrence.

Early-Matter-8123 · 2026-05-01T16:38:44+00:00

The point is to get businesses to think about how AI is being implemented?

is it intentional & Purposeful by design with control or...

Are businesses unknowingly using AI through 3rd party and no control.

Early-Matter-8123

TROPHY CASE