𝐀 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐈 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧. 𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝. 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐬: 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐈 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐈. 𝐈 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐈 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫. 😳

And the newspaper backed him. In one moment the argument stopped being whether you should write with AI, and became whether you did it well.

This week on 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧, Quentin and Stark turn a scandal into a method: 𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐓 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐀𝐈 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫.

The numbers behind it: 📊

📊 𝟏𝟎𝟎% was the detector's confidence, not because he used AI, but because he left in the obvious tells and didn't hide the seams

📊 𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐨 losing years from 1981 to 2010. The ideas were his and earned. The AI only dressed them

📊 Writing is already the most common way businesses use AI, across sales, support and marketing

The sharpest framing: AI does the middle, not the ends. The beginning, what am I trying to say, needs you. The end, is this true, do I believe it, needs you. The drafting between is where AI flies.

The takeaway is freeing, not fearful. Use AI for nearly everything you write, no shame. But the easier the tool makes the words, the more the effort has to show in the substance. A customer feels the difference between a message you shaped and one you clearly didn't.

Your move: 

🔴 Take one thing customers read, your profile, a proposal, your about page, and rebuild it with AI around a single goal. 

🔴 Write the point yourself first, then let AI draft the middle. 

🔴 Read it out loud, scrub the tells, and check every claim before it goes out.

Write with AI, not instead of you. 🎙️

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▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

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Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

𝟔𝟗% 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝. 𝐁𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧. ⚠️

Wayne Hunter is CEO and founder of AvTech Solutions, an eighteen person team serving clients across the United States as a reseller, managed service provider and compliance provider. He coaches MSPs, he is a bestselling author, and he joined us at ASCII Edge in Toronto with the single hardest number of the two days.

𝐀 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐂𝐈𝐎𝐬. 𝐒𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐲 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐀𝐈 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐞.

They had executive buy in. They had budget. They had a team. What they did was buy tools first and work out the problem afterwards, and by then they owned the wrong tools. Define the problem, then choose the technology.

🔴 Wayne's frame for AI is efficiency, held as a business conversation rather than a knob twisting exercise. Done properly, an eighteen person company can operate like a thirty person one.

🔴 Efficiency and security together, with neither traded away for the other.

🔴 On the jobs myth, he pointed at the large companies that cut whole departments and are now trying to hire those people back. The process knowledge lived in their heads and was never documented.

🔴 His counter example: a bank with three open roles in a lending department made the process efficient instead. The vacancies closed and the existing team moved from reactive to proactive.

🔴 The number one enabler he named for MSPs: data classification and governance. Who can access what, where and when, tightened and documented, before AI touches any of it.

🔴 His rule for conferences, learned the hard way: take one golden nugget and implement it, then come back for the next one. Ten things at once gets you nowhere.

A fragmented approach gives you fragmented results. 🎙️

Stream on:

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▶️ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown

▶️ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599

▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

▶️ Web: smbaipodcast.com

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐚 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦. 🤝

Ashley joined us on the floor at ASCII Edge in Toronto, and she made the sharpest point of the two days in a single line. She was there as a vendor, at her first ASCII, and she did not soften it.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐌𝐁 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫.

Ask them one question: are you actually using the AI you are selling me? The answer tells you everything about the advice that follows. Ashley spent years in sales before this, and she is clear that a seller who has never lived with the tool has nothing to teach you about living with it.

🔴 Her SMB use case is go to market. Spinning up a website, standing up an agent for customer service, moving at a speed that was out of reach a year ago. She called it one of the greatest equalisers available to small business right now.

🔴 That equaliser language matters. The advantage used to belong to whoever could afford the agency and the head count. That gap has narrowed sharply.

🔴 Notice where she starts. Growth. That is where a dollar actually gets added to a small business, and it is forward looking by design.

🔴 On the jobs myth: industries will be transformed and roles will change, and her read is that the change hands people back the work that matters and levels them up while it does it.

🔴 Her second ask of MSPs: rebuild the business model around customer outcomes rather than around preparing for the next QBR.

🔴 Her highlight, as a first timer: the community. Less competitive feel than she expected, more cooperation. Vendors and providers helping each other be successful, which genuinely surprised her.

Credibility is earned in your own environment first. 🎙️

Stream on:

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▶️ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown

▶️ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599

▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

▶️ Web: smbaipodcast.com

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭. 🔁

At ASCII Edge in Toronto we sat down with Andre, president of Peak Performance IT in Newmarket, Ontario. Ten years serving SMB clients across Canada and into the US, and his advice on where to begin is refreshingly unglamorous.

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫.

He described an accounting firm with a task that ate an hour every cycle. Copilot took it down to about ten minutes, plus review. The hour was never the point. What the team did with the hour they got back was.

🔴 Andre's starting rule: pick the process nobody enjoys doing. The dread is the signal, and it costs nothing to follow.

🔴 Why that beats a strategy document: the person who hates the task will happily test the fix, so adoption looks after itself.

🔴 On the jobs myth: the fear comes from thinking in today's terms about a technology that moves exponentially. His answer to the worry about teaching yourself out of a job is that you now get to focus on the things you would rather be doing anyway.

🔴 He pushed that further. If a business can accomplish ten times as much, the business itself goes exponential, and that is the part most of us struggle to picture.

🔴 For MSPs in the next twelve months: start playing. Go past the tools handed to you. Run a local model on your own machine and see what it does. New open weight releases land every six to eight weeks.

🔴 His reason for that: when a client rings with a problem on a model they are running, you cannot consult on an experience you have never had.

🔴 His event highlight was a session that turned instinct into a framework. Seven questions every MSP already knew, finally organised. He called it the moment someone hands you the key, when jumbled information clicks into shape.

The continuous learners are the ones who stay in the room. 🎙️

Stream on:

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▶️ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown

▶️ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599

▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

▶️ Web: smbaipodcast.com

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭. 🧭

Chad Kempt is president of Fast Computers, a Microsoft solutions partner in southern Ontario focused on data protection, network security and identity management. He joined us at ASCII Edge in Toronto with the calm of someone who has watched several technology waves arrive.

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲.

His warning to the room was against shoving technology in to see if it sticks. Understand what your customer's business actually struggles with, then bring the tool. Do that and you are selling outcomes, and you become far harder to displace by the next caller claiming to be an AI expert.

🔴 Chad's own use case is administrative weight. Rough notes into a drafted email or a formal quote, decks built for presentations. Two or three hours of work now takes about thirty minutes, with fifteen of that spent reviewing.

🔴 He emphasised the review step twice, unprompted. Speed without a check is how quality quietly slips, and his fifteen minutes of review is the part most people skip.

🔴 Once a task is drafted reliably, he layers automation on top of it. Copilot with Cowork is his preferred pairing, and he says it does not take much to get going.

🔴 The myth he would retire: AI as a silver bullet you buy and plug in. Realistic expectations produce better results, every time.

🔴 On how the MSP role has shifted: from plugging things in and watching blinky lights, to business and risk management and analysis.

🔴 His event highlight was the member meeting. Vendors are not allowed in, which is precisely why the conversation there is worth having.

🔴 He also singled out the keynote panel on Josh's exit. Most owners get one of those in a career, so hearing the long term plan behind it lands.

Slow down enough to know what you are doing with it. 🎙️

Stream on:

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▶️ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown

▶️ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599

▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

▶️ Web: smbaipodcast.com

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

𝐈𝐧 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐝. ✉️

Robert Thompson is president of TechFuel, serving accounting firms across the greater Toronto area. He joined us at ASCII Edge in Toronto, and his first recommendation was the least fashionable one in the building.

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞.

Help people write better, more effective emails, and keep them short so the read is short. In a practice where client communication is paramount, he calls that an easy win, and easy wins are how adoption actually begins.

🔴 Why it works as a first step: every person in the firm already writes email, so nobody has to learn a new workflow to feel the benefit on day one.

🔴 Shorter also means clearer. A client who reads the whole message is a client who does not need the follow up call.

🔴 The myth Robert would retire: that AI is turnkey. You do not plug it in and watch profit and time expand. There is real work in planning the business, finding the opportunities and moving crawl, walk, run.

🔴 That pacing matters more in his world than most. Accounting firms hold deeply sensitive client information, and the sequence you follow is part of the duty of care.

🔴 On staying relevant over the next twelve months, he was direct: have the conversation with the client. AI has arrived in the MSP's space, and providers need to keep it there.

🔴 His warning attached to that: keep clients happy with the AI services they need, or somebody else will step in and do it for you.

🔴 His highlight was a keynote that changed his mind on exactly this point, that the plan comes before the action. Networking is usually his answer at these events, so that was a notable swap.

Plan it, then act on it. 🎙️

Stream on:

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▶️ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown

▶️ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599

▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

▶️ Web: smbaipodcast.com

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬. 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭. 🇨🇦

Miles Walker is channel development manager at Kaseya, based in Vancouver with the head office in Miami. He has worked this show three or four years running, and he joined us at ASCII Edge in Toronto to talk about where SMBs actually start.

𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞. 𝐇𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐧𝐞.

Miles put AI alongside the arrivals he has already lived through, the DVD and the internet among them. The work now is the same work as then: figure out how it makes life easier and how it makes the businesses you serve run better. Saving money helps.

🔴 On the myth he would bin: that AI is terrifying and coming for every job. Some roles will change, and his read is that the people who embrace it end up in better ones. The people running away from it are the ones with a problem.

🔴 His guidance for MSPs over the next twelve months: work out which tools actually suit you. Not every AI tool fits every MSP, and spending heavily on something that mostly writes emails is not a strategy.

🔴 His practical version: find the five or six tools that genuinely save you money and make you more efficient, and go deep on those rather than wide on everything.

🔴 A point we added on the day: match the model to the job. Reaching for the most expensive option to draft an email is how budgets disappear without much to show for it.

🔴 His highlight was the new faces. Businesses a year old, some a couple of years old, all choosing a Canadian show to understand the Canadian market.

🔴 That is what he thinks sets ASCII Edge apart. Canadian content and Canadian vendors alongside the American and European ones.

New rooms are where new ideas come from. 🎙️

Stream on:

▶️ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SMBAIHUB

▶️ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown

▶️ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599

▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

▶️ Web: smbaipodcast.com

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞. 🫱

Tony Thomas is president of PTC, a small Ontario MSP with a lovely vertical in the not for profit sector built over more than three decades. He joined us at ASCII Edge in Toronto to talk about capacity.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞.

Not for profits run on limited money and limited people while still producing content for board papers, funders, programmes and communities. Tony's use case is exactly there. Have that content at your fingertips, produce it and reuse it across audiences with a fraction of the effort.

🔴 Tony frames AI as a people and process question, with the technology arriving afterwards. Look at what your organisation is doing today and where the tool genuinely helps.

🔴 The myth he would end: treating this as a big technology project. He describes it instead as an introspective look at how you work with the resources you already have.

🔴 On the jobs question, his version is grounded: it lets you do your job without the doldrum of rewriting the same pages over and over.

🔴 For MSPs in the next twelve months, he was unequivocal. Use it in house first. He has deployed Copilot into a lot of organisations, and Microsoft's own adoption tooling shows you where clients have access and are not using it.

🔴 That reporting is the opening. Find the licences going unused, then help those people adopt. The revenue is in the adoption work, not the deployment.

🔴 His highlight was the whole event. Watching a presenter demo a tool and the entire room open their laptops to try it, plus the candour of a partner walking through his exit plan on stage.

🔴 The phrase that stuck from Tony: you don't know what you don't know.

Capacity is the quiet superpower. 🎙️

Stream on:

▶️ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SMBAIHUB

▶️ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown

▶️ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599

▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

▶️ Web: smbaipodcast.com

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

𝐇𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭'𝐬. 📊

Juan Soto is president of IT Impact in Chicago, a Microsoft data and AI certified partner and one of only a handful in the country carrying that designation. We caught him at ASCII Edge in Toronto.

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐌𝐁 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲.

His before picture will be familiar to a lot of owners. The P&L and the balance sheet arrive after the fact, so you spend the month reacting. Agents now read his numbers daily and weekly, and the month becomes something he manages while it is still happening.

🔴 Juan's rule for owners: budget, revenue and cost are where AI earns its keep first, because that is where the decisions live.

🔴 Daily visibility changes the questions you get to ask. A margin drifting in week two is a conversation. The same drift found in week six is a write off.

🔴 The myth he would erase: that you can hand employees the tools and productivity magically doubles. Employers owe their people the education, the training, the guidance and the policies alongside the licence.

🔴 His read on the next twelve months for MSPs: AI will keep getting better and it will keep getting more expensive, and your clients will call you first when a new feature lands.

🔴 What he does about it: two hours every single day on podcasts and articles, so his clients do not have to. If he is not on top of it, the call goes to his competition instead.

🔴 That is the quiet job description of a modern MSP. Absorbing a firehose of releases and turning it into one clear recommendation an owner can act on.

🔴 His event highlight was other owners. Trading real issues, growing the referral network, learning from people running the same business and carrying the same problems.

Preparation is the product. 🎙️

Stream on:

▶️ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SMBAIHUB

▶️ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown

▶️ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599

▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

▶️ Web: smbaipodcast.com

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐈 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐲. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦. 🤝

For most small businesses, that person is their IT provider, and that whole industry is going through its biggest shift in decades.

This week on the 𝐒𝐌𝐁 𝐀𝐈 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭, Kree and Varun sit down in studio with 𝐉𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐊𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐬, CEO of The ASCII Group, the original vendor neutral community for IT providers across North America, founded in 1984. Jerry has spent nearly thirty years in this channel.

The numbers that frame it: 📊

📊 The managed services market is forecast to grow just 𝟏𝟎% this year, with real margin pressure as basic IT gets commoditized

📊 Yet specialist providers who advise, rather than resell boxes, report about 𝟑𝟎% higher margins and charge more, not less

📊 Roughly 𝟗𝟓% of AI pilots deliver no measurable return, and two thirds of companies get stuck in experiments that never scale

📊 ASCII has powered over 𝟓𝟎𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 exchanges, providers helping providers

Jerry's throughline: the technology keeps getting cheaper and easier. What stays scarce is trusted advice from someone who understands your business. If your provider only ever talks hardware, licences and problems, that's the commodity relationship AI keeps making cheaper. The one worth paying for asks how your business is trying to grow.

What this means for you: when your provider brings you AI, ask one question. What number in my business is this going to change, and how will we know? Answer that clearly and they're an advisor. Only features, that's a sale. 🎙️

Stream on:

▶️ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SMBAIHUB

▶️ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown

▶️ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599

▶️ Web: smbaimagazine.com

▶️ Web: smbaipodcast.com

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.