AI Consulting: Rapid Growth Through Tiered Solutions and Pent-Up Innovation

Key Quotes

"I firmly believe that being an ai consultant is one of the biggest opportunities that anyone in the world can take advantage of today and so i wanted to sit in dial in and say how are you doing this how are you finding customers how are you helping these customers what size companies are you working with how can we do what you do"

The speaker expresses a strong conviction about the current opportunity in AI consulting. This quote highlights the core motivation behind the discussion: to understand the practical strategies and customer engagement methods employed by a successful AI consultant. It sets the stage for a deep dive into the "how-to" of this burgeoning field.

"I've told people for a long time that if it's the way that you're supposed to be going it won't be it'll be hard but it won't be complicated and that's what i feel like happened with this and so it's been it's been challenging but it hasn't been complicated"

The speaker reflects on a personal philosophy regarding entrepreneurial endeavors. This quote suggests that when a path is aligned with one's purpose, the challenges encountered, while significant, will not be overly complex or confusing. It implies that the AI consulting business, despite its difficulty, possesses a clarity of direction.

"So my skill set was i learned all the chat gpts all that stuff that was out there and went deep in their features but also used my development coding skill set to like create custom solutions and learn how to interact with the apis of these companies and um you know what is agentic ai what does that really mean and how does that work and what's hype and what's real"

The speaker details the specific technical skills that contributed to their success in AI consulting. This quote illustrates a blend of readily available AI tools and foundational coding abilities, emphasizing the importance of understanding not just the tools themselves but also their underlying mechanisms and market perception. It points to a comprehensive approach to AI problem-solving.

"I think about solutioning for ai in three levels so the first level is it'd sound like this you would say i i have this problem or i want to do this thing i would say did you know that this feature in chat gpt can do that and you say no i don't let me show you now you know save 30 of your time you're happy you get to stock a practice on time all the things that's a level one solution a level two solution would be that's not enough we need to now cobble together some different systems and move information around we want ai to be involved somehow but they're existing tools zapier um all the different ones that we just mentioned that's a level two solution and a level three solution would be we have a complex task that needs orchestration we need some combination of deterministic and probabilistic interactions with technology and we need to build that and deploy it ourselves"

The speaker outlines a tiered framework for approaching AI solutions. This quote breaks down the consulting process into three distinct levels, ranging from leveraging existing AI features to building complex, custom integrations. It provides a structured methodology for understanding and addressing client needs with AI.

"AI is a probabilistic technology ask it the same question and you're going to get different answers each time directionally accurate but it's not a if this then that yeah it's not one plus one is always going to equal two it's you're going to ask it like what is the best suitcase for my trip to india yeah right and it's going to well what do you you're going to kind of get the same result but different words different structures etc so probabilistic in that it's it's giving you the highest probable outcome based on the patterns and the math that ai exists deterministic is more that if this then that type of thing and that's what traditionally our code has been right"

The speaker clarifies the fundamental nature of AI technology. This quote differentiates between probabilistic AI, which generates varied but contextually relevant outputs, and deterministic systems, which follow rigid "if-then" logic. It highlights a key characteristic of AI that consultants must understand to manage client expectations and build effective solutions.

"Pent up innovation you know and if you can unlock that you kind of get this micro innovation at scale you know if you've got a front line worker who has an idea in the past they never would have got it off the ground because they're not going to get development time or resources but they have the best ideas because they're the most relevant to what the company's doing they're the subject matter expert now that person i'm finding this out there all the time they used cloud code to to code up an application for them and two other people that's become integral to their process the ceo doesn't even know about it but it works amazingly and then our job is to say that's great let's get it off local host and in somewhere where we can manage it but you want to see that you want to release that pen up innovation that's been locked away in these you know corners and silos and ai is allowing us to do that both through the tooling and the features that it offers but also just because of our ability to spin up custom software for you know small groups fast"

The speaker introduces the concept of "pent-up innovation" and its connection to AI. This quote emphasizes how AI empowers individuals within an organization, particularly frontline workers, to develop and implement their ideas rapidly. It suggests that AI's ability to facilitate custom software development unlocks latent creativity and efficiency that was previously inaccessible.