Practical AI For Real Work and Life

The Recording That Never Recorded

Jacki Lutz 0:00

The first time you did this was in your house.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

In your house?

Jacki Lutz 0:04

Yeah. So little background. So my first ever recording was not the first episode. First episode was my second recording. The first recording I wanted to do with my friends first because I knew they wouldn't judge me if I didn't know what I was doing yet, right? And we were audio only. So it really didn't matter where we did it. I just so I did it in the privacy.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

For what we looked like at that point in time.

Jacki Lutz 0:27

I know that too. Yeah. Um, but we did it in the privacy and the comfort of Megan's dining room uh with Matt Fowler, Stacey Miller, and Megan. And we did one on introverts and extroverts, and it was very fun.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Let's go.

Jacki Lutz 0:39

Two years ago, Connect two years ago in Chicago. Yeah. Yep. So yeah. Um, and then I stopped, I forgot to push record on our very first one. So I'm glad it was them. I still think they judge me, but I don't care as much.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Look how far you've come now.

Jacki Lutz 0:55

I still forget. Or I remember and it doesn't record, as you know. So things happen.

Meet The Guests And The Goal

Jacki Lutz 1:10

Welcome to Auto Care on Air, a candid podcast for Curious Industry. I'm Jackie Lutz, Content Director at the Auto Care Association, and this is Cardful Conversations, where we collaborate on today's most relevant power skills. We're all headed in the same direction, so let's get there together. Welcome everybody to another Cardful Conversations. I'm Jackie Lutz, and I am here with Jeff Paul, Executive Vice President of Vipar Heavy Duty. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Thanks for having me.

Jacki Lutz 1:45

And Megan Moody. Uh been on the show before, so familiar face, uh, founder of the Moody Blueprint. Hello. Welcome back. Thank you. Yeah. And today we're going to talk about practical AI. And I love this, and I love how this episode came together because we were actually just uh Megan and I were just having like a random discussion about AI, and she was talking about some of the stuff that she's doing with AI. And it was kind of the first time you hear a lot of people, especially in the industry, talking about using AI. And there's a lot of sessions on it. And but up until now, I I haven't heard a lot of like practical uses for me. It's a lot of data, it's a lot of things that like I feel like are kind of out of reach from my position. So what what you were kind of describing, I was like, that is so relevant for all professionals, right? To understand a little bit more about how AI works and everything. And uh I asked Megan to come back on the show and to pick a partner. And Jeff was numero uno. And here we are.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

I drew the big straw. You drew the big straw.

Jacki Lutz 2:47

Yeah, or the short one, depending on how you look at it. Yep. And then me and Megan decided to match today and not tell you. And now you feel like the eyeball yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

I'm good with that. Let's go.

Jacki Lutz 2:57

It's just a good way to start.

Why AI Progress Feels Overnight

Jacki Lutz 2:59

Crush the ego before we even start. Um so just real quickly, let's talk a little bit about the last year or two. Um, AI has come a long way. And um it was kind of like it felt like it was slowly being adapted, and then all of a sudden it's like in your face. So let's just talk about the last year or two and how uh things have changed with AI.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yeah, I mean, I think one of the best examples of how quickly and how much has changed is it was like a month ago they announced that the the updates that had come out of Chat GPT that week to like push it back forward again because it was starting to lag behind Claude, the amount of changes that happened in three days would have been taken like five months, like less than six months ago. So it just shows you like how quickly that type of thing is speeding up. But I think what's speeding up everybody's awareness or usage of it is because of how attainable it currently is for anyone and everyone to try it.

Jacki Lutz 4:03

And it's kind of crazy because I think it's going so fast yet. The I guess the updates and stuff are coming so quickly because they're obviously using AI to update AI. So it's just gonna continue to happen at the speed of light. Um, but uh Jeff, you made a good point in our pre-meeting that when people first started talking about AI, that it felt you said it felt a lot like the EV conversation, early EV conversations. Talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Yeah. So, you know, the early EV conversations, it it really was about okay, EV is gonna happen and it's gonna be this this timeline, and it's gonna happen, and then all of a sudden it's gonna happen quickly, and then it's gonna is it gonna happen, and then when it happens, it's gonna happen rapidly. And that's kind of where we're at now, right? So AI has kind of been in the news cycle and it was there, and it's what is it gonna be? Is it gonna be security concerns? And now all of a sudden it's here and it's upon us, and we're having to figure out how we're gonna adapt to it. So it's kind of the same reality of it's there and now it's upon us. So, how are we gonna react to it so quickly? So kind of the same kind of a mindset.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Right, because like it came, we were talking, right? Like it kind of started trickling out around the end of 23, like somewhere around the end of 23. We were testing it, like maybe okay, playing with it in 24. I feel like in 24, that's when like bigger companies were like, no, no, no, no, or like weren't quite aware of how well they were gonna block it. And then what's happened in 25? I mean, the it's just everywhere. Now that's how you rip the band-aid off.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, rip it off and rip the band-aid off. And now everybody's trying to figure out how do you control it, right? So most companies are trying to figure out how do you control it, what kind of protocols do you put in place? Um, are you gonna let people make their own rules uh from a corporate standpoint at least, right? Because people are figuring out are you gonna use it uh outside of the corporate environment or are you gonna put protocols in place from a corporate standpoint, and then how are you gonna do that um from within the the guardrails of your company? So it's kind of rip it off and just figure it out as you go, or kind of adopt it and and figure it out now,

From Cloud Confusion To Daily AI

SPEAKER_01 6:21

right?

Jacki Lutz 6:21

Yeah, that's kind of what we're gonna perfectly uh transition and talk about. Um but it's funny, like my first, I kind of remembering my first approach to AI, and it felt a lot like how I felt when the cloud became a thing. It felt so ambiguous. Like I can't wrap, there's no borders around it, right? So like you say, like, oh, save it to the cloud. And it's like, well, it's the cloud, what is it? Where is it actually going? And then how do I find it again? Like, I just have so many questions. It's like I was not an early adapter of the cloud. And I also felt like maybe that's not for the individual. Maybe that's more for like a company to be considering the cloud, right? Like, what am I really saving that needs to be in a cloud somewhere? You know, like just a lot of ambiguity, ambiguity around that. Um, and I felt the same way about AI. And at first, those conversations, I thought it was more gonna be for companies to use. I never would have thought I would be using it on a daily basis to figure out how to raise a duck, for example, or to like figure out like how to, how to what's what are the best ways to help my kids through kindergarten, you know, those first few days, like what you know, like just asking if this is this and this in my fridge, what can I make for dinner? Yeah, like all that kind of stuff. Um, just literally it's becoming such a huge part of my life. And man, I think that's just in the past year or two that I realized I'm like, okay, this is like, this isn't something that's just gonna transform the way that we do business. This is something that's gonna transform the way that we live.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Yeah. It's funny though, like how you're saying how much you use it on a daily, like daily for your personal. Because I use it so much in my business, I actually like kind of avoid it in a lot of ways for my personal, like day-to-day. I mean, naturally, when you search Google, now it kind of gives you some AI results. But in most cases, for my personal, I'm not going straight to like Chat GPT or anything and asking it questions. I'm still using like a basic Google um search. And of course, like I said, that the results are AI, but you're going to the library and looking it up in the card catalog. I'm not, God, I haven't done that in a while. Um, I might be back 20 years for college, but um no, so I because I'm using it so much during the day for business, I am kind of backed off from a from a personal, but I use it for everything.

Jacki Lutz 8:37

It it chose this hairstyle for me. I literally took a photo of my face and was like, what kind of hair do I need? I hate making these decisions, and it kind of made it for me. Like it's just I use it for everything. Um, but there's also a lot of some of us are getting excited about it, and I'm using it in a lot of ways, but there's also a lot of fear around AI, like where we're at today, where we came in the past two, three years. So, like, where are we going? And we only see it, like you said, quickly change, right? It's changing so quickly. So, if so much can happen in a year, what's gonna happen in five? And so that causes hesitation, a little bit of hesitation to use it for things that might be a little bit more oh, what's the word, like cautionary, right? Like, I don't really care if something leaked about Jackie used Chat G BT to figure out her hairstyle. Like, you know, she didn't actually know how to raise ducks. She asked chat chat G BT. So, like that hesitation is definitely taking place. So that's just to talk a little bit about those fears because um I think they're more commonplace than people think. I think even like the quick adapters have fears, but there's a little bit of an element to it, it's like either get on the horse or stay behind, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Yeah, and I mean Jeff can go into the whole like what it's like in a bigger business, but like I think the fear from a root is because it's happening so quickly. Like we can't keep up. Um, but right, it's also in a lot of ways been around forever. I can't say forever, but like for for many, many years, right? How long have you been using predictive text on your phones? Like that's been around for a while, right? How long has Netflix been making recommendations to you based on what you watch? You may like to watch this too, right? I mean, all of that is AI. And so, like, we've been able to get used to these other bits in like slow stages, but now these stages are in such an accelerated format that it makes people nervous. So, yeah, I I the part that makes me it's so weird. I love it, but uh it's so weird and such that dichotomy. But like I have a team of agents working for me, right? I've got I'm up to 15 quote unquote AI team members working for me. Must be a killer Christmas party. There's a lot of jokes running around. But I'll tell you what, there is they don't require Christmas gifts, so there's a plus there.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

But um They do talk back though.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

They talk back, they have quite a personality, but they make a great Christmas card. I mean, they do all show up for that. Maybe they'll give you a gift. Yeah, maybe so. But but it is weird, like, and that's the part that's scary because like my team has team meetings without me. And I, if I really want to go on when they're having a team meeting, I can watch them talk to each other, which is really scary. But it's also really cool. Uh but I yeah, so it it there is a constant still like fear there as well, too.

Guardrails Security And Early Advantage

SPEAKER_02 11:46

But and that's why I'm still always nice to them.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

But then organizationally, if you take it so you think about what you're doing from from your from your perspective, and if you think about it from an organizational standpoint, you have to also decide what you want to do to create competitive advantages. And if you want to be early adopters, right? Because you can wait for technology, you can wait for technology to be fully developed and then adopt that technology, but then you're gonna be so far behind, and as quickly as AI is developing, you're gonna wait so long that you're not gonna adopt it quick enough that you're gonna take advantage of the early adoption opportunities. So if you can take advantage of the opportunities now and put the right guardrails in place and know that you're not gonna have all the answers, then you can develop the right strategies. So for us um at Vipar, it was knowing that we don't know all the answers. So we went to Megan, for instance, and said, Hey, we don't know all the answers. Can you help us with some of that?

SPEAKER_02 12:49

So um I still don't know all the answers, though, either.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

But you're but you're help you're helping us kind of answer the questions that we didn't know. So we have our VP of technology who put some guardrails in place, said, Hey, instead of everybody uh, you know, putting the it started with you know the innocent, everybody started with the AI note takers, right? And pretty soon you were getting the AI note takers popping into your meetings, and then it started with the innocent enough. Okay, what is the terms of use behind these AI note takers and you know, where are the notes going and who owns the notes? And then we put a full stop on that, right? And then it became the um, you know, the the corporate level security cautions and the the protocols that we put there. But then we started to say, okay, instead of just putting the hard stop on everything, let's leverage and figure out what should we be doing with AI. Um, and that led into the discussions that we had with Megan to say, okay, let's have the discovery sessions and let's decide what are we going to do to actually leverage AI for us. So you can start with the innocent discussions about what do we do to be safe and put the right protocols in place, and then say, okay, now how do we go the step farther to say how do we fully adopt? And that might be something very simple to start with, and then that leads into something that's much more sophisticated because it's gonna get sophisticated very quickly.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Right. Right. Like we saw the keynote earlier this week, right? Where the and he made a strong point. I mean, in two years, uh AI is not, I mean, AI is going to be in every business. It's not gonna be a differentiator anymore. It's going to be at what level is it in there? And most importantly, what's gonna differentiate it is what like we work towards now is building the expertise that is like your competitive advantage, right? It's about what you build into it, how you train those models, how you train um the agents that you're building with your competitive advantage that you've had, and that's what will allow you to continue to have that competitive advantage in the future. Using AI is not going to be the advantage.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Using AI is going to be like using Microsoft products, right? Electricity, yeah. Think about 25 or whatever Microsoft Office came. It was at the time, you know, using Word or Excel was something new to most organizations. Now, who logs on at work and doesn't have those tools as part of your everyday, you know, use AI, that's what we're moving towards.

Jacki Lutz 15:31

Yeah, and maybe like a good point to just back up what you guys are saying. It's almost less of an advantage at that point in the adoption process, but more of a differentiator in a bad way. Like, oh, you're not using Microsoft, like that's really inconvenient for me. Yeah. Because that's how I work now. Right. So that's gonna become almost like okay, AI isn't integrated into everything you do. That's a very inconvenient thing now.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

Right. Because now how do my agent like you don't have an agent for my agent to talk to me? How am I people gonna talk to your people? Yes, exactly. Right. But but and it really, I guess it can be a differentiator in a negative way in the future. If you if you haven't already taken the going back to like your speed of like, are you taking the time and everything? If you're not training it now, if you're not starting to build towards it now, it will have already moved so fast that you will be so far behind in that two years that then that is your negative differentiator at that point.

Jacki Lutz 16:32

Yeah. Like really think about it like you're still handwriting your reports versus using a computer. Like that's what it's gonna be like. Um, so analog and so crazy and out of this world that you're not taking advantage of this tool that it's gonna be a huge disadvantage.

Stop Picking Tools Start With Needs

Jacki Lutz 16:46

So let's get into some of some kind of tips. Let's first kind of talk about what companies are currently doing wrong. Like when they want to start kind of really getting serious about AI, what are they getting wrong?

SPEAKER_02 16:58

In my opinion, it's the first question that normally comes out of a lot of people's mouths, which is well, what tool should I use? And it should never be like the tool that drives everything else. It should be your strategy. It should be what are we trying to accomplish? Where are the slowdowns? What are, you know, where's the biggest decision blocks? What's taking the most time, right? Like really looking at that transformation aspect of like what is a company trying to achieve? What gaps do we need to start closing so that so that the company can grow and excel? And then what's the tool that's going to resolve, like help us resolve that, right? Help us close that gap. Because, you know, let's say like the s, you know, the biggest, most concerning thing was phone calls in an organization, right? Well, your solution's not chat GPT, your solution's not Claude. Like your your solution is to bring in an AI, you know, voice agent, right? So that that to me is the the one of the biggest things. And my other my other thing, but I did get validated on this by an expert, is that I don't think it should sit in IT as a project.

Jacki Lutz 18:08

And this one could be fighting words in a lot of companies. Yeah, tell us more.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

It goes back to the same thing of kind of with the tool. It it's a piece of your strategy, it's a piece of your business transformation for the future. You know, it's not um it's not IT rolling out a phone system, right? It's it it is a it's supporting, it's a supporting tool for every other strategic project, right? Like if you were okay, in marketing, if you're going out and designing flyers or something like this, but the tool that's going to help you create those flyers is Adobe or Canva or whatever it may be, just because you need that tool doesn't mean all of a sudden it's a big IT project, right? Your strategy is still coming from, in this case, your marketing, right? This is a bigger discussion of looking at what the business needs as a wider like transformation moving forward, taking the steps. So, yes, does it need to be supported by IT? Does everything need to be aligned by IT from a securities perspective, from a rolling hands down, 100%. You cannot have, especially in bigger organizations, you cannot have that without the IT alignment. And they should be a key part of all of the decisions, hands down. But it shouldn't just sit in there as a silo.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

The functional roles really need to drive the implementation. Yeah, the technology, the technology group drives the the implementation, the connectivity, but the functional role is who really needs to drive the strategy behind it. Right. I think the other thing is really the people behind the AI really need to drive it as well. I think everybody thinks AI replaces people. AI really enables people at the end of the day. So it there is going to be efficiency, and I think the reality is AI is going to make everybody more efficient. So instead of people doing the tasks that were just task-driven, um, you know, building spreadsheets just to get data out of spreadsheets, building PowerPoint presentations for the sake of building PowerPoint presentations, building reports or summaries.

Jacki Lutz 21:00

I think of like Google. Like people used to have to research. Yeah. Like go to a library, go to the library, read books and like write down on a notebook what you're learning. Yeah. You know, that didn't necessarily it might have taken some jobs somewhere, but like that enabled a lot of people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

So I think the fear is everybody thinks it's a people replacer. And I think it's really an enabler at the end of the day. So for me, it's especially at this stage. At this stage, for sure. Especially, yes. So I think if I think strategically, if you can think about it as how do we how do you use it as a tool to really bring the best out of the people you have in place and use that as kind of the methodology for what drives the strategy. I think there's a great opportunity there as well.

Jacki Lutz 21:49

I think that's a great one. Um, I think we should spend a little bit of time on your people when it comes to AI. Oh, yes. Um, something that was mentioned was how important training is.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

Yes. Very much so. Um, I mean, so right now, and I I did, I just Googled it right before we came in because I wanted to make sure that the stats had not significantly changed. But it is close to 90% of AI initiatives right now in organizations fail due to like lack of adoption and and rolling out. And a big piece of that is because of the training assets. It surprises me zero. Yeah.

Jacki Lutz 22:27

That that is right.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Because honestly, like if we go back to like when Teams rolled out or when we had Skype for the first time or any of that, it's like all of a sudden you had this new

Training Prompts And People First Adoption

SPEAKER_02 22:36

thing on your computer and it's like, here you go. Great. What? What am I supposed to do like this?

Jacki Lutz 22:42

I don't have time. Like I'm I'm already very, very busy. And yes, you say that this can help me. It's kind of like getting a new person on your team, right? It's like you have to take time to train them first. And you don't have time to train, right? But if you don't train them, then they can't help you and you'll never get better. But it's like, it's kind of like this this catch 22. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Well, and there's so many, there's so many variants. I mean, there's so many different AI models and platforms. And then there's training of the prompts, and there's training within the training. It's a very complicated there's it's a very complicated subject that's so little known at this point.

Jacki Lutz 23:19

It probably needs to be kind of customized a little bit. So there's not one size fits all training and you get to train your whole team at once. Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Right. Well, because the thing is, so right, you you need to train the the team, right? And in regards to how they use it, um, the basic functions, the the personalization, all of that. And that you can keep okay for a wider audience, right? Because you're training them to at least initially like set it up, talk to it, all that. You can do a basic prompting for everybody so that they understand that it's not just typing in like build the resume. Okay, but what? What am I building a resume for? What is it, you know, what's the target, what's the job, all of that, right? So it's built, so it's teaching a little bit of that basic prompting. But yes, if you when you want it to be more valuable, you want to narrow the team focus so that you can actually use use cases so that they understand, like then how to feed it, what it can do, the true results of what it can drive. And then in those use cases, the fact that now that they are going to use this specifically in marketing or specifically in product, that now they need to train the LLM they're using. So now they've got the training, but now they need to train the LLM with all the knowledge they have. What and that you literally have to teach it to store to memory and reuse it. And where's this folder of how I speak and your your brand and brain dump your digital brain into this thing?

Jacki Lutz 24:47

So we talked earlier about fears around AI. And I obviously think it's very important that leadership and companies understand that there are humans in their team and that they are nervous about AI. They're nervous about being displaced. That's very possible. Um, talk a little bit about that because employee buy-in is really important, not just because they don't know how to use it, but they might not want to use it. So, how do you engage your team and get them excited about using AI and not nervous that they're basically working themselves out of the job?

SPEAKER_01 25:24

I think there's two. I'll speak maybe to begin with to it. I think there's two parts of that to begin with. Some of that becomes there's part of a generational side to that discussion to begin with. Um because I think to some extent um, you know, like adopters of technology might be a little more open to the to that discussion to begin with. Um, but I think it starts with the conversate, bringing them into the conversation very early in the process and having them be part of that dialogue and then making sure that it the conversation wraps around that people first mentality so they know that it's more about making them more efficient and making their quality of life within their work more productive so that they're not doing those parts of the job that aren't that are just repetitive and that they can be more creative in what they're doing. Um so making it more about not replacing jobs, but making it more effective for them and making them part of the process. So um I think if you do that to start with and make them part of the process, um I think you can kind of overcome some of that. I think you need to be honest too, because I if you say, hey, there's not gonna be efficiency and we're not trying to be more efficient as a company, then you're not being honest with people. Um, but you need to just be honest and open with that conversation and say, hey, maybe we're not gonna replace jobs down the line. Um, and there's gonna be some efficiency gain. So if you have open dialogue, bring them into the conversation, let them know it's about quality of life for the people we have here, making people more effective in what you do. Um that's how you overcome some of those discussions, I think, in terms of you know, having leadership discussions with the folks you have um, you know, in real time now.

Jacki Lutz 27:15

So maybe one way to do that um is explaining to them like there's a lot of mundane things that you do, a lot of, you know, like I can't imagine doing my job today if I didn't have AI helping me write podcast descriptions, you know, helping me do all that kind of work that's like very mundane and hard to do from scratch. And because I don't have to do that stuff, I can take more on, right? So is one way to do that with your employees being like, okay, now you're not gonna have to do all of this busy work, you know, all this kind of stuff we're gonna use an agent for, and that's gonna free you up. And with that free time, we're hoping that you can focus in this area or you can do more with this or focus on this skill that you have. We want to tap into that.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Yeah, or you or you you um you ask folks, is there an area of the business that they've wanted to get involved in that they haven't had an opportunity because they've been so hyper focused in these areas because of the that routine part of their their day, um, that maybe they can be freed up to go get involved in some pieces of the business that they haven't had an opportunity to. So, you know, there if if you sit back and you talk to to folks and you you engage and you ask them where their passions are, they'll open up and you'll find that they they want to try things in different parts of the business that maybe they haven't had a chance to do. So when you have those conversations, I think it it opens up opportunities.

Jacki Lutz 28:40

Yeah, and I really think that another trend, you know, we're at Auto Care Connect right now, and there's been a lot of AI discussion. We've had a lot of keynotes, and they almost all bring up AI. Um, but what the theme is, it seems like, you know, not like last year, it was, you know, AI, here's all the tools that exist, here's all the ways you can use it, all that kind of stuff. And this year it feels like it the message is don't forget about the human. It's it's more important now. The human part is even more important now than ever. And it's so important that leaders realize that humans have ambitions, they have goals, and you know, tapping into that when it comes to getting employees to buy into an AI strategy is like a really good route to go because you're kind of tapping into that emotional side, getting them excited about it, and you'll be on a roll.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Well, and look at how easy it is to rebuild the culture once some like once your team members don't feel completely overwhelmed, like because they now don't feel like that they're doing, you know, three jobs or it because they have that more time, right? We are, I mean, our industry is so capacity restrained, right? I mean, it's it's not just a a single business problem, it's an industry problem. And how great it is, then you free up a little bit of time. You can start having the longer conversations again, right? You don't feel the pressure if you've run into somebody, you know, at the water cooler, right? To to rush back to your desk because someone's, you know, because there's a looming deadline. You you're you now have that flexibility to re-engage with people again, not feel like you have to do three things while you're also on a conference call, right? It it allows us to be more human in some ways again, you know, like and to actually connect longer without the stress of so many things weighing on you to get done.

Jacki Lutz 30:35

Can I open up a can of worms? Sure. How long? I want like estimations, guesses, because this will be recorded and we can revisit this later.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Uh-oh.

Jacki Lutz 30:44

How long before you think that these AI agents, like you said, you have 15 AI agents working for you, cheap labor?

SPEAKER_00 30:51

That explains a lot. That explains a lot now.

Jacki Lutz 30:54

Well, how long until that GPT is put into a robot and is a physical employee? And we start seeing more and more companies, you know, having robots be a part of the team and they're walking around at the water cooler, and people are developing relationships with them and they are remembering conversations that they had with you. And you're starting to develop, you know, emotional connections to robots, you know,

When AI Gets A Body

Jacki Lutz 31:22

like and they are at the Christmas party, and that's no longer a joke, you know? And they do.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

How long is it that before we have a nickname for them? And I and I have to have my my favorite name form then, too, I guess. That's a really scary question to kill the record.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

But I will tell you, I can't I tell my mom almost weekly I would give up some several of my agents if I could have a robot to do the crap I actually don't want to do, like mow the grass, clean the house. Like those are the agents and the robots I want to do.

Jacki Lutz 31:48

But are we?

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Do you think that do you think that do you think that's where we're going? Because that's kind of a scary thought.

Jacki Lutz 31:53

I mean, have you seen Star Wars? Star we're going there. Like it's happening. And I'm not saying that we're gonna be like Star Wars, is not what I'm saying, but like the way that robots are just in their culture and they're they're walking around and a robot goes by and throws away a piece of trash, like that's we are in Well, you're seeing it on you're seeing it on, you know, whatever podcasts you watch.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Yeah, you know, you're seeing it on TV and you're see you're seeing it in in the news, you know, different things happening.

Jacki Lutz 32:22

It's like right now, it's just like but just like ChatGPT and things like that, it doesn't feel relevant to you yet, right? But like, how far are we away from when that is a thing, when everybody does have a robot nanny? Because it makes no sense to not have one, right? Like if you want to be more efficient, invest in a robot and it's gonna do all of the things that are taking up your time, and then you can focus on your business or making more money or focus on parenting or whatever it is you want to do. And at some point, that's just gonna be the the no-brainer and what was the world like when we did when we had to clean toilets, you know.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

So you still have to answer the question though, how long?

Jacki Lutz 32:58

How long do you take?

SPEAKER_02 33:00

I don't it's definitely not as far off as what we think that it is. I don't know. I mean, them actually physically in an office setting. I don't know if we'll how much of that we'll see, but I do think we'll see the robots for like the homes and even potentially like manufacturing work. I I mean, really, that's already in there in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Like commonplace though, where it's like you know, well in the manufacturing environment, the cost has come down so much. I mean, we we see it in our manufacturing operation, the cost has come down so much that that's very commonplace now. So five years.

Jacki Lutz 33:37

Yeah, that's that was actually gonna be my guess. When it's commonplace, right? Yeah, not just like here and there, oh cool, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

I'd five years five max.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Yeah, I was thinking longer, but I actually think maybe shorter. That's what I'm saying. I think it's five max before these things are because AI right now is so attainable to anybody, right? All the LLMs have like a free version for you to try, right? And you to use to a certain limit standpoint. But then even if you want a paid version, it's twenty dollars a month. Like people are spending twenty dollars a month a day, like twenty dollars like on a day when they stop at Starbucks. It it is very low cost right now, and so for it, I don't know, it's three to five years.

Jacki Lutz 34:21

I mean, I think about like look at the little vacuums. What are they called? Yeah, the iRobots. Yeah, yes, that's what it is. Rumbas? Yes, we just need one with legs, yes. That's what's that's what's holding us back.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

And they've there have been versions at CES already, and those prices are gonna come down. Yeah, I think three to five years.

Jacki Lutz 34:37

It's gonna be like, okay, you got to pick your family home, you start picking your family car, okay. What's your gonna be your robot or whatever they call it to make us more comfortable?

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Yeah, five years is scary, but it's it's probably not that far.

Jacki Lutz 34:48

It's really scary. So not to end on a on a fear note. Um, but just as we wrap up here, I really appreciate your guys' time. This was a really good discussion. Um, if everybody could just take away one thing from this 30 minutes, what do each of you guys hope that that is?

SPEAKER_01 35:05

So I've been focused on the people. I think uh, and you mentioned uh, well, I just came in this afternoon, so I wasn't in most of the sessions. You said that people were kind of the focus of some of the AI sessions this week. I think it's still it's still about people. Um, you know, people are the heart of our businesses, they're the heart of our culture. Um, it's what sets the tone for us. Uh so I think when you think about AI, you still gotta make sure that we keep our people at the center of our strategy. Um and with that,

One Takeaway To Start Tomorrow

SPEAKER_01 35:37

make sure that you have a strategy. Um we're just beginning our strategy. Um I think we're probably early, um, early adopters, but we have a strategy and we have a plan, which is creating our plan. So um make people at the center of it and and have a strategy.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

Mine would be uh you don't have to understand it all at once. Um pick one. You just pick one to start somewhere, um whether it's you know, GPT or Claude or whatever it may be. Um just pick one, start playing with it, start playing with your prompts. It you do not by any means need to go all in on every single one of them. Just pick one to start trying and learning.

Jacki Lutz 36:27

And I think mine, um, it's probably a very light-hearted one, but I think just start in your personal life too. If you're not if you're not adapting AI a whole lot, have a little fun with it on the side. And I think that that kind of helps you be a little bit more open to how you can bring it into your professional world and your career, you know. But use it to see what hairstyle you should actually have, you know, or like whatever, you know, put an outfit together for me or whatever. You know, I can't get the stain out of my clothes. What do I do? You know, like anything like that. Um, just start kind of gently using it and kind of ease your way in. And you might be surprised at how much it changes your life. But thank you guys again so much for joining me today. Loved this discussion and thank you for sharing your insights. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

You bet. Thanks for having us.

Jacki Lutz 37:12

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Auto Care on Air. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so that you never miss an episode. And don't forget to leave us a rating and review. It helps others discover our show. Auto Care on Air is proud to be a production of the Auto Care Association, dedicated to advancing the autocare industry and supporting professionals like you. To learn more about the association and its initiatives, visit autocare.org.