Events, AI Training

Colbea presentation, part 1; what is AI and some great use cases

March 11, 2025

Table of Contents

Last week I ran a training session on using AI for marketing for local business owners, focusing on how AI can transform your marketing efforts. I wanted to share some key insights from that session for those who couldn’t make it.

I have broken it into 2 parts for our website, this is the first part where we dive into one of my usual presentations which covers an overview of AI and some great questions from the attendees.

As you might have guessed from my company name (The AI Guys), I’m absolutely obsessed with AI technology – “dangerously obsessed” as I joked during the workshop! But what struck me was how much the attitude towards AI has shifted in just a few months. When I started doing these presentations, I’d face rooms full of concern and uncertainty. Now, the focus has shifted from “should I use this?” to “how can I use this effectively?”

What We Covered

During the workshop, I shared my journey from chef (yes, I used to be a chef!) to digital automation specialist, and how a near-death experience completely changed my career path. Now I’m on a mission to give back a billion hours to entrepreneurs and their teams by 2045 through clever AI implementation.

The core message I wanted to convey is this: AI isn’t about replacing you or your voice – it’s about amplifying what you already do brilliantly.

Too many businesses are using AI in the wrong way – literally just throwing prompts at ChatGPT and publishing whatever comes out. That’s not the way to stand out! If you’re an expert in what you do, you’ll always be able to create content that’s better than someone who just chucks in a random prompt without knowing what to ask.

Some Practical Examples

I demonstrated several practical applications including:

  • WhatsApp-powered tools: I showed how I’ve connected WhatsApp to AI tools to create YouTube thumbnails on the go, which blew some minds! Since everyone already uses WhatsApp, there’s no need to form new habits or learn new applications.
  • AI research acceleration: I explained how you can now learn and research ten times faster with the right AI tools in your pocket.
  • Task automation: For those repetitive marketing tasks that eat up so much time, I demonstrated how to complete them dramatically faster.

Why This Matters for Small Businesses

What excites me most about AI is how it’s levelling the playing field for small and micro businesses. You can now:

  • Spend more time on high-value tasks (like speaking to clients and building relationships)
  • Increase your profitability by focusing on the tasks that actually make you money
  • Scale your business more effectively (potentially doubling profit per team member)

In the workshop, I reassured everyone that we’re not yet at the point of general AI that thinks for itself (I shared a funny story about AI’s inability to create images of people writing with their left hand as evidence of this). What we’re using is generative AI – essentially very advanced predictive text trained on massive datasets.

Next Steps

In the second part we’ll be diving deeper into practical applications specific to marketing strategies. I’ll be showing how to develop your own AI workflows and demonstrating more of the tools we’ve built at The AI Guys.

You can access that post here.

Remember – it’s not about replacing the human touch in your marketing. It’s about freeing up more of your time to focus on what makes your business special in the first place!

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