In this solo episode of the AI Cookbook podcast, Jeff Hassemer outlines five critical developments affecting small businesses. He begins by highlighting a visibility problem: AI‑driven search tools currently recommend only about 1.2 % of local businesses, a gap that can be quickly fixed with a proper AI audit and structured website data. He then promotes OpenAI’s new ChatGPT training program designed specifically for small‑business owners, positioning it as a way to close the widespread AI‑skills gap. Next, Jeff shares a concrete operational example—using a memory‑architecture pattern to keep pricing data accurate in AI‑generated proposals for an HVAC contractor. He moves on to the rise of “agentic search,” where AI agents can book appointments and place orders directly, and advises three quick site upgrades (booking link, AI chatbot, clear pricing) to stay competitive. Finally, he warns about the accelerating patchwork of state AI regulations that now apply even to five‑person firms, urging owners to conduct bias audits and stay compliant. The episode concludes with four actionable takeaways: run an AI audit for searchability, get trained on AI tools, prepare for agentic search, and monitor state regulatory requirements.
Chapters
Hey and welcome to the AI Cookbook podcast. It's just me, Jeff, today. Um, Nate is at a swim meet with his daughter who's quite the swimmer. Anyway, um, family first, always. Hey, so want to talk about 5 things that are affecting the small business market this week. Um, and we'll get through all 5. One's mostly about local marketing. Two is OpenAI is teaching you how to use AI, which is great. Small businesses are adopting, but they still need some help on the training gap. And then operations— AI agents are transacting with local businesses now, and we can talk about how to take advantage of that. And then finally, um, you're— we're being regulated in AI, and you need to know how and why so that you don't get caught up in the, in the regulation problem that's going out there. You are as a small business still, still viable for all of this. All right, so let's first talk, um, this is a stat I, I actually post quite a bit about. The AI recommends just 1.2% of local businesses. There are so many businesses out there that are invisible, and our AI audit is showing this over and over and over again. Um, we're getting into a lot of conversations where we start with the AI audit, and it's just Here's, here's the thing. It's not hard to fix this problem, but almost no sites, especially ones where you're working with a, with a site that doesn't really understand marketing, have the required things to get you seen. So what— and here's why it's important, because AI searches have jumped from 6% in 2024 to 45%. Now, and in 2025, that is. And, and it's even more and more going on. People use AI to get answers, and that's true on Google, that's true on Apple, that's true everywhere now. People will use AI more and more to get answers, and you're just not found if you're not structured properly. I'll say this again, it's not a hard fix. It can be really, really fast, but you have to have the structure on your website to get it done. Do the AI audit. It gives you a full work plan on how to make that happen. Um, this is interesting. OpenAI launches the ChatGPT program to build specifically for small businesses. I think you should take this if you can. Um, it's a virtual training, um, keeps you learning how to use it for bookkeeping, Storefront website tasks, things like that. It's a very powerful tool. We use it every day in, in our system. And knowing how to use AI is going to make you— it's going to create time for you as a small business owner. That's the bottom line. Um, take a look at this or contact us if you need some training. Also, two-thirds of small businesses use AI, but most still don't know how. So this gets back to the last slide. AI is not just a chatbot, right? AI is a research engine for you. And it can actually, when you give it repetitive tasks and you can define those, it can do things for you that are absolutely amazing. I was just working with an HVAC contractor, and he was telling me how he had his— he, he had a pretty good AI setup, but it wasn't putting his pricing in on his proposals very well. So he was creating proposals with AI, but every time it was making up things on pricing and things like that. I told him how to actually create a memory architecture that allowed it to constantly look at a file that held his pricing. So once that happened and I gave him the context, and I gave his model the context, he now can create a proposal from the field super easily, super fast, and the pricing is always right for him. Those are the types of things that this thing can do for you if you know how to use it, if you know how to set it up. And it's worth the time to spend to learn how to do this, because once you do, now you can focus on the things that you love to do as a business owner. Okay, so here's something that's coming and you need to be prepared for it. AI agents can now place orders directly into your point of sale. They can actually set appointments for users. And they're going to be doing this— we're moving into this world of agentic search, which is a whole different game. But here's the thing, I don't want to scare you, because very simply you can add 3 things to your site that make it— make you visible and operational in agentic search. Number 1, the ability to purchase from an agent or book an appointment with you. So you need to have a booking link on your site that moves to your calendar, sets up the appointment for the clients, because clients are going to be doing things like, hey, I need an HVAC provider, can you book an appointment to have somebody come out on Thursday for me between this time and this time? The AI agent's going to go out there and do that booking. For them, and the client will never talk to you until you show up at their house, which is, uh, which is pretty interesting. The second, have an AI chatbot on your system. Um, so be able to put an AI chatbot on that environment so that the AI can talk to the AI. It's also a really great customer service mechanism to make that happen. One note, make sure that everybody knows that they're talking to AI when that happens. And then finally, um, make sure your pricing is clear on your site. It doesn't have to be precise, but there has to be some sort of pricing mechanism on your site. Otherwise, AI is just going to pass you by. So you do those three things, you can start to get yourself prepared for this world of agentic search, which is coming right around the corner. And finally, regulation keeps coming down. Right, which I think is a good thing. So state AI rules will now apply to you even with 5 employees. So you look at, uh, there's no comprehensive federal law. More than half the states have moved on their own even though there is an executive order, but executive orders don't really mean anything to states, right? We have states' rights. The 5-person shop using AI, still an AI screener, still needs to have a bias audit and applicant notice and penalty structure if you— and there's a penalty structure if you do not follow those. So you need to be aware of how you're using those things in hiring, in how you're interacting with people using AI and things like that. You got to be aware of the guidelines that are affecting you and your state and your locality. Within that environment, just so you don't get caught up in the sweep of all this stuff. So finally, you know, this week's takeaways. Get yourself prepared for AI searchability. It's not hard, it's a quick fix, but once you do it, you can actually get seen by these. This is, this is your top problem if you're not being named. Register for or get trained, really is the second one. So get trained on how to use AI, start to adopt it, do something very small, like maybe it's proposal and pricing for yourself, maybe it's bookkeeping, something that you can take off your plate that takes you time. And you can do this very, very cheaply within your environment. Finally, get ready for Agentic Search and put that stuff on your environment, and then pay attention to the laws. Right, once that's all done, you're getting ready for the AI era and things are really moving for you. So good luck, and we will see shortly.
