So basically every competitor can have all the exact same tools, right? So how do we then differentiate that service, that shopping journey, if everyone in FACTS has very similar tools?

So I love where you're going with this.

I will say just to give you an example, this past weekend we were down in L.A. and we needed a hotel to stay in.

And I, like many people, have my three or four chains that I like to use on the regular, especially if it's just like rote business travel.

But I was doing a book signing.

I was in West Hollywood, which I know has a little bit of a quirky flair to it.

And so I have a good friend that I used to work with, and I said, hey, Peter, give me some recommendations.

So what can retailers or brands do to keep AI from like taking over the brand ethos of the company?

So how should organizations measure AI success when the goal is force multiplying?

So this is a good question, and I know it's one that a lot of companies are grappling with right now, and I think a lot of them immediately wanna go to the cost savings.

And I'm gonna tell you that I feel like that's the wrong angle to pursue, because there are a lot of hidden costs, and I think a lot of CEOs and CIOs are figuring this out right now, which is, A, a lot of these platforms, these LLMs are subsidizing because they want you to use their particular platform.

But there will come a time where it's like, you know, we do the free trial or, you know, you do Netflix for a month, and then all of a sudden you're getting charged, you know, 25 bucks a month.

You're like, "Oh, it was a lot better when it was free." There are also these things called tokens that you have to buy to fuel them, right? And I think I, I've read in a number of places that there are companies that are running through their entire AI budget in four or five months, which is kind of crazy.

Like, can you imagine, you know, you work at a company and they run out of the coffee budget in four or five months, and then all of a sudden there's no more coffee in the break room, right? Or, you know, they can't, uh, pay your healthcare insurance anymore 'cause it's like, "Well, we ran out of our budget in the first four or five months." So, you know, I think things like that are critically important.

Now, on the positive side, I think there's a world where it's twofold, which is, you know, what force multiplier can we get out of it? So how can we make our employees more productive? Are there new services that they're coming out with? Can they shave time off of what they were doing before? And I think one tangible example is, like, I worked in an agency environment, healthcare advertising, is on the creative side, you know, you would go to a client, and if you had a campaign or some sort of thing that you wanted to booth at a conference, you'd show them two concepts, right? 'Cause it just was cost-prohibitive and time-prohibitive to come up with 10 different c- concepts.

But share something with us that you learned something or, you know, you, it changed your perspective.

What is it? Why are you so interested in it?

So the quick backstory there is I learned about networking probably not soon enough.

I will say where I really learned it is from a guy named Barry Liebert, who actually helped input into the book.

And there are some quotes from Barry.

Barry, after I left Fidelity Investments, which was my first sort of big job, I was at a direct marketing agency before that.

I went to a very small firm.

They were all about online community and eventually morphed into more social media marketing.

What do you know today that you think is going to surprise the majority of my listening audience relative to working relationships?