Blake Caraway: AI in Business Operations - Episode 412

It's, no, I haven't been living on the forefront of it, you know.

But, you know, I've been reading about it quite a bit, you know, seeing a lot of people talk about it, experienced people, you know, like yourself and the people you have in your podcast and then peers that we used to work with and, you know, people we know in the industry.

It's going so fast and I still come back to it.

So I just dove into it a little bit recently with a new feature that I brought into the company to help our field staff all over the state.

Um, and, uh, what I noticed real quick was, yes, it feels like it's a very sharp, a lot of really fantastic, sharp tools, but, uh, you know, in the wrong hands or someone who doesn't have, you know, much experience developing software at all, or maybe to the standards that, um, You know, a lot of us were in the business for a long time and we focused on, you know, certain quality practices, test first, test your own design, solid principles, things like that.

You know, it's a real easy way to fabricate some fantastically crummy software for your organization.

And and so.

you know, I'm fortunate enough to where I came from, you know, I had some experience before, but there's so many people now that are just, you know, in a business and, you know, maybe they're specifically technology people, um, or maybe they're, you know, business people who, you know, know how to do some stuff.

Um, they're taking these tools, you know, so many different tools and just, you know, vibe coding or just vibing out, you know, some functionality.

And, you know, it's fine for things that maybe aren't so critical, business critical, but man, you put something when, you know, that's, you know, hopefully if you're doing something for the business, it's useful and it's, you know, maybe profitable or, you know, you know, helping your top, you know, top line revenue or, you know, your cost situations.

You can really, you know, bring a business, you know, organization or, you know, an area to a halt if you're putting some, you know, some software out there that was created by, you know, some LLM that you're, you know, having fun with.

And you can really bring stuff to a halt in some ways.

you know, and hurt, you know, things.

So as usual, you know, some, you know, analysis and basically just the, you know, the ability to, or the know-how, I guess, of if you know what good software looks like and you have, you know, your, you know, your, your principles, you know, of a software, you know, team, whether it's, you know, one, two, three, or 30, you know, If you have those solid principles down, you know how to steer these fantastic new tools and capabilities into something that truly is, you know, beneficial across the board, you know, and, you know, one of those obviously is, wow, how much faster can we generate, you know, the good stuff that we already know how to develop, you know, all the practices and procedures that we know developed good quality software to run our business.

Now we can just get, we can get better.

We can, you know, we can be smarter with that.

We can put some easy stuff on, you know, some accelerated paths over here.

Doesn't need as much handholding.

And, you know, while we continue to, you know, kind of focus our energies on, still being, you know, a quality software team, maybe we can just be a lot faster now.

So it's really easy, I think, with these new capabilities to churn out some negative stuff.

And then once you do that, also, you know, we've all done it, you know, where we have, you have some software that, you know, got put into production and, you know, yeah, okay, we'll need to fix that probably a little bit, or we're going to need to tighten that up a little bit.

Some organizations, you may not have that luxury.

You're just going to be band-aiding a lot of stuff for a while.

So, you know, the sharper you are when implementing, you know, software in any way, shape or form, you know, the just the stronger the organization is going to be.

And you don't want to be the you know, you don't want your technology department to be, you know, the.

It's, no, I haven't been living on the forefront of it, you know.

But, you know, I've been reading about it quite a bit, you know, seeing a lot of people talk about it, experienced people, you know, like yourself and the people you have in your podcast and then peers that we used to work with and, you know, people we know in the industry.

It's going so fast and I still come back to it.

So I just dove into it a little bit recently with a new feature that I brought into the company to help our field staff all over the state.

Um, and, uh, what I noticed real quick was, yes, it feels like it's a very sharp, a lot of really fantastic, sharp tools, but, uh, you know, in the wrong hands or someone who doesn't have, you know, much experience developing software at all, or maybe to the standards that, um, You know, a lot of us were in the business for a long time and we focused on, you know, certain quality practices, test first, test your own design, solid principles, things like that.

You know, it's a real easy way to fabricate some fantastically crummy software for your organization.

And and so.

you know, I'm fortunate enough to where I came from, you know, I had some experience before, but there's so many people now that are just, you know, in a business and, you know, maybe they're specifically technology people, um, or maybe they're, you know, business people who, you know, know how to do some stuff.

Um, they're taking these tools, you know, so many different tools and just, you know, vibe coding or just vibing out, you know, some functionality.

And, you know, it's fine for things that maybe aren't so critical, business critical, but man, you put something when, you know, that's, you know, hopefully if you're doing something for the business, it's useful and it's, you know, maybe profitable or, you know, you know, helping your top, you know, top line revenue or, you know, your cost situations.

You can really, you know, bring a business, you know, organization or, you know, an area to a halt if you're putting some, you know, some software out there that was created by, you know, some LLM that you're, you know, having fun with.

And you can really bring stuff to a halt in some ways.

you know, and hurt, you know, things.

So as usual, you know, some, you know, analysis and basically just the, you know, the ability to, or the know-how, I guess, of if you know what good software looks like and you have, you know, your, you know, your, your principles, you know, of a software, you know, team, whether it's, you know, one, two, three, or 30, you know, If you have those solid principles down, you know how to steer these fantastic new tools and capabilities into something that truly is, you know, beneficial across the board, you know, and, you know, one of those obviously is, wow, how much faster can we generate, you know, the good stuff that we already know how to develop, you know, all the practices and procedures that we know developed good quality software to run our business.

Now we can just get, we can get better.

We can, you know, we can be smarter with that.

We can put some easy stuff on, you know, some accelerated paths over here.

Doesn't need as much handholding.

And, you know, while we continue to, you know, kind of focus our energies on, still being, you know, a quality software team, maybe we can just be a lot faster now.

So it's really easy, I think, with these new capabilities to churn out some negative stuff.

And then once you do that, also, you know, we've all done it, you know, where we have, you have some software that, you know, got put into production and, you know, yeah, okay, we'll need to fix that probably a little bit, or we're going to need to tighten that up a little bit.

Some organizations, you may not have that luxury.

You're just going to be band-aiding a lot of stuff for a while.

So, you know, the sharper you are when implementing, you know, software in any way, shape or form, you know, the just the stronger the organization is going to be.

And you don't want to be the you know, you don't want your technology department to be, you know, the.