The Operator's AI Brief
Three Questions for Any AI Vendor
A marketing agency's release doubles as a three-question checklist for screening any AI vendor.
Listen to this brief (3 min)
The audio is AI-produced: an AI clone of Jon's voice and an AI co-host, reading a script built from the sources below.
Three questions screen most AI vendor pitches: whose account is it, what will it tell a caller about price, and when does a person take over. A marketing agency’s release about AI assistants for the trades covers two of them, and I added the third.
A vendor checklist from 5D3 Media
5D3 Media says it has worked with contractors since 2008. Its release on openPR describes a custom AI assistant for trades businesses. The release is the agency’s own pitch, so treat the claims as theirs. The assistant answers by text and voice, books on the calendar you already use, and passes along the job type, address, and urgency.
Two promises matter more than the feature list. The assistant runs on the owner’s own accounts, so the business keeps the keys. And it quotes a price when that price appears on your website or Google Business Profile.
Turn those into questions. If you cancel, do you keep your phone number, calendar, and customer list? What will it say about price? A made-up number becomes your number, because callers hold you to a quote. The third question is mine, and the release does not answer it: when does a person take over, and how fast?
”AI operating system” is now a sales phrase
On September 20, Whatfinger covered a Liam Ottley video titled “I Rebuilt This 46-Person Accounting Firm With AI (in 4 Days).” On September 21, Tim Fairley posted an hour-long YouTube tutorial on building an AI operating system for a construction business. Owners will hear the phrase in pitches this fall.
It means one setup that ties your phone, schedule, and customer records together, so the AI works from the same facts your crew does. I built that for a supply yard in Northern Kentucky. Ask what it connects to. A chat window is a chatbot. A connection to your phone line and calendar deserves more questions.
Put the three questions on a card. A vendor who cannot answer each in one sentence has already answered you.