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Ethical AI for Small Businesses — Jonathan Goodman (The Business Gay Podcast)

Publisher: The Business Gay Podcast  •  Duration: 29:09  •  Published: June 4, 2025

Jonathan covers practical, ethical AI adoption for small businesses—from lead-capturing chatbots and scheduling to voicebots, inclusive design, and getting started safely without heavy lift.

Show full transcript 0:01Hey Jonathan, welcome to the podcast.0:04Thank you so much for joining me. How0:05are you doing today? I’m doing great.0:08Thank you so much for having me on this.0:09Yeah, I’m really excited. AI is kind of0:12exploding all over the world. It’s the0:13to-do topic. I’ve not really chatted0:15about it with anybody. So, I’m really0:18excited to dive into into this topic0:20with you. So, with that, let’s just get0:22right into it. Um, what are some simple0:26ways entrepreneurs can use AI to0:28automate parts of their business? Cuz I0:30know that as a small business person and0:33a lot of people out there, there’s a lot0:35of fears of like there’s so many tools.0:38You don’t want to pick the wrong one,0:40but you also know that it can help you.0:42And so, what h how can you help us0:44navigate that a little bit? Yeah. A lot0:46of people assume AI is this complicated,0:49expensive thing, but you can actually0:51start really small and still see a big0:54impact. For example, uh one of the0:56easiest wins is setting up a chatbot on0:59your website to answer frequently asked1:01questions or capture leads 24/7. I mean,1:04that alone can replace hours of1:07repetitive work. Another great starting1:09point is automating appointment1:12scheduling. connecting an AI assistant1:14to your calendar, it helps so much with1:18booking instead of going back and forth1:21with emails. Um, and for folks doing a1:24lot of outreach or marketing, Howard1:27Consulting specifically builds voice1:29bots that can answer calls, qualify1:31leads, or even send follow-up emails1:34after a conversation. So, we don’t look1:37at it as replacing people. It’s about1:40freeing up your time to focus on what1:43actually grows your business. Yeah.1:45Making things a little bit more1:46efficient so you’re not doing so much of1:48that groundwork that you’re just getting1:50straight to the point. I want to jump in1:52a little bit more with that chatbot. How1:55could somebody implement that on like1:57they’re not they don’t have a crazy1:58website. They just need something simple2:01to kind of get the the juices flowing.2:03Somebody might be thinking, “Well, this2:05chatbot has no idea really who I am or2:07what I’m about or how to answer these2:09questions.” And a lot of these small2:11businesses hold them so preciously that2:14they’re afraid to hand that over. So,2:16how might that actually look at the2:17beginning? Yeah. You know, so many of2:21the chatbots that are out there on the2:23market right now are what we call2:25rules-based, which means that when2:28you’re coming in to have a conversation2:30with the chatbot, it’s expecting certain2:33questions to be asked and it’s able to2:36answer those questions. That’s a really2:38old way of doing things that doesn’t2:40incorporate AI. Ours incorporates AI. So2:44we have you can almost kind of think of2:46it as like you know I don’t know two2:48balls in the air right and one of them2:51is the large language model and usually2:54that would be like perplexity or would2:57be uh chat GPT or something like that3:00and then in the other you know globe or3:03ball whatever you want to call it is3:05this knowledge brain right and we fill3:08that knowledge brain with everything3:11about the company. We scrape the website3:14so we understand the content that’s on3:15the website. We ask for any any3:18documentation, maybe your business plan,3:20maybe your marketing plan, strategies,3:23uh you know what your you know any kind3:25of press releases, anything about that3:28company. So that on a very simple3:31lowcost loweffort chatbot that that does3:35not capture lead genen or do calendar3:37integration. So just on a very very3:40purely I’m a chatbot and I know about3:43this business you can get a lot of3:46answers a lot of questions answered3:49because the chatbot understands that3:51business. Okay. So how would you3:54implement like an email capture into3:56that chatbot if somebody were to put3:59that on their website? Because I know4:00usually you’d have like a oh join my4:02newsletter here or the this there. How4:04could that be implemented in that4:05chatbot? Yeah. So what so then we kind4:08of go up a level in the ability of the4:11AI chatbot which is lead genen right4:14lead genen and calendar integration. So4:17that means that at some point in the4:20conversation with the chatbot and you4:22can see this on our website4:24howard.conulting you can go in and ask4:26it a question. It’s going to be able to4:28answer that. If you ask it a second4:30question we’ve triggered it to then ask4:33you if you’d like to schedule an4:35appointment. If you’d like to schedule4:36an appointment, the first thing that it4:38asks you is what is your name? What is4:40your email? What is your phone number?4:43And what company do you work with? Well,4:45now we’ve captured all that data. Plus,4:47we’re capturing all of the conversation4:49in the chatbot going back to the client4:52so they can see it. And then it4:54integrates into that client calendar.4:56So, let’s say that somebody wanted to4:58have a meeting with me tomorrow at two5:00o’clock. the calendar, the API5:04connection to the calendar would check5:06to see what my availability would be for5:08that moment, for that two o’clock5:10meeting, and come back and either I’m5:12available for it or it would suggest5:15several other days or times. Okay. So,5:18it seems like it’s it’s fairly simple5:20and straightforward and easy for5:21somebody to do this then to build it or5:24to deploy it to to deploy it onto their5:26website. Yeah. cuz I’m thinking about a5:28lot of small business owners not aren’t5:30necessarily tech forward people or5:32techsavvy folks. They you know a lot of5:35them are creatives or this that and the5:36other and this can you know make them5:39very nervous to implement this onto5:41their systems and so it sounds like it5:43is quite fairly straightforward5:45currently to do that. Yeah, there are5:48two things that the client has to be5:51involved with in addition to providing5:53us the knowledge for the knowledge base.5:55They have to connect their calendar to5:58our systems which is not difficult. Um,6:02and just kind of goes through a form,6:04asks you a couple of email questions.6:06What is your email? Blah blah blah. Who6:09are you what are you using? Google Meet?6:11Are you using Google calendar? Are you6:13using uh Calendarly? Whatever it is. And6:15then it connects to that. Once that’s6:17done and we have the knowledge base,6:19within a 48 hour period, that client is6:22then going to get a little snippet of6:24code that they’re going to have to put6:26onto their HTML. Now, I realize and we6:29realize that this is definitely a6:32blocker for some companies. And so for6:35those companies, we do a free service.6:37We will come in, we will connect into6:39your backend, and we will put that code6:41into the header of that homepage. And6:44then it replicates across all pages…. 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