You Think You're at Level 3 With AI. You're at Level 1

Most owners think they're at level three with AI. They're at level one, and skipping ahead exposes every problem the business already had. The conversation walks through a four-level scale for using AI in a business: a thought partner you treat like Google, an assistant that drafts your emails, a teammate you hand work to, and a system that runs critical workflows. Michael and Francis then map Y Not You's own climb, from notepads, Google Sheets and Dropbox to a Notion workspace that holds the firm's data and answers the questions the partners used to text each other. The level three example is invoicing: an automation that creates each invoice in QuickBooks from Notion and sends it, taking a two-day process down to about four hours. Along the way: why QuickBooks is not a CRM, and why marketing without a backend to catch the leads is money spent for nothing. Then the warning. Jump from level one to an email agent, or to a team of 40 AI employees, and you are trusting a system to write messaging you never wrote down. No SOPs. No brand guidelines. No response cadence. AI does not fix that. It exposes it, at the same scale. Get organized first, and stay involved after. CHAPTERS 00:00 The four levels of AI in your business 01:18 Level 1: using AI like Google 01:50 Level 2: AI as an assistant 02:31 Levels 3 and 4: teammate, then system 03:17 At level one, thinking you're at level three 05:22 An assistant still needs context 06:40 How Y Not You got to level four 09:36 Why your apps need to talk to each other 13:12 Organized does not mean pen and paper 15:01 Invoicing: from two days to about four hours 16:37 QuickBooks is for billing, not your CRM 17:58 Marketing without a backend 19:48 AI exposes your problems at the same scale 21:07 The "40 AI employees" pitch 22:05 You still have to be in the system 24:34 Level five, and the next six months THE BUSINESS COLLECTIVE Most owners make every call alone. There is nobody to bounce the idea off, nobody who has already made the mistake, and no honest second opinion before the money goes out. The Business Collective is where that stops. It is group-scale access to all three Y Not You partners: a daily knowledge tip, a weekly mastermind and open forum call, a monthly member networking call, and a quarterly guest speaker. Marketing, operations, AI and automation, sales, packaging, and growth, from three operators who do this every day. Join: https://www.skool.com/the-business-co... ABOUT Y NOT YOU Y Not You is a New York based growth advisory firm and a Forbes Business Council member since 2019. The firm has helped 1,000+ businesses generate $100M+ in revenue across four lanes: Fractional CMO, Fractional COO, Business Growth, and AI & Automation. Featured in Forbes, Fox News, NBC, USA Today, MarketWatch, and Entrepreneur. Work with us: https://www.ynotyoumedia.com CONNECT Instagram -   / ynotyoumedia   LinkedIn -   / ynotyoumedia   #AIForBusiness #BusinessAutomation #SmallBusiness