Janey Treleaven on AI for SMEs: Start with What You Have

Episode notes

Most SMEs know they should be using AI. The problem is working out where to actually start without buying new software, hiring a consultant, or blowing the budget on something that doesn't stick. Janey Treleaven is the CEO of Intelligence Assist, and she works with small and medium businesses on practical AI adoption. On this episode of Marketing for SMEs with Jeremy Yang, founder of Australian digital ads agency Digital Goliath, she covers why the Microsoft vs. Google decision is where AI adoption has to start, how to choose a core AI tool based on capabilities, security, and knowledge access, why 70% of a business's knowledge is already sitting in emails and drives rather than the CRM, and what guardrails and grounding actually mean in plain English. Janey also shares her 5-80-15 framework for AI maturity, when agentic AI is worth pursuing, and why the people using AI badly are at more risk than those who haven't started yet. If you run or work in an SME and want a practical, no-new-software framework for getting AI working in your business, this one's worth your time.

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