AI is no longer just a tool. It is changing how we work, how we deliver value, and how we run our businesses.
In this episode, Eric discusses a major shift happening in our industry. He breaks down what is really happening and how you, as a business owner, can remain relevant and competitive.
Major Change
We are in a period of significant change. This shift is not only about technology. It’s about the value we bring and who will capture that value moving forward. It brings both opportunities and challenges.
Beyond Assistance
In the past, AI mainly assisted with small tasks. Now, it is executing. It can complete entire processes, not just support them. This simplifies many activities and dramatically increases their execution speed.
Acceleration
AI is now helping to build better AI. That creates a cycle of continuous improvement, which is why everything is accelerating so quickly right now.
Replicable Tasks
Much of the work done in business today, such as proposals, RFP responses, presentations, and client communication, can now be handled by AI. While not perfect, it is fast enough to change expectations and reduce the time required.
Changing Expectations
Tasks that previously took hours can now be completed in minutes. This is forcing business owners to reconsider their productivity, pricing, and service delivery.
Human Value
Human connection remains a key part of doing business. AI is not replacing people. Clients continue to buy from people they trust because they value their relationships, judgment calls, and outcomes.
A Role Shift
The role of professionals is changing. Instead of focusing on execution, they can now focus on defining problems, designing solutions, and coordinating tools. AI supports the execution layer.
Levels of Adoption
Business owners are responding to AI in different ways. Some ignore it, some use it occasionally, and others fully integrate it into their operations. Those who build systems and use AI strategically will gain the most advantage.
Smaller Teams
AI enables businesses to scale more efficiently. With the right systems and tools, small teams can now achieve results that previously required much larger organizations.
Daily Use
Using AI occasionally is not enough. Regular, daily use is required to understand its capabilities and integrate it effectively into your workflow.
Overwhelm
With many different AI tools available, it is easy to become overwhelmed. The best approach is to focus on a few tools, learn them well, and then apply them to your work.
Workflows
Instead of focusing on individual tasks, it is important to map out your workflows. That will help you identify where to apply automation and improve your use of AI.
Evaluate
Business owners should assess their activities and decide what can be automated, what should remain human, and where they add the most value. It is advisable to focus on areas that AI cannot replace.
Leadership
Although AI is taking over execution, leadership remains human. Decision-making, ownership, and strategic thinking remain the responsibilities of business owners.
Practical Steps
Start immediately. Set aside time to explore AI, test various tools, and begin automating repetitive tasks.
A Unique Opportunity
Despite all the uncertainty, this is one of the best times to own a business. Those who can adapt, learn, and take action will benefit the most from all the available opportunities.
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“AI is replacing the execution. It’s not replacing ownership.”
Eric Rozenberg
Full transcript of episode 315 of The Business of Meetings podcast, a solo episode with Eric Rozenberg. Lightly edited for readability.
Eric Rozenberg: Hello and welcome to the Business of Meetings Podcast. I’m your host, Eric Rozenberg. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of helping businesses in the meetings and events industry grow and succeed, and I’m excited to share that experience with you. If you feel alone and overwhelmed, and if you’re looking to take your business to the next level, improve your strategy and sales, and connect with like-minded professionals, you are in the right place. I invite you to visit eventbusinessformula.com and join our community of event business owners dedicated to exponential growth. Now let’s dive into today’s episode.
Hello and welcome to a new episode of the Business of Meetings Podcast. When I was a student in high school, I had chemistry class, and I remember I had to learn what we call the Mendeleev table, which I believe in English is the periodic table. And guess what? I had to learn it by heart. In retrospect, it sounds completely crazy, but that’s what it was. Then, of course, you had the electronic machine that you can have, then you can have access to it. And today with AI, quite frankly, all the different elements will be mixed by the AI in order to produce the end result that you would ask for, which is absolutely fascinating.
So something big is really happening right now. Actually, recently, this week, read an article from Matt Shumer that is called Something Big Is Happening. That makes me think a lot, and I strongly recommend you to read it. I’m going to put the link in the show notes. It’s absolutely fascinating, and we are really in one of those moment that there’s a big, big, big, big change in the history of mankind. A lot of opportunities, a lot of challenge. And it’s not really about technology for me. Of course, it’s technology, but not really that. It’s about the value that we are bringing to what we do, and it’s about who is capturing it moving forward.
So, in order to simplify a little bit, I would say that for years AI was assisting, and now AI is executing, really moved from “help me write this email” to “build for me the entire system.” And if you hear about the new developments, whether it’s with OpenAI, with Claude, all the different AI coming out, it’s absolutely fascinating, and I must say it’s also simplifying a lot of the things that we are doing. But here is, for me, a shift that not really many people are talking about, is that now AI is now helping build better AI, and that’s something that is really an inflection point. That’s where and why things are accelerating so much.
So, probably going to say something that might annoy some people or make you feel uncomfortable, but I would say that if your value is based on doing the work, you are very much exposed. And I think in our industry, to be honest, whether it’s writing proposals, responding to RFPs, creating decks, client communication even, or putting strategy frameworks together, a lot of this is now replicable, at least a lot of this can be done by the AI, not perfectly, not yet, but fast enough to change the expectation. That means that instead of taking five hours to do something, it’s going to take you now ten minutes. And as recently as two days ago, I was just before brushing my teeth and before going to bed, I just asked Claude to do something, actually no, it was not Claude, it was Qwen, I asked Qwen to do something for me in terms of sales, in identifying a certain number of people. I limit that to 500. I finish washing my feet, and no, I don’t wash my teeth in two seconds, but I don’t take fifteen minutes either. It was done. Absolutely insane.
So the question obviously is not “is AI coming,” AI is there. The question is, what’s going to happen to everything we do? What’s going to happen to the service you deliver? What happens to your pricing, especially when your efforts basically go to zero? And I think that’s also one of the points that I’m serving, it’s not where people are really looking, in terms of, are we going to be replaced by the machine? I don’t believe that AI is about to replace us humans, but it’s definitely redefining where we are adding value as human beings, as business owners, and as professionals. And again, we’re not going to be replaced by AI. I think actually the more people use AI, the more they will want to come in person, which is great for our industry. And if I think about Anthropic, for instance, they have posted a large number of job openings for their events department, with salaries ranging between 200 and 300k. So it’s not a small feat.
So again, AI is not going to be replacing humans because people, they still buy from people. Clients still buy on trust. Clients are still buying their judgment, and clients are still buying outcomes. And so, you’re not going to be replaced, but you have to shift your mind about the way you’re working, because that is definitely at risk, and that is definitely going to change.
But the real shift, I believe, we need to understand, is that we are no longer just doers, we are designers. In the past, we were executors, we would produce events. Now we define the problem, now we design the solution, now we orchestrate the tools. There’s a lot of things that can be done by the AI. So those who are going to thrive, I believe, in the future, are not necessarily those who are the most intelligent, but those who can combine intelligence with systems and speed. And I would even say, the other way around, is define as usual: why are we doing this event, what are we trying to achieve, how is it helping to execute the strategy of the organization. Then building the system, and then, obviously, using the AI to simplify, accelerate the services that we are providing.
But I think, really, you’re going to see, in our industry, three types of business owners. You’re going to have the first one, bless the ignorers, and I don’t know many people like that, but some people that would say that AI, it’s hype, or they would say it’s not for me. Well, good luck with that. The second type of business owners that I see is those who are using, “oh yes, I heard about ChatGPT,” and even if they’re still using it, like they’re doing search on Google, I’m using it a little bit here and there to gain a little bit of efficiency, but that’s it. And then you have the third type, which I believe we should all be becoming, the third type, which is the one who orchestrates everything, the maestro, where we use a different type of AI, where we’re building agents, we’re building systems, we’re multiplying the output and scaling.
Listen, when I started my first business, we didn’t have, it was at the very beginning of the internet, but we didn’t have all this technology. We didn’t have the opportunity to hire virtual assistants anywhere in the world, and you needed a lot of resources, needed a lot of people. Look today, with a small team well organized, a lot of agents, again, starting to, what is it that you’re trying to achieve, why you’re doing what you’re doing. But there’s a lot of opportunities. There’s never been a better time, I think, to be a business owner. And that’s, I know I keep hammering home that, but I’m totally convinced of that.
So, what should you do with this? What should you, as a business owner in the meetings and events industry, need to be doing? Let me make it simple for you. First of all, you need to use AI every single day. It’s not once in a while, it’s not over the weekend. Every single day you need to try, you need to work with the different tools, always going back to what you’re doing in your daily life, in your business, but trying to make sure that you’re leveraging the technology.
Now, the opposite of it is spending morning till evening looking at different tools, because it’s accelerating at such a pace that almost every day there’s something new coming out. So I would say, pick one or two, go deep into that, and then go to another one. But every day you need to be on AI. Start building workflows. Start thinking more about, okay, this is a task I’m doing, this is an activity I’m having, this is the type of service I’m delivering, what is the workflow? And then look at that map, that will help you afterwards, and basically you’ll be giving better prompts to your AI as well. And audit your business. Ask yourself questions based on the workflow. What can be automated? What should that be? What must stay human? And then you need to double down on the things that AI cannot replace: the relationships, the positioning, the decision making that has to be on your shoulders, and also creating unique experiences. This is something that obviously is not going to be replaced, because of the human interaction.
So the reality is that AI is replacing the execution. It’s not replacing ownership. So think about it, think where in the process you can delegate, where you can leverage technology, where you can ask AI, which is absolutely insane. I’m very excited, actually, with all the opportunities, and of course I have now Eric AI, which is a 24/7 mentor coach for the industry. I have friends that, they’ve opened one window with a specific AI which is very well known, and one with Eric AI, and they’ve asked the same question, and they say it’s mind-blowing. But that’s not the purpose of this episode, but it’s obviously something that is available and I’m working on. If you have any questions, of course, reach out to me for that.
Most people will wake up to this, but it’ll be too late. And so it’s not because they’re not smart, it’s not because they don’t see the reality, but it’s because they are busy. It’s because they’re being reactive. In the same way that when I’m coaching a group and I ask who here should be involved in sales, everybody raises their hand. Okay, great. And then I say, who here has a one hour block in their calendar to call prospects every day? And it’s very surprising, the few number of people that raise their hand. I think it’s really exactly the same here. You should block time every day to be on AI and not be too busy to do the work. And that’s exactly what’s becoming less valuable, is to be busy doing the work.
I would not panic, like in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Don’t panic, but take action now, this week. You need to start playing with all the different tools, because the opportunity is now, and you need to be on the ball. You need to look at all these different tools. And it’s the same principle, instead of delegating to other human beings, you’re going to delegate to AI all the repetitive tasks, all the research, all the different elements that are in your process. This is something that you should not be doing next month, it should be done by a different agent. And that’s all I wanted to tell you about.
There’s obviously much more to discuss. I’m having now regular workshops and groups with a small group of people. We’re discussing how we’re applying AI, what are we doing, which I think is important, fascinating. And as usual, when it’s unknown, it’s a little bit scary. But guess what, it’s only when you go out of your comfort zone that you’re learning. And the possibilities today are just amazing. Once again, it is the best moment to own your business. I hope you got some value from this episode, and I look forward to seeing you at a future industry conference, or on the next episode. Thank you.
Thank you for tuning in to the Business of Meetings Podcast. I hope you found today’s episode valuable. If you enjoy the show, the most important thing you can do is leave a review and share it with your colleagues, it really helps spread the word. I truly appreciate your support. And if you’re ready to take your business to the next level, don’t forget to visit eventbusinessformula.com to learn more about how we are helping event business owners like you. Thanks again for listening, and I’ll see you next time.
