#630 Bridging the AI Gap: Simple Tools for Aussie Business Owners with Sam Parsons

Feeling overwhelmed by AI and not sure where to begin? You’re not alone—and this episode is your first step toward clarity.

In this episode of Talking with the Experts, host Rose Davidson welcomes Sam Parsons, founder of AI Business School, for a practical and jargon-free conversation about how Australian businesses can confidently adopt artificial intelligence without getting lost in the tech weeds.

With a background in workflow automation and experience building a business that ran on autopilot, Sam has made it his mission to simplify AI adoption for everyday business owners, consultants, and small teams. He shares real-world examples, relatable stories, and practical tools that demystify AI—and show how it can transform productivity, reduce costs, and improve decision-making.

What you’ll hear:

• How to spot AI opportunities in your business today
• The secret to choosing the right tools for your tasks—without wasting time or money
• Why mindset and simplicity are your best assets when starting with AI

Sam also shares his insights on how to shift from being tech-avoidant to becoming tech-confident, offering frameworks that anyone—regardless of industry—can apply immediately.

Whether you’re a coach, a consultant, or a small business owner wondering if AI is worth the effort, this conversation will change the way you see your systems—and your time.

💡 No coding needed. No confusing tech lingo. Just real, actionable advice to help you bridge the AI gap and work smarter—not harder.

🎧 Tune in and get inspired to finally take that first step into AI.

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAM

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-parsons-a55291162/

Website: https://www.aibusinessschool.com.au

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Transcript

Intro | 00:01
Welcome to Talking With The Experts. Here we discuss all things business, by business owners, for business owners. Here is your host, Rose Davidson. 

 Rose | 00:11
Hello, welcome to Talking with the Experts. I'm your host, Rose Davidson from rosedavidson.com.au. Today my guest is Sam Parsons and we're going to be talking about bridging the gap in AI adoption for business owners everywhere. In Australia. Sam is the founder of AI Business School, where he helps Australian businesses adopt AI without the overwhelm. From a young age, he was obsessed with finding effective shortcuts. He grew a mobile car wash business to run on autopilot, largely due to AI and automation, and he became the guy people would ask questions about. All the time. With a background in workflow automation and a passion for helping businesses grow, he started teaching business owners how to save time and money. Using no code tools and practical strategies. Sam runs a community and training program designed for coaches, consultants, and small teams ready to take the first step with AI. Sam, thank you for joining me on Talking With The Experts. It's a pleasure to meet you. 

 Sam | 01:16
Thanks for having me, Rose. 

 Rose | 01:18
We were discussing your background a little bit before we came on, and it's so interesting in how you've gone from, you know, a mobile car wash business to AI technology. 

 Sam | 01:30
Couple of years ago, just after COVID, I started a mobile car cleaning business and took upon myself to solve a problem which was that car cleaning was really inconvenient for a lot of people. And that led me down a path of personal development and discovering how I can make that business model work as efficiently as possible for both the end user but myself. And through that process, I got very intertwined with the details of... Operations and figuring out how I can make processes better. 
 So I probably forgot to do sales marketing and got too tied down in the processes, but I made a pretty efficient business out of it. So yeah. Then I took that and said, look, well, what are some of these things that I've done for myself? How can I apply this to other people and help them with it? 
 You know, car cleaning wasn't something that I was passionate about. I knew that I wanted to help other businesses. 
 And then at the same time, I was getting a lot of questions around, you know, how to automate this? What is this about AI? 
 So sort of last year, dabbled in how I could help the everyday business owner with product solutions. So I looked at doing chatbots online. Bits and pieces at the time but found that those weren't really novel products or effective, you know, long-term solutions. 

 Rose | 03:00
I found chatbots horrible. I could never, they were so, like, to process them out. Just took absolutely forever. There were so many steps in it. And if you missed one, then it wouldn't work. And I tried many chat and I couldn't. For the life of me, I couldn't work it out to get them to work properly, honestly. 
 So I just gave up. You're too high. 

 Sam | 03:24
Yeah, well, I built some pretty cool ones and they were good. But, you know, I was speaking to the business owner and they're asking me hundreds of questions about it. 
 You know, I found that I didn't particularly enjoy just like building and delivering. That and it's hard to get the value over the line. 
 So yeah, I was like look, this may be not it. Yeah, but I'm picking up the pieces of the go and because I was getting so many questions, I was like, maybe there's this massive gap in opportunity for education around this and like, who's really, educating the everyday employee or team or business owner on what to do with AI. 
 So I took that and then I was like well maybe I can create a program around it, an online training school. So it'd been done successfully in the US. 
 So I used that to sort of inspire what I called AI Business School which is the brand now and created a community platform on online and I had a few members, but found that people were not going to commit their time to learning and then applying. So I closed that down. I was like, okay, well, maybe what's next? 
 So again, people were sort of asking for like, what's the tool? What's the solution? In the meantime, I got together with a business partner or someone I started exploring business ideas with. And we're kind of on the same path there and we actually developed an app So we built an app we never coded before and we did it in less than two weeks. 
 So we had it fully launched, and usable for people who are piloting it within 20 days. Basically. And the app was designed to make AI really easy and simple for just like the person who's never picked it up before. 
 So they could basically grab tools that were already pre-existing or create their own. And then it would be trained already on their knowledge and brand, as that was part of the onboarding process. 
 So, we, but we sort of fell out of love with doing the software side of things, pretty quickly and realize there's a lot of work behind it. So, you know, we sort of parked that idea and then, you know, I kept sort of. Digging deeper and then you know, asking for more feedback. 
 And then business owners were just telling me that they wanted just stuff done for them. I was like, okay, well, how can I do that? 
 Like, you know, offer them some guidance, but help them implement things. And then I just started offering that as a service, kept the brand AI Business School. And now I'm working with SMEs, even from, you know, solo operators up to teams of 60 now, implement AI into their workflows, but train and educate their teams on it as well. 
 So yeah. That's where the journey's taken me. 
 And then I'm still learning as I go. But yeah, it's been an interesting... Couple of weeks and couple of months and particularly this year. 

 Rose | 06:35
And It's a big jump from one to the other. 

 Sam | 06:40
Yeah, 100%. It's quite the opposite, isn't it? I think what I realised is doing a service-based business, it still required people. 
 So, you know, I looked at things I did well there and how I could apply that, you know, I guess in another way. And where that led me was helping on a consulting basis, but doing some implementation and working with other businesses and teams. 

 Rose | 07:10
It's interesting how AI has developed in the last couple of years from being something quite Easily easy to access, but it wasn't very practical to use in the very beginning. But now it's almost got a mind of its own. I have found that it's doing stuff well. And, doing and being, I think, like, real person in some cases. 

 Sam | 07:38
Yeah, so I mean there's always new features coming out, new applications. There's a lot of confusion about You know, what are the right things to use and even just thinking about like chat GBT how far that's come and you know some of the new releases new release features associated with that are just getting. 
 You know, quite crazy, quite complex and overwhelming, but can drive a lot of performance within a team environment. So in a lot of ways, it's been a good thing. But at the same time, it's been harder than ever to keep up with all the change. 

 Rose | 08:15
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I use chat GPT regularly. Nearly on a daily basis. And I'm finding that, you know, they're adding new features to it all the time. And, So you've got to get your head around all these new things that they're doing. And, you know, for the people who are maybe less tech savvy than you and I, it could be quite challenging. 

 Sam | 08:39
Yeah, absolutely. I guess like the analogy I use is like if you give someone a drill and you say build a house You know, you've still got to have the knowledge the materials, you know, the understanding of how that how to put that house together So, you know it comes down to a lot to do with how the user knows how to use the platforms More than anything, you know, they're not you can't just pick up and go with them that's why we do help people understand how they can better use these tools for their daily productivity and within their team environments. 

 Rose | 09:17
AI, I guess, if you have a look at it in realistic terms, AI has been around for a long time, but it wasn't... It wasn't used to the extent it is now, but so how can business owners spot AI opportunities within their businesses? 

 Sam | 09:34
Yeah, absolutely. The, I really it comes down to picking the areas where it's going to have the most impact. 
 So, we usually refer to that as like the high impact areas that are low effort. You know, that's where you really want to start and to really, identify that and really dumb it down and make it simple is to really just pick the tasks that you do every single week that are repetitive. You don't like doing, you know, they take more than 10 minutes at a time and then figuring out what tools or solutions could work with that. 
 And then it's finding out what works best for you. You know, a lot of people jump that step and they just go straight to the tool. They just pick up something they think will work and try and figure it out from there. But if it's not making practical use in your workday, I recommend figuring out where those bottlenecks are first within your team environment or your own work before you start discovering where AI can help you. 

 Rose | 10:37
Yeah. And so what are the right tools? How can we pick the right tools? 

 Sam | 10:43
- Yeah, so there's a few ways you can do this. And look, there's the internet, which has a lot of resources. There's some sites as well that you can sort of punch in a keyword and it'll come up with a tool or solution. But look, YouTube's a really good resource for finding out. If you say you've got a particular challenge, like how do I draft my emails? 
 You know, there's probably some videos explaining, you know, some different tools you could use there. But then again, it comes down to a little bit of preference because there are going to be tools that are similar and competitive, you know, that might, may or may not work better inside your work environment or existing softwares that you already use. For example, you've got ChatGPT, but you've got Gemini inside Google Workspace. 
 So you might find that Gemini is going to be more practical for you. So. 
 Yeah, when it comes to that, yeah, finding you know, what's going to work best for you. It's a little bit of trial and error. 

 Rose | 11:47
Yeah, I agree with that. I think, I mean, I'm an early adopter of most things, but I haven't tried Gemini and I haven't tried Copilot yet. Only because I've You know, I've not heard or read very good reviews on either of them. 
 But then again, you're right. It depends on what you need it for or, you know, your style of business or your style of how you work with things. 
 So how can we master the task specific productivity with AI? 

 Sam | 12:15
It just comes down to a bit of practice. Everyone's sort of going to use it differently. And there's not one way to do things. When it comes to just getting started, that's probably the more important thing. Take a small win, take a small step, get used to using that tool. Maybe you want to pick one or two that could solve your problem. 
 And then focus on one because you prefer it. And then it's just practice. And obviously there's resources out there and opportunities to get educated with these things to speed up that process. But again, look, there's things like YouTube where you can go and find more information about how these tools work. 
 So, yeah, there's lots of opportunity for practice. Getting to understand how this works and the only thing i wouldn't recommend is just asking a friend you could be led down the garden path a little bit so just be careful there. 

 Rose | 13:16
Yeah, I agree. I mean, it's like you never ask anyone, friend or family, advice on your business processes because they'll give you what they think is the right thing when it's actually not. 

 Sam | 13:29
Yeah. 

 Rose | 13:30
Now, you've seen firsthand how business owners feel overwhelmed with AI. How can we break it down into clear and actionable steps that's easy to understand? Sure. 

 Sam | 13:42
Yeah, absolutely. So we like to work with businesses and actually map out their processes. Again, you know, on a small scale, it's just picking the things that are bottlenecks in your workday or bottlenecks in your systems and focusing your efforts around that. 
 You know, where you can get distracted, there's probably thousands of things inside your work or your business that you could automate or use AI for. But what it's going to come down to is, you know, picking the tasks that again are high impact, you know, maybe require a little bit less effort to do, that's where you want to focus your time and effort. For now and not really get distracted with the hype and, you know, chasing shiny objects. 
 You know, we talked about chatbots before being. You know, a really big thing about 12 months ago and everyone wanted a chatbot because they thought that's what AI could do their sales and their website. But the reality is it's probably not making as big an impact for most people as they probably thought. 
 So, yeah, that's just an example. Maybe you want to focus on, you know, if you're getting hundreds of calls a day, you know, where AI could assist in that department. 

 Rose | 14:56
Yeah, I've got a thing on my website where people can ask questions. I'd rather they sent me an email rather than have automated responses because... I don't think you can predict every question that is ever going to ever be asked. 
 So, you know, I'd rather they just send an email, but. You know, that's my preference. But a lot of people have the automated... Out. 
 You know, assistance on the way. They answer questions, but I found that sites that use that can be a little bit frustrating. What are your thoughts on that? 

 Sam | 15:34
Yeah, look, AI can't really replace everything that we do. It's only there to really assist. And I like to think of it that way. When you get it to replace an entire task like customer support, you know, just like a human, there's going to be room for error. 
 So a little bit of that comes down to how you set it up. But a little bit of that comes down to the fact that it's AI, it's just making an interpretation of the data. 
 So, you know, it's a little bit of a challenge. But at the same time, you know, there's pros and cons to going in each direction. 
 You know, if you need to hire a person to fill that position or role, you know, there's cost to that. They can make mistakes. They're only available for a certain amount of time. 
 So, you know, these are all the things you need to weigh up when making those decisions. 

 Rose | 16:23
Yeah, I guess that is true, the cost of actually hiring someone to be able to answer all the questions. But I'm, I guess, a little bit old fashioned. I still like that human contact. 
 I mean, I don't like ringing up someone and press one for this and press one for something else and press five, you know. You spend 10 minutes on the phone before you get to speak to a human. And for me, People of my generation find that a bit confusing and a bit frustrating. I think we still like that human. 

 Sam | 16:53
Connection. Yeah, absolutely. And look, high touch businesses, you know, maybe the areas you want to focus on are behind the scenes because of that reason. And, you know, there's been plenty of horror stories around people automating their voice agents to do outbound calls and that leads to, you know, bad brand awareness and, you know, lost deals, all those sorts of things. 
 So there's all these things you need to weigh up. Again, we're making... Those decisions. 

 Rose | 17:21
Yeah, I agree. I think, Sam, I'd love for you to share any stories or practical examples that you've come across that, you know, make, and help businesses with their first steps in AI. 

 Sam | 17:35
Yeah, absolutely. So. So an example of where. 
 You know, businesses can understand where they're set to take, where they can take a practical first step. One that comes to mind is, Speaking with a Bye. A fractional finance officer. And one of the biggest challenges he had was, he was doing these business audits for his clients, and new clients as well. And look, it was quite an intensive process. There was a lot of interviewing, writing notes, you know, taking and then reproducing that inside of a report that he was going to deliver to the... The client. Now he looked at a different system for that and it was going to cost him $5,000 every time he wanted to generate. That single report. It was just ludicrous, insane. 
 So, you know, we got together and we talked about how potentially based on his actual process we could find a way to get the same outcome or a similar outcome without, you know, having to outsource to this tool. So, yeah, when it comes down to, you know, those examples, I think, you know, just looking at, Toss it up. Admin heavy and processes that do have a lot of steps you know, where there's, old points where you got to transfer data, Or, you know, you require another person to come in. 
 You know, these are all the things that, you know, we look at as well when it comes down to finding out where the biggest problem areas or the bottlenecks are inside a business. 

 Rose | 19:12
Yeah, that's a great way to do it. The bottlenecks are the issue, really, aren't they? And how to find the pathways to success. For the best outcomes and AI can be quite helpful with that. And I found that just using ChatGPT and I get stuck on something and I just ask it a question and it usually gives me an answer you know, a process to go through. 
 So I'd love to hear more about your app that you've created. 

 Sam | 19:42
Yeah, so we created an app called SAIL. And the reason why we created that app was we found that people who are just picking up ChatGPT or AI for the first time, there was a real gap in understanding. It wasn't really easy to figure out the layout and the concepts. 
 So yeah, a little side project that we created was called SAIL. And we basically gave it to 20 users to sort of, you know, reversed. How they would use that tool rather than logging in and finding a dashboard where they were just like you know what's this over here where's this blah we would basically onboard them through the platform and then they had access to existing agents or we call them helpers. 
 And then they could create their own quite simply without having to figure out, you know, what's inside every single feature that's inside ChatGPT. So it was an interesting side project. We had some good feedback about it. Unfortunately, we just put it to the side for now. But, you know, sales, you helped a lot of people just get that first initial contact with AI, make it super easy for them to understand and use, which I think is one of the challenges when it comes to picking up these tools. 
 You know, there's so many of them out there. There's no one from OpenAI that trains you on how to use ChatGPT, is there? 
 You know, there's no... There's no customer support. 
 So... So yeah, we just wanted to make a difference there. And yeah, we created sale because of that. 

 Rose | 21:23
So will you be progressing with it? Will it be available on the market any time in the future? 

 Sam | 21:31
We're at the moment we're just we just basically did a pilot phase to sort of test you know whether people found it useful or not and then we're potentially going to look at where we can introduce it into a specific market or segment and we would probably look to focus on a niche in particular where you know a tool like that could be useful you know that overcomes those having to have those educational barriers that come with just picking something off the shelf. It's already set up and ready to go for that particular role or industry. 

 Rose | 22:05
Yeah, no, sounds good. Good luck with it. And I hope it comes to fruition sometime. 

 Sam | 22:12
Yeah. Do you want to repeat? 

 Rose | 22:13
If you want to find Sam, you can find him on LinkedIn, on his website at aobusinessschool.com.au, and you can join him on his community at aobusinessschool.com.au. Sam is there anything you'd like to share other than what we've discussed today with our audience. 

 Sam | 22:33
Yeah, look, just a word of advice. Like if you're someone who's just exploring AI or just getting used to it, the important thing is to just start. 
 You know, AI will transform the way we work, the way we live. There's a lot of challenges that are going to come with it. But, you know, we're already seeing the benefits of early adopters that are taking this by the horns and really making it part of their business. Business and their workday. 
 So I guess a bit of a call to action just to really embrace what this technology can do. Everyone sort of knows there's risks and concerns around it, but, you know, And it's probably going to outweigh those in a lot of ways that to make us all a bit more productive and enhance what we can actually do and achieve. 
 So, you know, take that step and get started. 

 Rose | 23:27
Yeah, absolutely. I think AI is the way of the future and, you know, I think the people that are frightened of it for the wrong reasons. I don't think it's going to, it's not going to do away with that many jobs because we still need that human connection. Absolutely, yeah. All right, Sam, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for joining me today. 

 Sam | 23:50
Thank you, Rose. 

 Rose | 23:52
Bye-bye for now. 

 Sam | 23:53
All right. See ya. 

 Outro | 23:55
You've been listening to Talking With The Experts, hosted by Rose Davidson. Make sure you have a look at our back catalogue over at talkingwiththeexperts.com. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss out on any episode. We look forward to your company next time.