The playing field is shifting and keeping up is a full time job.

If you’re anything like me, you’re plugged into what’s happening with AI but struggling to keep up with the hourly updates.

New model.

New tool.

New thing everyone says will change everything that ends up being a half truth.

If you’re not, you’re probably too busy running your own business to keep up. I don’t blame you at all.

Here’s my take from where I sit. Data and analytics.

Before I lose you with “data”, understand it’s crucial for how you run your business. Data is being democratized. And that changes everything for how you compete.

The advantage of working with a large firm was always access. Access to research. Access to market data. Access to analysts who could tell you what was happening in a given industry before your client even asked.

That data and analysis was expensive, even for enterprise. Swaths of data engineers, analysts, the ability to buy proprietary data or the right partners to provide it. For the solo business owner or small firm it was simply inaccessible.

That gap is closing fast.

With the right AI tools and the right prompts, a single person can now do in 20 minutes what a team of analysts used to take a week to produce. Competitive landscape analysis. Market sizing. Customer behavior patterns. Opportunity mapping. Growth signals in adjacent markets.

The data was always out there. AI just made it accessible to anyone who knows how to ask for it.

Now there is just one problem.

Access to data is table stakes. Everyone has it, or at least should. The advantage has shifted to something harder to replicate. Knowing what questions to ask, knowing what the data means in context, and knowing what to do with it once you have it.

That is domain expertise. AI is going to struggle fully replacing it.

Someone who combines deep domain knowledge with AI-powered analytics can beat out big firms in many instances. Faster. More specific. More tailored to what the client actually needs.

Use this to your advantage.

Here’s where to start.

One thing matters most right now.

Know your client.

It sounds simple. I promise you are missing something you think you already know.

If you have clients:

You need to understand why you have them and what their needs actually are beneath the surface. Data points from your interactions, conversations, and whatever platforms you use can start painting a clearer picture than memory alone ever will.

Start paying attention to patterns. How long do prospects take to respond after a first meeting? What language gets a yes more often than a no? What types of engagements renew without friction versus the ones that quietly fade? When does something feel off before it becomes a problem?

Use AI to help you aggregate these observations and identify what you would otherwise miss. You do not need a sophisticated system to start. A simple habit of feeding your observations into an AI tool and asking “what patterns do you see here” will surface things that surprise you.

It will be harder with one or two clients. Do it anyway. The goal is two things:

• Keep the clients you have by understanding them better than they expect.

• Start identifying exactly how to find more of your best ones.

If you don’t have clients yet:

You need to understand why not, and be honest with yourself about the answer.

Just starting out? Use AI to help you identify where your ideal clients are, what their actual needs are, and how your specific background meets those needs in a way nobody else can. AI will not make you an expert. It will make you more efficient at finding the right people and getting in front of them.

Struggling to find clients after trying? Start by identifying your best possible client given your skills and experience. You can use AI to help pressure test that picture. Then start building relationships. Local is genuinely easier right now than the internet. Online is saturated. In person is underrated. Use AI to help with your digital presence in the background while you do the relationship work in the foreground.

One thing to keep in mind. AI will give you some bad advice mixed in with the good. It is a tool, not a decision maker. You still need to think through what it gives you critically. The people who get the most out of AI are the ones who treat it like a smart assistant that occasionally needs correcting, not an oracle that is always right.

A note for those newer to all of this:

First of all, congratulations and welcome. If I mentioned anything unfamiliar, that is intentional. Use it as a prompt to go learn. That is exactly how AI is most useful.

If you have zero experience with AI tools and do not know where to start, my recommendation is Claude. Go to claude.ai and create a free account. Start by explaining your business, your background, and your goals. Ask it what is missing from the picture for you to be successful. The goal in the beginning is not to get answers. It is to build context. The more clearly you can explain who you are, what you do, and what you are trying to accomplish, the more useful every subsequent conversation becomes.

Think of it as building a foundation. You would not build a house without one. Do not build your AI workflow without one either.

GEO, which I mentioned briefly, stands for Generative Engine Optimization. It is the practice of making sure your business and expertise show up when people ask AI systems for recommendations instead of typing into a search engine. If someone asks ChatGPT “who is a good fractional CFO in Florida” you want to be the answer. I’m building a free tool for that, don’t worry. Feel free to ask about it.

SEO, which most people have heard of, is the same concept applied to traditional search engines like Google. Both matter. Neither happens overnight. Start building toward both now.

The bottom line:

You do not need a data science background to take advantage of what is available right now. You need curiosity, domain knowledge, and the discipline to point the right tools at the right problems.

The firms that used to outcompete you on data no longer have that advantage by default. All they have is scale. You have is speed, specificity, and the ability to tailor everything to the exact client in front of you.

That combination is more powerful than most people realize.

Follow along if this is useful. Reach out if you want a few tailored ideas specific to your situation. I am happy to help.