The New Era of Automation: Definition of Automation 2.0

Chris Davis 0:11
And we’re back. Welcome to another episode of the All Systems Go podcast. And thank you, thank you all for your. Your response to the first episode so far.

Chris Davis 0:32
And it actually gave me a little cause for pause to make sure that I really dial in on what I mean when I’m talking about this new era of automation. Because even myself, I realized that my definition has shifted because of AI. AI has changed the landscape. And you all know me, those of you who have been listening to the podcast know, as my T shirt says, as I’m recording out of me responsibly, I’m always into the responsible usage of technology in any way to ensure that it’s, it’s not just safe, but it’s scalable and secure.

Chris Davis 1:21
So those, those three S’s are always on my mind, right, Is if we’re, if we’re building out systems, the systems, if we’re building our systems responsibly, they need to be safe, meaning we’re not using tactics and strategies that expose the business in any way, right? Which brings us into security, right? Safe, secure for scaling. If you can’t hit all three of those, then you’re not doing it responsibly.

Chris Davis 1:58
And my thing was I wanted to make sure that I had a good enough understanding of AI to do it responsibly to even speak on it, right? So, so I’ve maybe I’ve over indexed right, on being prepared and saying, hey, look, I could have started talking about this sooner, but I feel like now, since I have the biggest, let me not say biggest, the strongest understanding of exactly, not just AI, but really more so how I use AI, right, and how I’ve been using and what does that have to do with automation? And if you think back, let’s, let’s just do a quick history. I can’t remember if I’ve talked about this in previous episodes, but if we go to some of the most common versions of automation that everybody is used to, you think of your email autoresponder.

Chris Davis 3:00
I’m talking about the out of Office autoresponder, right, where you set something once and every time somebody sends you an email, it automatically triggers that reply. So everybody knows that you’re, you’re out of office. And even a more simple version could be copy and paste. You hit Command C, control C, whatever operating system you’re on, and it copies that and you can paste it as many times as you want to without retyping automation essentially, right?

Chris Davis 3:32
Or maybe in the business sector everybody is pretty much familiar with this and that is Excel formulas, Excel sheet or Google Sheet formulas, right? You tell a formula and if you’re savvy, you do an array for a whole column so that any fields in other columns that have values, it just automatically executes the formula for you. But that’s what formulas are for, right? You put a formul and then you drag it down vertically, that whole row of that whole column of cells and it just calculates.

Chris Davis 4:10
It’s automation, right? And with that being said, I would, I’m pivoting a bit now and I’m giving you all a new, a new definition of automation that I feel is more appropriate, honestly. And if you think about it as automation being the single event of programming or programming or creating a. Let me just say it, say it like I know it.

Chris Davis 4:44
The event of singularly programming a process to be executed continuously without human interaction, right? So I sit down, I program some logic, I all the decisions I build in and then those decisions are being executed on our, on my behalf automatically, right? So single is you do the work once. That’s the single part of the definition.

Chris Davis 5:16
Programming is defining the process. This is really the hardest part in all automation because some people automate prematurely and they don’t have the process defined and that just introduces all types of complexities. And then some people don’t even know the process. You could be doing a thing, right?

Chris Davis 5:39
And not being clear on exactly what you’re doing and then try to automate it. And that’s the first case I’m talking about. But there are some people that haven’t even done a thing and the first thing they want to do is automate, right? So you can’t, you can’t have automation without a clearly defined process.

Chris Davis 5:55
You can’t have responsible automation without a clearly defined process. And then continuous is it runs again, again and again at whatever frequency based on the trigger, right? The trigger could be an event that a human does. A trigger can be time based things of that nature and without human interaction.

Chris Davis 6:13
Now we do have human in the loop. You know, there’s only so much I can cover in one podcast, but with minimal, let’s say that with minimal to no human interact action. And if you think about it, that has been automation before AI. And it’s crazy to say this, but automation has been kind of dumb, right?

Chris Davis 6:38
Dumb is harsh. Let me say automation before AI has been deterministic. And what that means is I determine all of the logic, all of the possibilities, all of all of the branching, the if else’s, I determine all of that prior to. And then as data flows through, it executes if it, if it comes up to an edge case that I had not programmed for, I’m just out of luck, right?

Chris Davis 7:08
There’s no dynamic determining on my behalf. And that’s where we start to see the game change, right? This is what AI starts to bring in and says, hey, I can be your brain on the fly, query me. And I can not just help you make decisions, but I can also give you more dynamic and accurate data within the processes that you’re executing.

Chris Davis 7:38
So that’s one version, that’s one layer of AI. Then the second layer of AI says hey, I see you’re using airtable, I see you’re using a spreadsheet over here. I see you’re using all of these things. I see you’re using make.

Chris Davis 7:54
com and Zapier. You do know me in agent form. I can do all of that for you, right? You know, the days are gone where you actually have to sit down and start to build out automations which again in my previous episode, you guys heard me, that’s really manual.

Chris Davis 8:16
We got tricked into the manual. We’re still writing code and again it’s deterministic at that time in when we know what we wanted to do and then we always have to revisit. Now that’s always going to be a part whether you know of, of automation period in AI is once you learn new considerations or you have new business cases, you go back and revisit and update. So we’re not, we’re not trying to eliminate that.

Chris Davis 8:45
I’m just highlighting it, I’m just mentioning it to know, to let you know that, to give you grounding and be able to locate exactly what I’m talking about and the context around it, right? But if you think about it, that deterministic approach, that’s where the value came from. All of these third parties like make.comzapier and everything and we were fine with it.

Chris Davis 9:14
Infusionsofts now keep the go high levels workflow builder Nadin active campaign updating their workflow builder. If you think of all of those waterfalls and if else branches, that is us being deterministic because we don’t have a dynamic brain to help us inside of the process, right? And some of you, some of you see, some of you see where I’m going. And so I was talking about how AI comes in and says hey look, all of those things that you’re doing that way I can help.

Chris Davis 9:55
And then the natural response is, well, how can you help? That’s been my question. Like, how do you help? Says I can.

Chris Davis 10:01
Just when I’m in agent mode, I can write the code, I can interpret your natural language. You saying something like, hey, every time I get a new purchase, I just need to make sure to check if that person has made a purchase before and if so, I need to send them this email and if not, send them another email. Just tell me that and then I’ll go do the programming for you. Right, in two ways.

Chris Davis 10:28
One, you can deploy me to go figure that out and I’ll just return the information right back at. Right back to you. Is that how you want to deploy me as an agent? Now we’re talking about MCP model context protocol where we can say a thing, it goes out to the tool using natural language, it interprets it and brings us back the result.

Chris Davis 10:49
He said, or you can put me inside of a container. Tell me how about this? Put me inside a container that I design and then give me rules and logic for how you want me to operate inside that container. What did I just define?

Chris Davis 11:10
I defined software. I just defined software, everyone. And that for me was the game changer. When I started to shift my mind from this manual deterministic one time set into make.

Chris Davis 11:27
com n8n activecampaign all of these tools to program automation that will execute my static decision making. It did seem dynamic because there’s multiple paths. But the decision making is done once it’s not revisited. Unless I revisit and rebuild, it can’t be dynamic.

Chris Davis 11:48
Whereas AI comes in and says, hey, listen, instead of you being deterministic, how about you be more demanding? Just demand what you want, I’ll go find it for you. And how about this? Once you know what you want, ongoing, put me in a container.

Chris Davis 12:07
I’ll help you create the container for me. And then I’ll just always provide that to you and you don’t even have to ask me anymore. So you start to see this existence of when to use MCP and deploy an agent to go and find data within the platforms that it’s connected to and it be deterministic on your behalf and then it just returns the result to you. And once you see that, oh, wait a minute, this data set is.

Chris Davis 12:36
I want to have this on demand without having to prompt you. Now we can shift and use AI to build the container for it to execute and always display that information to us. Right? There’s a framework that I’ve stumbled upon and now I’m using consistently of when to use MCP and when to use software.

Chris Davis 12:57
And the goal of this podcast from now moving forward is that focus on personal software, because I believe that is what changes the game. I am not pinning should you write software, should you go mcp? You should do both. But let me tell you one, your software can execute, can, can, can send an agent and do things via MCP.

Chris Davis 13:24
2. So software is the holy grail of where I believe the biggest value of AI and automation is when you use AI to be an agent that writes code and then you program it to your processes. That agent is now within that container which we call software, always executing your code. Well, what is that?

Chris Davis 13:47
That’s the continuous execution of a process without human interaction. Software. Software co authored by AI. It’s the new automation.

Chris Davis 13:59
It’s. This is. If I were to call, say automation 2.0, that would be the definition.

Chris Davis 14:06
And that’s, and that’s what I want to talk about because my, I want to give you all a little insight into my, my evolution into this. I started out not really understanding the power of this software. And you know, you, I started playing around with some WordPress plugins that started working well and I’m seeing, hey, wait a minute, I don’t have to buy the premium version. No, no, no, no, no, wait a minute, I don’t even have to buy the plugin because the little bit of functionality that I was going to pay full price for it to do, I can now create myself.

Chris Davis 14:40
And that naturally just, I kept moving, I kept growing in my knowledge. And then I found this personal software space where I said, wait a minute, if I minimize, and I’ll go into detail everybody about personal software, I’ve got an entire episode dedicated to it. But the idea is if I’m the only focus and I’m the end user and I control all of the specifications, the software creation process is a more simplified, b more powerful. Because you don’t really understand as the standard has been worked with a lot of SaaS companies, the standard has always been scale.

Chris Davis 15:23
We have to build this software to serve thousands and millions. And there’s all types of considerations that come in when you do that. Well, when you remove that consideration that, that requirement of thousands and millions and even Hundreds and even 50s to one, maybe two people, world of opportunity just expands immediately. Right?

Chris Davis 15:46
So with that being said, I want to shift, I want to use this to shift your mind to start to look at automation differently and how to approach it. I would say I’m just going to be, I’m just going to make a bold statement. I would say we’re beyond the days of going in, dragging, dropping, connecting boxes, two boxes to achieve automation. I think, let me step back a little bit.

Chris Davis 16:23
There’s still space for it because when I think of my email marketing platform and CRM platform, there are still times where I have to, there is still a need to go in there and say, hey, send this email, then wait a day, then send this email. But we’re getting to a point where we’re even going to have to reimagine how we approach that because instead of having an email autoresponder, perhaps now we have an email responding app that is now centralized to a specific process instead of one app that sends emails across all processes. Kind of think of it more so like localized automation to your process and the app that governs it. And when I, when I start to look at, think about these apps and automation, every app to me is an employee.

Chris Davis 17:22
That’s how I look at it. And I was just sharing with my friend the other day, hey man, I just hired another employee that, that publishes my, my bi weekly office hours that I, that I run. It goes through the whole gambit. It, I click a button one time and it goes off and does its thing.

Chris Davis 17:38
That’s an employee. I used to have a VA that did that and now it’s fully automated by way of AI authoring scripts on my computer as well as building out the integrations to online tools and being deployed to generate and put the data where it needs to be, all without my interaction. I do the start trigger and then it goes out and does everything. So it, it created the script that will deploy it to go and put the data where it needs to be.

Chris Davis 18:16
It’s automation everybody. And that’s the automation that I need you all to conceptualize and commit to moving forward. My promise to you is I will make sure that this is very clear to you and if the podcasts aren’t enough, you’re like, man, I need more. I need more.

Chris Davis 18:37
We’ve got a community. At any point in time, you can join the community at no cost. We have guest complimentary guest memberships where you can jump in and start to ask questions. Because I’ll say this, if you don’t commit to shifting your mind to this broader understanding of automation and the introduction of personal software encoding, using AI to code your processes to really achieve a higher level of automation, you’re already can I Say this, you’re already behind.

Chris Davis 19:15
And I’m saying that because I’m doing it. And as I’m learning more and more, I’m realizing that, oh my goodness, if I don’t stay on top of it and I’m actively in it, I’ll be behind. So imagine somebody who has never written an app, never. You’re think about this.

Chris Davis 19:32
You’re in business, you’re making money or you’re generating leads. So you have defined processes and you’re relying on off the shelf software to do all of the work for you. I don’t know about you all, but in case you’re the perfect mannequin size, it is very rare that you will go into a store and buy a shirt or bottoms, pants, shorts, whatever, that fit you perfectly, right? And maybe I’m speaking to the more older, mature crowd.

Chris Davis 20:02
We like our clothes to fit a certain way, right? And it’s hard if you truly want the perfect fit, what do you do? You go to a tailor. And my wife and I were just having this conversation as a quick sidebar, but we’ve been going to, she’s been going more than me.

Chris Davis 20:17
I started going to the tailor and she just took over. She likes pockets in her dresses. She likes all kinds of things that don’t come standard. You find a nice dress, a nice outfit and you’re like, oh, it’s great, but it doesn’t have pockets or it’s too bulky in the crotch area or it’s this, it’s that.

Chris Davis 20:31
All types of considerations for women. I’m just like, wow, well, you find a tailor. Well, guess what, you can now customize that fit to your body. And now you feel more confident when you wear it right.

Chris Davis 20:44
The look that you’re going for, you achieve every single time you put the outfit on instead of having to. People don’t understand how much a well fitting outfit, what it does for your confidence and just your overall feel. Well, software is the same thing. We’re perfectly fitting software to your business and your processes, using AI to do so.

Chris Davis 21:10
This, my friends, is where I need you to be, not want I need you to be. Now again, if you’re listening to these podcasts and you’re like, oh my goodness, I’m binging through, I’m getting it and you want to move faster. And in your podcasting app where you just hit play, wherever you’re watching this, there is a link to join the community. So again, I will always have a path for you to go faster.

Chris Davis 21:37
If the community isn’t fast Enough. I’ve got a course within the community that will set up your local environment and turn your computer into an unlimited app making machine. No joke. I’m not exaggerating.

Chris Davis 21:53
It’s all on you and whatever pace you choose to move at. All I’m telling you is move. You have got to be moving at some pace in this new era of automation that we call AI and not relinquishing to what has been because it always has been. I am in no way trying to tell you to cancel make.

Chris Davis 22:18
com, cancel Zapier, cancel your innate. I’m not saying that. I’m not saying never build an automation in activecampaign again. I’m not saying that evolution is.

Chris Davis 22:30
And I’m just reporting to you what evolution is saying and it is evolving fast everyone. So I hope, my hope is for you to grasp the new power that you have and software governing your processes and executing it, executing them on your behalf. Because the barrier of entry has been lowered to the ground. Because once you understand how to generate software in your business to execute your processes continuous, continuously for you without your interaction, it changes the internal efficacy, efficiency, profitability.

Chris Davis 23:16
It changes everything in your business. And I say this, I’m not only the president, I’m a client, right? I’m saying this because I’m doing it for myself and my clients and it is changing the game. Last thing before I leave.

Chris Davis 23:38
We just replaced Typeform. Now imagine using Typeform for a company of over 50 users. That’s a pretty penny. And now with a hundred dollar subscription to Claw Codex, whatever you want to use, you can create your own Typeform experience specific to your business need and easily integrates with your tech stack.

Chris Davis 24:05
None of the limitations that these other platforms have. I’m not not against Typeform, I’m just bringing it up because we just replaced it and saved thousands of dollars a month. We turned thousands of dollars in SAS fees to inclusive to the $100 max plan that we’re currently paying for for Claude. You can’t beat those savings everyone.

Chris Davis 24:29
The question is, are you even trying to you even in the game? It’s time. It is definitely time. And with that being said, I want to thank you for your continuous support.

Chris Davis 24:41
And hopefully something was said in this episode that illuminated, opened up your mind, exposed you to a new way, new opportunity to do something that was either stumping you or you just felt could be done better or it was heavier. Now you at least have this idea around how you can potentially start using AI and software to light that so until next time I see you all online. Automate responsibly, my friends.