Ask Karen
"We don't know where to start with AI." Where do we start?
Ask Karen: a real owner question, answered plainly.
The short answer
Start with your business, not with a tool. Find the one place where your firm loses the most customers or the most time today, and look at that first. AI is useful when it fixes a real weak link. It isn't a starting point on its own.
The owner moment
It's Monday morning in a firm of eight people. The owner has read three articles about AI over the weekend. The website is a few years old. Posts go out when someone has time. Quotes are written in Word and chased by email. Everyone says AI will change everything, but nobody says what to do first.
So nothing happens. Not because the owner doesn't care, but because there are too many places to start.
That is the sentence we hear first on almost every call: "We don't know where to start." It's a good place to begin.
Every firm already has a loop
People find you. They choose you. They pay. And good customers bring the next ones.
In most small firms that loop is slow or broken in one place:
- Found: new customers rarely say "I found you online". When you search your own service and town, someone else shows up.
- Chosen: people visit or call, then go quiet. Your website doesn't answer the questions customers ask on the phone.
- Paid: quotes take a long time, enquiries arrive incomplete, follow-up depends on one person's memory.
- The next ones: good customers buy once and disappear. Recommendations happen, but by chance.
The weakest of these four is where you start. AI may help there, or it may not. That's the honest test.
What to do: five steps
- Name your weak link. Read the four signs above and pick one: found, chosen, paid or the next ones. One, not four.
- Write down five manual tasks that cost your team the most time each week: email, Excel, copy-paste, re-typing. The weak link is often hiding in that list.
- Ask the assistants about yourself. Type "What does [your firm] in [your town] do?" into ChatGPT, Copilot and Google. Write down what they say, and what's wrong. In a Swiss survey (HSLU with localsearch, May 2026), 58% of SMEs said they had never checked what AI says about their company; among firms with 1–9 staff it was 60% (source below).
- Pick one small first step for that weak link: a clear service page with your customers' questions answered, an up-to-date Google Business Profile, a tidy template for quotes, or a first test of an AI tool on one task.
- Decide what AI may and may not touch. Use AI to draft, and keep a person to approve. Don't paste client data, contracts, staff matters or passwords into public AI tools.
What to watch out for
- Tool first, problem later. Buying a tool before you know the weak link usually adds one more thing nobody uses.
- Answers you can't check. Useful business AI answers from your own approved documents and shows the source. If a tool can't say where an answer came from, test it carefully before you rely on it.
- Data. Check where a tool keeps your data and whether it uses it for training. Read the provider's own terms. For data-protection questions in Switzerland, the official starting point is the FDPIC (EDÖB). This post is not legal advice.
- Nobody controls Google or ChatGPT. Clear pages and correct profiles make your firm easier to read. They don't guarantee where you appear.
Where De.Coded fits
Finding the first step is our job. In the free 15-minute call you tell Karen what happens in your business, in your own words. She asks a few questions and names the step she would start with. You decide whether and when to take it.
Book the free 15-minute callWith Karen, by video. No sales pressure.
Sources
- HSLU (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences) with localsearch, KMU Digital Pulse 2026 (n=504 Swiss SME marketing decision-makers): whitepaper https://zenodo.org/records/22098334 · summary https://www.localsearch.ch/de/kmu-digital-pulse-2026/
- Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC / EDÖB): https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/
FAQ
Do we need an IT department to start with AI?
No. Most owner-run firms of about 5–10 people don't have one. Start with one weak link and one task, and keep a person approving what AI drafts.
Should we buy an AI tool first?
Not before you know your weak link. The weak link decides the step; the step decides whether a tool helps.
What's the quickest way to see where we stand?
Ask ChatGPT, Copilot and Google what they say about your firm, and compare it with the truth. Then look at your five most time-consuming manual tasks.
Is it safe to put company data into AI tools?
It depends on the tool and its terms. Don't paste client data, contracts, staff matters or passwords into public AI tools. For legal questions, see the FDPIC/EDÖB website or ask your advisor.
What happens in the free 15-minute call?
You describe your business in your own words. Karen asks a few questions and names the step she would start with. There's no obligation.