Investing in Our Intelligence: Why We’re Trading Short-Term Speed for Long-Term Wisdom

The promise of AI is seductive: instant answers, streamlined workflows, and unprecedented efficiency. But what happens when the reality of implementing it feels… slower? When adopting a new tool means more clicks, more steps, and more time, not less?

This was the central theme of our recent "Lunch and Learn," a candid conversation between myself, our Director of Sales, Josh Brown, and our Senior Systems Administrator, Brandon Spivey. We were digging into how we can leverage Google's AI tools, specifically NotebookLM, to revolutionize our entire customer lifecycle—from the first sales email to long-term maintenance tickets.

The tension was immediately clear. Brandon, who is on the front lines of client support, rightly pointed out that documenting a support ticket with AI can take an hour, whereas the "old way" might take ten minutes. From a pure time-tracking perspective, that’s a loss. He asked the tough, essential question: Is this investment of time worth it when the pressure is on?

My answer, and our collective bet as a company, is an emphatic "yes." We aren't just fixing printers; we are building an intelligent, learning organization.

Josh demonstrated the immediate value in our post-sales process. By feeding all initial emails and discovery notes into a dedicated NotebookLM for a new client, his team can conduct an "internal kickoff" before ever meeting the customer. They can ask the AI, "What are the client's biggest stated concerns?" or "Identify potential gaps in our understanding." We walk into the official handoff meeting more prepared and insightful than ever before. The messy input data is transformed into strategic, actionable intelligence.

This is where the paradigm shifts. Brandon’s extra time isn’t a cost; it’s a deposit into our company’s collective brain. When he uses AI to summarize a support call, he admits the resulting ticket notes are "so much better." That’s not just a better note. That’s a richer, more contextual piece of data being woven into our institutional knowledge.

The long-term vision is what truly excites me. In 18 months, when we’re training a new technician, my instruction will be, "It’s fine to ask me anything, but you damn sure better ask our AI first." That’s only possible if we do the hard work today of feeding it high-quality data. We are building a proprietary data asset that no competitor can replicate.

Right now, the technology requires us to be the bridge—to manually save, upload, and curate. But we know that one day, Google’s systems will be able to query our entire data ecosystem with a single click. When that day comes, we will be ready. Because even with unlimited funding, an AI is useless if you don’t have the data.

So yes, it takes more time today. But we’re not just managing tickets; we are investing in our intelligence. And that’s a long-term strategy that will pay dividends for years to come.