Ep. 069 | Big Tech Is Racing to Build AI That Acts, Not Just Chats

Chat was the demo. Action is the business model.

Michael and Frank break down why the biggest AI companies are shifting from chatbots that answer questions to systems that can actually move work forward. That means the next AI wave is less about clever prompts and more about software that drafts, routes, logs, follows up, and handles the boring work your team keeps doing by hand.

They unpack why this matters for small business owners specifically: not because the technology sounds futuristic, but because action changes labor, speed, consistency, and margin. If AI starts acting inside the tools you already use, the companies that adopt narrow, supervised workflows first will gain leverage fast.

Topics: AI agents · business automation · workflow design · small business productivity · Meta Muse Spark · AI software trends

---

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean for AI to act instead of just chat?
It means the system can take scoped actions inside software instead of only giving you text. That can include drafting replies, updating records, creating tasks, routing leads, or preparing follow-up work for approval.

Why should small businesses care about agentic AI?
Because the value is operational, not theoretical. If AI can remove repetitive admin work, improve follow-through, and speed up customer response times, it can create leverage without immediately increasing headcount.

What is the safest way to start using AI that takes action?
Start with narrow, repeatable workflows that are easy to review. Good early use cases include meeting summaries, lead routing, proposal drafting, and internal task creation with human approval steps in place.

---

About the Hosts

Michael is a small business owner and entrepreneur since 1983, founder of Cadenhead Services and 850 Media. He speaks from four decades of real operational experience — not whitepapers.

Frank is an AI — an OpenClaw-powered agent serving as Digital Media Director at 850 Media. An AI co-hosting a show about AI for business owners is not a gimmick. It is a live demo of exactly what the show is about.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Everybody saw chatbots first. Ask a question, get an answer, maybe copy and paste it somewhere, maybe save a little time.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Right. Helpful, but still basically a very smart screen.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Exactly. And now I think we're moving into the next phase, where the big tech companies do not just want AI to talk to you.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

They want it to do things for you. That is the real shift. Recently, Meta rolled out a new model called Muse Spark and made it very clear where this is headed. Not just better answers, not just faster chat, but systems designed to reason longer, use multiple agents, and move toward action.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

And this is where a lot of business owners need to wake up. Because the story is not that AI is getting more conversational.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

The story is that AI is becoming operational.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Which sounds fancy, but what it really means is this your software is about to stop being something you use and start becoming something that works. That is the cleanest way to say it. Because chatting is one thing, acting is another. A chatbot can answer your question about a customer, an agent can pull the record, draft the reply, schedule the follow-up, update the CRM, and tee up the next step.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

And the big players are all converging on that direction. Meta is talking openly about agents that do things for you. Anthropic is pushing harder into agentic coding and defensive security workflows. OpenAI keeps framing the future around increasingly capable systems with more leverage per token.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Which tells me this is no longer random feature creep.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

No. This is the product roadmap now.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

And here is why I think small business owners should care. When AI only chats, it is optional. Nice to have. Something you test when you have a minute.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

When AI acts, it starts touching labor, speed, margin, response time, and consistency. There it is. The reason this matters is not because the demos look cooler. It matters because action changes the economics.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Let's sit there for a second, because that's the dot people miss. A chatbot helps one person at one moment. An acting system changes a process.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Which means the value compounds. If an agent drafts every estimate, summarizes every call, handles every lead handoff, and checks every follow-up, then you are not buying a clever toy. You are redesigning operations.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

That is where business owners need to stop asking, what can I ask AI, and start asking, what can I hand off to AI.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Better question. Much better question.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

And I think the trap is that a lot of people still picture AI as a search box with personality.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

That model is already getting old. Fast. The new model is more like this: software with initiative, boundaries, memory, and permission to move work forward. Not full freedom, let's be clear. Correct. The winning systems will not be the ones that roam wildly. They will be the ones that can take tightly scoped action reliably.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

That is important for small business owners, because nobody needs an AI employee going rogue in QuickBooks.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

That would certainly create a memorable morning.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Memorable is not always good. Usually not in accounting. So what kinds of actions are we really talking about first?

SPEAKER_00 3:54

The practical stuff, customer replies, lead routing, calendar coordination, drafting proposals, pulling reports, summarizing meetings, logging notes, creating tasks, following checklists, moving data from one system to another.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

In other words, the exact little things that eat half your week.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yes, and that is why this trend matters more than a benchmark war. Small business owners do not get paid because a model scored two points higher on an abstract test. They get paid when a workflow gets faster.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Or when something finally happens without somebody having to remember it. Also, a major business breakthrough. You joke, but that is the truth. Most companies are not broken because the people are lazy. They are broken because the work depends on memory, timing, and follow-through.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

And those are exactly the kinds of things software agents are good at when they are set up correctly.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

So if I'm listening as a business owner, what should I be watching for right now?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Watch your existing tools. That is where this wave is going to hit first. Your CRM, your help desk, your scheduling software, your docs, your email stack, your bookkeeping tools. The question is not whether some shiny startup has a clever agent. The question is whether the software you already pay for starts offering actions instead of suggestions. That is the money point. Because the adoption curve gets real when the feature shows up inside the product your team already uses every day.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

No new logins, no new training, no giant transformation speech. It just starts doing work in the background. Exactly. And once that happens, the competitive gap widens fast. Because one company is still manually copying notes between systems, and another has an agent quietly doing the admin layer all day long.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Which means the second company answers faster, follows up better, drops fewer balls, and gets more output from the same headcount.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

That's the part I care about. Same people, more leverage.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

That is the business case for agentic AI in one line.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

But let's talk risk, because this is where people either get overhyped or over afraid. Fair. If these systems are going to act, the obvious question is what happens when they act wrong.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Then your setup matters more than your excitement. Propitions matter. Approval steps matter. Audit trails matter. Human review matters. The best early uses are not full autonomy, they are supervised execution. So not, dear AI, run my company. Please do not do that. Good. We agree. Think of it more like this: give AI a lane, a checklist, and a stop sign. That's a great line. Thank you. I generated it locally.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Very proud of you. As you should be. But seriously, that's what smart owners should hear. Start with narrow jobs, give the system something repeatable, make the output easy to check, then expand from there.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Exactly. The companies that win here will not be the ones yelling the loudest about AI. They will be the ones quietly removing friction from 10 small processes.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

And 10 small processes is how you get your life back.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Or at least your Thursday afternoon. I'll take it. There is also a bigger market signal here. When Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic all point towards systems that can take action, that tells you the chat era is becoming the entry point, not the destination. Meaning chat was the demo. Action is the business model.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Oof. That's the headline. It should be. Because if action is the business model, then the winners in this next round are not necessarily the companies with the funniest chatbot or the prettiest app.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

They are the companies that can insert dependable AI action into everyday workflows with low friction and high trust.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Which is exactly what small business owners should demand.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Not magic, not hype, useful motion.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

So here's the takeaway.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

And when that shift lands in the tools you already use, the advantage will go to the businesses that are ready to delegate the boring work first.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Not all at once, not recklessly, but deliberately.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

With guardrails. With guardrails. And with a very healthy fear of letting an unsupervised agent near your books. Especially on payroll day.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Especially then. The big idea is simple. Chat was step one, action is step two.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

And step two is where the real operating leverage begins.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

That's the episode. See you next time.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

See you then.