Using AI to strengthen operations, not replace people

By Emma Peterson. 

Kevin Fox shares ideas about how businesses can use AI to support growth without losing the human touch.  

We recently hosted Kevin Fox of Foxwerx Group for an episode of Contractor Outlook about the evolving role of AI in business and brand growth. Kevin is the perfect person to talk to about this as he brings over 30 years of experience in advertising and marketing. His current work with Foxwerx blends all of that experience into a powerful business platform. In his own words, “With Foxwerx, we wanted to take a new approach to the traditional advertising and marketing agency. To do that, we really worked on building systems and technology that leverages me and my team’s years of experience to strategically build brands.”  

According to Kevin, “I consider myself an AI pragmatist. There are a lot of folks out there who make a lot of noise talking about how it's going to change this and that, and it's going to upend this and that. And really they have their own motives for saying that. What I want to do is see AI as a tool and find ways it can actually help your business.”  

What might this look like? One example Kevin shared was using AI to help answer phone calls. He explained, “What we often find is call reception and then follow up isn't happening quickly enough. There is a direct correlation to how quickly you respond to a call and how much more likely you are to close. Speed to lead is real and it can be hard to be speedy enough.” What AI can do in this scenario is act as a receptionist for you and capture initial lead information faster than if you had one receptionist answering the phone from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Kevin explained, “AI receptionists can reflect your brand through their language and tone, answer calls at all times of the day and automate simpler parts of your process, like sending a brochure after a call.” 

From there, your receptionist can take over, handling the follow up and making sure that the customer's information is properly handled and their questions are answered. To be clear, Kevin is not saying that AI takes place of the human receptionist, rather that it is a tool to help that person work more efficiently and effectively. He shared, “We like a personal touch; we don't want to replace humans with AI. But the fact is no person can work 24/7 and having an AI backup is a really great support for the human.” 

At the end of the day, that is the core of how AI should be used – a supportive tool not a replacement. As Kevin put it, “When clients want to use AI, we tell them to look for the things that are just taking time in their schedule that they wished they didn’t have to do. Especially tasks that you do over and over the same way and it’s just tedious. That’s a place where AI automation can actually be beneficial.”  

Listen to the newscast or Watch the recording to learn more about how Kevin recommends incorporating AI into business operations.