Navigating the AI revolution is about building a foundation that lasts. At Net Friends, we view the AI landscape through three distinct layers: how we use it internally, how we guide our clients, and the bigger picture of where the technology is heading for small businesses.
Net Friends CEO John Snyder shares how we are navigating this shift and what we’ve learned along the way.
Layer 1: Internal Use
Q: Tell us about how Net Friends got started with AI.
John Snyder: When ChatGPT 3.5 came out in late 2022, we immediately recognized it as the most significant technology shift we had seen since Google search first appeared. That instinct pushed us to get intentional fast. We started building policies, training, and governance around them. That's really been our posture ever since: embrace it early but do it responsibly.
Q: How is Net Friends using AI internally?
John: We started with policy before tools. Before anyone touched AI, we made sure people understood what was sanctioned and why. Then we gave everyone access to the right tools: Claude for Teams, ChatGPT for Business, and an AI meeting notes tool. The goal was to normalize responsible use, not restrict it. If people do not have sanctioned tools, they will find their own, and that's where you lose visibility and control.
Q: What is the biggest mistake businesses make with AI?
John: Skipping the policy conversation. Most businesses go straight to the tool and skip the foundation. Who is allowed to use what? What data can AI touch? What happens when AI gets something wrong? Those questions feel bureaucratic until something goes sideways, and then they feel urgent. We think the governance layer is not optional. It is what makes the rest of it work.
Q: Do you have concerns about AI agents (tools that act on your behalf)?
John: There is a philosophical question underneath the technical one. If an AI is responding to someone's email, scheduling their meetings, acting as them, does the other person know? And if they do not, does it change the relationship? I think it does. Most meaningful business relationships are built on direct engagement. The moment someone suspects they are talking to a bot acting for you, it shifts from a relationship to a transaction. We are very deliberate about where that line is.
Q: What are the operational risks of AI agents?
John: The risk that does not get talked about enough is error amplification. AI can dramatically increase your output volume, but if your processes are not tight, you are now producing errors faster and at greater scale. Speed without auditing is not efficiency, it is exposure. We tell clients to get their fundamentals right first, then layer in automation.
Layer 2: Guiding Clients on AI Use
Q: How should small business owners think about starting their AI journey?
John: It starts by understanding the benefits of using AI. We approach this by looking at it from two points of view, the individual and the organization:
- Individual Impact: Help each person understand how AI fits their specific role.
- Organizational Impact: Make sure you have the tools, the policies, and a regular check-in process to assess whether AI is helping.
These tracks usually start out on their own, but they work best when they come together. Without both in play, you are likely looking at either chaos on one end or a shiny solution nobody uses on the other.
Q: Should small businesses be planning to implement AI soon?
John: I would push back gently on the urgency framing that's everywhere right now. A lot of the you need to move fast on AI messaging is coming from people who have a financial interest in AI adoption. The better question is not "How do we get more AI?” It is “What are our goals, and could AI help us get there faster or better? That reframes the focus on what matters.
It is important to understand AI well enough to recognize when it is genuinely useful and how to measure whether it is working. But chasing the tool for its own sake is a distraction.
Q: Do you think AI will replace jobs?
John: I would push back on thinking about AI as an org chart decision rather than on individual capability. AI will not replace your team. It will surface a new problem: what do people do with the time it frees up? If that is not intentional, you end up with workers who are technically more efficient but spending the extra capacity on low-value work. And the deeper risk is using AI to squeeze more deliverables out of the same team. Short-term, that looks like productivity. Long-term, you've eliminated the breathing room where creative and collaborative thinking happens.
Layer 3: The Future of AI
Q: Where do you see Net Friends next year with AI?
John: In 12 months, AI will be woven into nearly every support interaction we handle. When a ticket comes in, our technicians will already have suggested solutions, relevant history, and context waiting for them.
But the piece I am most excited about is on the customer side. Imagine submitting a support request and getting a response that says: "A technician will be with you in about two minutes, but 80% of the time, issues like yours can be fixed by doing X. Would you like to try while you wait?" That gives the customer agency, sets clear expectations, and often resolves the issue before we even pick up. It is not deflection, it is empowerment. And that kind of experience becomes possible when AI is doing the heavy lifting in the background.
Q: Where do you see AI going in five years?
John: AI sits in a continuum of genuine game-changers, the personal computer, the internet, cloud computing, and it will eventually become so diffused across everything we do that it stops feeling like a distinct thing. We will not talk about using AI any more than we talk about using the internet when we send an email.
When the iPhone launched, nobody immediately saw that it would enable Google Maps to transform how we navigate cities, or that Uber would use it to displace the taxi industry. The transformative value was not in the phone, it was in what got built on top of it. AI is the same. The things that will matter most haven't been invented yet.
Q: What are your final thoughts?
John: The AI era is not a sprint to adopt the latest tool. It is a sustained commitment to building something worth automating in the first place.
What Net Friends has learned, both internally and through guiding clients, is that the businesses that will thrive are not necessarily the fastest movers. They are the most intentional ones. The ones who ask why before how, who build governance before they build workflows, and who keep the human relationship at the center even as the technology evolves around it.
AI will keep advancing whether we are ready or not. The models will get more capable, the agents more autonomous, and the line between human and automated action will be more blurred. That makes foundational work more important, not less. Clear policies, honest measurement, and a team that understands both the promise and the limits of these tools are not obstacles to AI adoption. They are what makes adoption sustainable.
The businesses that treat AI as a shortcut will find it cuts corners they did not mean to cut. The ones that treat it as infrastructure, something to be built carefully and maintained deliberately, are the ones that will still be standing when the next wave arrives.
And there will absolutely be a next wave. The most exciting applications of AI have not been invented yet. The best thing a small business can do today is build the kind of foundation that is ready for whatever that looks like.
Net Friends is here to help you build it.
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At Net Friends, we believe in the power of human expertise. While we leverage AI to enhance our content and processes, all blog posts are written and edited by our knowledgeable staff. You can trust you are getting insights directly from our team.