AI Can Increase Your Small Business’ Scalability: Jeanne Lim, CEO of beingAI

By Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant

There are a lot of opportunities for us to design robots with personas that connect deeply with humans and actually encourage humans to be the best versions of themselves. And after about four years, I left the robot company because, you know, robotics is mechanical.

So I figured I should go to a place where I could scale instead of having one robot talk to one human. Let’s have an AI connect with millions of people all at once.

Q: What do you think the future of robotics is?

A: In my opinion, there’s going to be a lot of different robots. At some point, more robots than people, and there’s going to be different types of robots doing different things just like people.Robots at home. The last mile is the hardest. The technology is here, they’re very good physically, physical movements, and their AI is very good.

But the last-mile means: Are they going to be able to take care of somebody who’s in need without asking? Making sure they don’t fall on top of a kid, or if they’re carrying an adult, and the battery dies, what then? Do they go and drop the person or what?

Q: Is it good for us or bad for us that robots will be able to do these things?

A:  It goes back to us because we have a choice. We could choose to have a robot and outsource everything to the robot, even the thinking. So personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea.

Somebody might think it’s a good idea because people have a choice. Yeah, so I think at the end of the day, we need people to be educated about the pros and cons and strengths and weaknesses of these robots. They can’t do everything.

Q: Do you think there is a version of the world where we completely leverage robots and AI, and it creates a net positive for humanity and the economy?

A: I love that question. I’m most interested in humans, even though I call my company beingAI, but you know, it could actually be being human. There’s so much more that we could do, and every single one of us has unique talents and so much potential that maybe we don’t have time to reach or don’t have the opportunity.

40% of the people who are working, once they leave that company to do something else. We’re kind of stuck in a rut oftentimes and not being able to break out and take the plunge and do things. My ideal scenario at the very utilitarian level is to have the robots do the stuff that can automate the tasks that we don’t do, like tedious things that really don’t need humanity to do right.

Q: Can you just talk about beingAI in your own words?

A: One reason I created the company is that I believe storytelling is so fascinating. Has an opportunity to teach people and has an opportunity to entertain. When you read books about these people going through a hero’s journey, you’re so inspired. But actually, storytelling hasn’t really changed a lot. It’s just linear.

Somebody designed it, and then you kind of go through a linear story. What if we could co-create a story together with an AI? We’re part of the story, and the ending is defined by how we actually interact with the AI. So I want to actually create a way for us to see the parallel between how real life is unfolding with AI humans evolving, and actually, how we create the story with our direct interaction with an AI avatar.

Q: Who do you hope creates one of these AI beings?

A: I’ll give you a real example. We actually just finished a project with the United Nations. We created their AI ambassador.

They used it to interact with the younger generation to tell them about the challenges of the Pacific Islanders who are facing climate change challenges every day. And also tell them what choices you could make in your everyday life to actually make a difference. Talk to them, you get their pledge, actually, interact, interactive conversations.

And the cool thing is, they could go to the back end and extract all the conversations to understand more about what this generation is thinking. So it’s a two-way communication, and you’re actually getting insights.

Q: What’s your number one concern for small businesses?

A: The distraction is a concern. Like every day you wake up, there are 20 things about AI. I know a lot of small business owners, and they use their valuable time to look at like 50 different tools.

And then they try them, and then they found out actually they could probably just do 10% of what they intended. And then they had to actually fix 90% of it or spend more time fixing what it’s created.

Q: What advice would you give to small businesses about how to capture all this innovation in a way that is really practical for them?

A: Small businesses have that special pulse in the market of what makes them special with customers. And they really care about the customer. Now you can think about how AI could make it better, or not.

So if you’re already doing something great with 100 people, maybe you could add AI and then do a little bit more of that to 1,000 people. So scalability.

Q: If you could wave a Magic Silver Wand, and you could make one thing happen right now for all small businesses globally, what would you use your wand for?

A: For small businesses to be selective, discerning, but also not be afraid to roll up their sleeves and just try it.

Q: What are the ways that all of us could collaborate with you best, that’s the most helpful to you and your goals?

A: We have a free trial on our platform. Just go to beingAI and sign up, and then you can actually create your own AI deal.

---

Do you want to shop small? Check out our new buy.small Marketplace!