Just ONE Thing
AI and the Future of Auto Repair Shops: Are You Ready?
Episode 212
with Rick White, 180BIZ
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. My name is Rick White, and I'm from 180BIZ, and this is my Just ONE Thing.
So what are we talking about today? We're talking about AI, right? And what does that stand for? It stands for Artificial Intelligence.
And the reason I'm bringing this today is because I was talking to a couple of shop owners last week. They were really afraid of using AI. They all were really against using AI. One person thought it was the devil. The other one was just really scared of it. And the reality is, they both were.
So why is this a big deal? Because the reality here is, the toothpaste is out of the tube. Okay? That's the truth. The toothpaste is out of the tube. AI is here. It's now. We can't stop it. And it's not like you not using it is going to prevent it from being used.
The thing is to recognize—like anything else—like a calculator. When we were going to school, I can remember not being able to use a calculator. Okay? Today, people are using calculators. It's okay.
It is a tool. It's got so many cool interactions that you can use. From an owner's perspective, it can help you build processes. It can help you create workflows. It can help you crunch numbers.
Like, if you're looking at a company to work with, you can do some deep research on that company and find out all kinds of cool stuff. Same thing with—let's say you're starting a second shop. You want to start a second shop? You can do some demographic research based on the areas that you're thinking about going.
What I want you to understand is, from an owner's perspective, it can be really cool. Okay? Now, don't let AI do the work for you. Okay? Keep it your content. Keep it to be what you want it to be—but then use AI as a tool to help do it quicker.
Okay, so that's the first thing.
Then, from an advisor's perspective—man—they actually... I haven't seen it yet. I have a demo scheduled for a remote AI—that's what they're calling it—a remote AI advisor. An AI advisor.
And I'm not sure it's going to be an advisor. It sounds more like a CSR, but it's still going to be pretty, pretty cool. Right up to answering the phone.
Right? So, AI advisors. How about having the advisors use AI to help clean up and write up explanations in a way that a customer can hopefully understand? Right? Keep it at a simple level. So that's something.
What else?
From a technician's perspective, it can help them write up their findings. They have an AI where it actually prompts the advisors on questions to ask on a diagnostic situation. So there's really a lot of cool things that you can do with AI.
Please—and I had this conversation with my grandson—I said, be careful about AI. I said, it's gonna be pretty quick. It's like expanding, growing, and the uses... I said, but don't let it take away your critical thinking. Don't let it do the thinking for you.
What I said to him was, I said, don't lose your ability to think. Right?
Because if you think about it, when calculators came out, all of a sudden, if you ask people what their times tables are, they have a hard time with them. Why? Because they don't have to do it anymore. They have a calculator.
Right? And I think that's important to understand.
Phone numbers—when I was a kid—we remembered everybody's phone number. Right?
What I want you to do is use it as a tool. Okay?
It makes lots of mistakes. AI still makes mistakes. It's amazing how many times I've called out information that I got from AI. Ask it—here's the best way to do it—ask it to cite the references for the information.
Right? All you're going to do is—whoops—I added that.
So this is super, super important. I want you to be able to use AI. I want you to deal with the fact that you think it's too complicated. It's really not.
You know, I was really scared when AI came out. I was afraid I had to learn all new special prompts and coding and everything like that.
Honest to God, it's like talking to another human being.
I wanted an image created on Saturday, and I must have gone... I asked it to create the image, and then I had it fine-tune the image. So we went back and forth. It was a conversation. Okay?
So don't be afraid of AI. AI—it’s not going to replace your staff. It's going to help your staff do a better job.
"It's too expensive." It really isn't. For less than $100, I think I have three AI models I'm using: Claude, ChatGPT, Anthropic, and Gemini right now. Oh—and Copilot.
So one of the things I want to make sure you understand—be careful to see, make sure that the information you give the AI, especially if it's proprietary, isn't being used to increase or grow the learning model. There is a way you can go in and set it so that it doesn't use your information to build on the model.
And I want to show you something kind of cool
.
We're actually using AI. We have Rick 2.0. And I'm going to just real quick share my screen. I'm going to share the entire screen here, so hopefully you can see it.
What I'm going to do is come over here to our coaching. You come over—this is our Pocket Business Genius webinar series. It's where we do a live webinar every... we have, like, 85 webinars in the library.
So you come over here to Ask Rick. This opens up, and you can either text it, talk to it, or it can use video.
In fact, the one time I used video, I didn't start right away, and it was hilarious. It picked up on the Star Wars stuff in the back of me—you know, behind me—and actually said, “Hey, it looks like you like Star Wars,” and it was pretty cool.
So I could say, here: “I want to build a welcome kit for new home buyers in my area. What should it include?”
And you ask it, and then—bam—it comes right up. Okay? It comes right up with a list of stuff that you can use.
And I can actually get it to read aloud. You probably won't hear it because I'm using a headset.
These are things you can do.
You could ask: “I have a problem I need to discuss with a technician for performance today. What should I do to prepare?”
And here it goes:
* Define the problem clearly
* Understand the bigger picture
* Gather observations and examples
* Set clear goals
* Prepare questions
* Plan for a solution
* Be ready to listen
So it's really pretty cool what this stuff can do.
Okay, so I'm going to ask you to do me a favor. If you think this video will help people, please share it. Okay? That, I think, is really important. Let's get this out in front of people. Let's help people step up their game in an easier, better way.
One of our coaches said, “Oh my God, this is inspiring and terrifying at the same time.” It actually has my voice. And if you're doing the video, it looks like I'm talking to you. It's pretty cool.
So the other thing I want you to do is please let people know about our Shop Owners Roundtable—second Thursday, July 10, 7PM Eastern—for our Shop Owners Roundtable, second Thursday of the month.
And also, our Pocket Business Genius Webinar Series—our next one I just did—it was on creating boundaries to protect your home life. Right? Work-home balance. That's what it's all about.
Okay everybody, thank you so much for being here.
I want you to commit. How about this—what I want to do is not let fear keep you behind. What I want you to do is, I want you to ask yourself:
How can I start to play with this to get more comfortable with it?
Because the reality is—your competition already is.
Okay, go out there, have fun, and go make some money this week.
See ya. Take care. Bye-bye.
