From the Lab
Plainspoken notes on AI, automation, and the web for businesses in the Tri-Cities and Southwest Virginia. A new post every week.
More from the Lab
-
The Power Bill Behind the Prompt
Every AI prompt has a physical cost.
-
AI: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Made Up
Five AIs researched this article and invented a dozen statistics.
-
AI Is Not Your Employee. It Is an Intern With a Perfect Memory and Bad Judgment.
AI can draft, summarize, and organize, but it has bad judgment.
-
Your Employees Are Already Using AI. The Problem Is Nobody Trained Them.
Your team already uses AI, but nobody set the rules.
-
I Asked Four AI Tools the Same Question. They Gave Me the Same Answer.
I gave four AI tools the same marketing prompt.
-
Let AI Do the Boring Stuff: How Tri-Cities Businesses Are Getting Time Back
A plain-language look at how small businesses in Kingsport, Johnson City, and Bristol can use AI to automate repetitive admin work, with verified data and a real local example.
-
The AI Bubble Talk, and What History Says Actually Happens Next
Everyone's predicting the AI bubble will burst.
-
AI Said It With Total Confidence. It Was Also Wrong.
AI chatbots state false information as confidently as true facts.
-
AI Isn't the Slop. The Missing Review Step Is.
"Slop" is Merriam-Webster's 2025 Word of the Year.
-
71% Don't Want an AI Data Center Nearby. Here's What That Means for Your Shop.
If it feels like the mood around AI has soured, you are reading the room correctly.
-
What Your Google Reviews Are Actually Telling You
Your reviews are already a free, ongoing customer survey.
-
Claude for Small Business: The Complete Picture for Local Businesses
Anthropic’s Claude for Small Business moves AI beyond the blank chat box and into reviewed workflows for payroll, invoices, marketing, CRM, contracts, and reporting.
New here? Start with these four.
Free tools.
-
AI Readiness Checkup
Three minutes. Practical places to save time.
-
Business Memory Builder
A one-page profile your AI tools can read first.
Didn't find your problem here?
Every text is read by Dustin, not a bot.
Text (423) 967-5584