Welcome to Ops and Ends

Every 2 weeks I’ll be dropping a five-minute read filled with insights and actual “how to’s” on managing the chaos that’s going on in your company.

Table of Contents

• Is AI the best and secret employee of the month?

• The Road to Profitability (and where AI fits into …

• Automation vs. AI - what's the difference?

• Revisiting a Case Study - What if AI had taken it …

• Would AI have reduced Operational debt?

• So, is AI the best employee of the month?

• Are you AI Ready?

Is AI the best and secret employee of the month?

Okay, so let me set the scene. Imagine you have this one employee, who: works 24/7, never takes a break or a holiday, and is never tired (nope, burnout doesn't exist for them), and always learns from their mistakes. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, that’s AI—at least in theory.

The Road to Profitability (and where AI fits into this)

In the last edition I talked about how companies are fixated on the road to profitability. Doing more with the same heads, and how automation is one way to make that happen.

This edition we are levelling it up, and talking about AI (yup, we are going there).

Don't get me wrong, I don't claim to be an AI expert (is anyone really when it's changing ALL THE DARN TIME)? Even Zapier, who have always been at the forefront of automation, has just announced launch of their MCP this week. I can't keep up!

Whenever I talk to people about AI, the conversation immediately jumps to ChatGPT and Claude, telling me about their great prompts and what it does for them. Cool. But what about that other areas where AI can transform how we work?

Automation vs. AI - what's the difference?

If you think they are the same, that's OK (I'm not judging), but we need to clarify this as confusing them could actually lead you into increasing your operational debt instead of reducing it.

Automation = Rules based

• If this, then that.

• When something changes, wait 5 minutes then do that.

• At the same time every week, only if this something happens, then do this, otherwise hold.

AI = Strategic Partner

AI loves to learn, analyse and makes decisions based on data patterns.

• It identifies trends that you may have missed (or may have taken you a very long time to get to).

• It adapts and improves over time.

• It provides insights to help you make better decision.

Revisiting a Case Study - What if AI had taken it further?

Last time, I shared an automation case study that saved a company hours of manual work in their events team—eliminating the need to hire another person.

Whilst I incorporated Chatgpt to create the content last time, let’s revisit that case through an AI lens and see what the impact would have therefore been.

1️⃣ Smarter Event Scheduling

The Original Approach

In my original approach, a human still had to manually check past data, public holidays, and seasonality to schedule the event at the right date and time.

With AI

• AI could have provided the list of public holidays and school holidays —> leading to less admin / copy and pasting

• AI could have analysed past attendee behaviour and suggested the best event times —> maximising attendance and increasing revenue.

• AI could have predicted churn risk, flagging dates that historically had lower engagement —> higher ROI per event.

2️⃣ Data Driven Event Pricing

The Original Approach

We had to manually analyse past revenue and attendance trends to decide event pricing.

With AI

• AI could have forecasted event ROI—predicting which events would generate the most revenue.

• AI could have suggested dynamic pricing based on demand.

3️⃣ Better Content and Speaker Curation

The Original Approach

We manually analysed feedback and past attendance to decide what topics and speakers worked best.

With AI

• AI could have analysed the data to suggest:

  • Best speaker / panelists based on attendance

  • Most engaging topics based on feedback

  • Ideal event format (Panel, Q&A, Fireside chat etc.)

4️⃣ AI Powered Personalisation

The Original Approach

After events, we sent standardised follow-up emails to all attendees. It did the job, but… it could have been so much better.

With AI

• Engagement-Based Follow-Ups: If someone wasn’t engaged, AI could flag them for personal outreach —> potentially reducing future churn.

• Smart Content Suggestions: If someone asked a lot of questions, AI could recommend previous similar session recordings —> Better customer experience

• Global Accessibility: AI could summarise key takeaways, translate them into multiple languages, helping international attendees share insights with their teams → increasing reach and potential sales.

Would AI have reduced Operational debt? 

Imagine implementing all of that. You take a process that has already been improved (pat on the back for me), but could be 10x more powerful.

However, let's be clear. Going straight from the old process to the new AI-driven one would likely have flopped, potentially increasing operational debt instead of reducing it.

It’s also worth noting that we haven’t yet discussed the people aspect of implementing automation/AI—something crucial to this being a success, and a reason it could have failed. I’ll dive into this in future editions.

Anyway… answering the question:

✅ Yes. AI would have eliminated more admin work, saving even more time and making the process more scalable.
 ✅ Yes. AI-driven insights could have boosted revenue and engagement, making events more profitable.
 

…But only if the data was clean and that’s the catch.

So, is AI the best employee of the month?

AI alone? Bit of a stretch.
Automation + AI = Now that is class.

So, are you ready to see if AI could be your next great hire? Take the quiz below to find out if you’re really ready to take the plunge into AI.

Are you AI Ready?

Answer 5 simple questions to see if implementing AI at this moment is the right path for you.

1. How would you describe your company’s data?

   • Smooth sailing - we trust our data = 1 point

   • We track things, not the best, but there are workarounds = 2 points

   • We’re more of a feelings company = 3 points

2. How are your workflows currently handled?

   • Mostly automated = 1 point

   • Some automation, but quite a lot is still reliant on a human = 2 points

   • Everything runs on spreadsheets, emails, and Slack messages = 3 points

3. How do you make operational decisions?

   • We analyse data before acting = 1 point

   • A mix of data and intuition = 2 points

   • Gut instinct all the way, baby = 3 points

4. How modern is your tech stack?

   • Cloud-based and AI-ready and they integrate pretty nicely = 1 point

   • Mix of old and new; some things works, others don’t = 2 points

   • Please don’t touch anything - it will break = 3 points

5. What do you expect AI to do for you?

   • Enhance decision-making & reduce admin work = 1 point

   • Do some tasks better, but we’re unsure where/what = 2 points

   • Solve all our problems magically, duh = 3 points

Your Score:

• 👍 5-7 points: Nice one! You have a great backbone in order to make AI a success. Now, start identifying high-impact AI use cases in your operations.

• 🚨 8-10 points: Not bad, but some gaps need closing in order to reap the benefits. Focus on cleaning up your data and processes so AI has a solid foundation.

• 🔥 11+ points: Right now is not your time unless you want to increase your operational debt. You need to fix the basics first. Start with standardizing processes and automating before you do anything else.

Who is Penny Penati?

Queue the Big Brother meme: "Who is she?" (And no, I'm not referring to myself in the third person... for now, anyway 😏).

With over a decade of experience in Operations, here's what I bring to the table:

• Building and fixing is in my nature

• Processes, people and efficiency is how I talk

• Continuously zooming in and out of the business is how I work

• Always learning and being challenged is my ethos

• Automation and tools is where I geek out

I’m here to help other operators and founders build amazing businesses, using the lessons I’ve learned (and the mistakes I’ve made).

🤍 Let me know if you’ve enjoyed this edition, and what other topics you’d love to cover. If you know of anyone that would enjoy this, send them my way!