The AI Transformation: Why I Started With Myself

By Jürgen Schwanitz | ACT Computers

I used to go for a morning walk and come back with a clearer head. These days, I can also come back with a good part of my morning’s work already handled. Apparently, my office now comes with walking shoes.

During an hour-long walk, I feel I can accomplish more than I used to accomplish sitting at my desk all morning until noon. That is my experience, not a laboratory productivity study. But when you own a business, you know the difference between a morning spent chasing information and a morning spent making decisions.

I am starting to realize that I am running a meaningful part of ACT Computers through voice conversation and prompts. I ask questions, review what comes back, give instructions, and move on to the next issue. It is working better than I expected. And after more than thirty years in IT, I do not say that lightly.

Before advising customers I tested it myself

At ACT, we talk to customers about technology every day. It would be easy to add AI to that conversation because everybody else is talking about it. I wanted something more useful: firsthand experience of where it helps, where it makes mistakes, and what it takes to make it work in an actual business.

So I started with myself. My schedule. My inbox. Our service calls. The questions I ask about company performance. The ideas that normally sit in my head until I finally have time to do something with them.

Business owners will recognize the problem. The information exists, but it lives in different places. An email has one piece. A calendar has another. A technician’s message fills in a third. The repair system tells you what happened to the job. By the time you put it together, the phone rings and you start again.

AI becomes much more useful when it can work with those sources. Instead of giving me general advice about running a company, it can help me understand what is happening in mine. That is the change I am experiencing, and it is why I believe the practical side of AI deserves more attention than the headlines.

Connecting the systems that already run the business

The picture now reaches across the data sources I use to run the company: voicemail, emails, calendars, customer and team communications, internal information, documents, databases, service and repair records, and website management. As I describe it, the information I have access to is becoming part of one AI-connected working environment. Instead of treating each source as another place to search, I can bring the relevant information into one conversation.

Email provides customer replies, project developments, and correspondence that needs attention. The calendars show appointments and technician commitments. Team messaging provides team conversations and a way to communicate instructions when I ask. Our service and repair system provides repair and invoice information for checking workload, sales, and outstanding balances. Website tools help turn an idea into a draft or make an authorized change.

Those connections have different capabilities. Reading a repair record is not the same as being able to edit it. For example, in our current workflow, our service and repair system is available for reporting, but a technician assignment may still require a manual update there even after the calendar changes. Knowing that boundary is part of using the system properly.

What an hour on a morning walk can look like

I can start with a prompt such as: “Review both calendars for today, check the recent company emails and team messages, and give me a snapshot from our service and repair system. Tell me what needs my attention first, including unassigned calls and scheduling problems.”

Now the conversation has a purpose. I can hear about a customer reply, ask what it means for a project, and reserve time to follow up. I can check a service call and decide which technician should handle it. If someone already has an appointment in another town, we can catch the missing travel time before the day becomes a driving competition.

The service and repair workflow is where I particularly see the value. I can ask which jobs are in progress, which are waiting, which are ready for pickup, and where follow-up is needed. We recently worked through a scheduling problem connected to that workflow. A technician looked like the obvious choice until we compared the preceding visit and location. We changed the calendar assignment to someone else. The useful part was bringing the relevant information together while I made the decision.

I can also ask why sales changed, which larger invoices contributed, or which balances need checking. That gives me a starting point for management decisions. It does not make every invoice balance correct, and it does not turn invoiced revenue into collected cash. It helps me ask better questions, faster.

Before, each of those questions could mean opening another window, searching another inbox, or trying to remember where a message went. Now I can keep the conversation moving. My legs do the walking, and fewer of my business questions have to wait for me to get back to the desk.

More time for the work that needs me

The benefit is bigger than saving a few clicks. I can spend less time collecting information and more time acting on it. Customers need answers. Technicians need priorities. Projects need a next step. A business does not improve because its owner has twelve browser tabs open; I have tested that approach extensively.

There is also a creative benefit. When an idea comes up, we can work through it while it is fresh. A website concept, a customer explanation, or a presentation can become something concrete enough to review. I still decide whether it makes sense and whether it represents ACT properly, but I get to spend more time improving the idea instead of staring at a blank page.

Automations add another layer of time savings. My morning briefing brings together the company information I need to start making decisions, without manually checking every source. Advertising campaigns can be planned and scheduled well into the future, instead of becoming another last-minute job. I would rather prepare a holiday campaign ahead of time than remember it when somebody asks whether we are doing anything for the holiday.

The owner still has to pay attention

I correct the AI. Sometimes it misunderstands a name. Sometimes it sees three appointments and thinks they are a conflict when all three are intentional. Sometimes a suggested time fits the calendar but leaves no room to travel. Fluent explanations are useful, but they are not proof that every detail is right.

I want a clear distinction between what it found, what it inferred, and what it actually completed. A proposed meeting is not a confirmed meeting. An updated calendar is not necessarily an updated repair ticket. A drafted message has not been sent. These sound like small distinctions until a customer is waiting or a technician goes to the wrong place.

Access matters too. Connecting business systems means deciding what information the assistant may read and which actions it may take. Customer details should stay private, permissions should fit the job, and significant decisions still need the right person involved. My experience in IT is useful here: I know to ask what happens behind the convenient interface.

Why this changes the conversation at ACT

Being proactive is one of the most important things a business owner can do. When information reaches me sooner and routine follow-through is automated, I have more room to anticipate needs, plan outreach, and move projects forward before they become urgent. That gives me time for customers, family, community work, and the future of ACT. When customers ask about AI, I can talk about the work I actually do with it. We can look at where their information lives, what they repeatedly chase, and which tasks could become easier with the right connections. The useful starting point is a specific business problem and a result we can check.

I started with myself because I wanted to understand this before asking somebody else to trust it. I am still learning, still correcting things, and still finding uses that surprise me. But the result is already clear in my day: I can move more work forward through conversation and have more time for everything else.

If you want to explore what that could look like in your business, talk to us at ACT Computers. Bring us the task that eats your morning. I may have a few ideas by the time I finish my walk.