Name: AI Transformation Consulting
Brand: Trent Gillespie

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Below is the AI summary of the keynote talk.

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Overview

Trent Gillespie presented a comprehensive framework for how AI is fundamentally transforming manufacturing and distribution industries, providing practical steps for organizations to adapt and thrive in an AI-enabled world.

To prepare for this world, he challenged the audience: Will you invent your future or let the future happen to you?

Key Themes

AI as Your New Operating System

AI isn't just another tool or software upgrade—it's a complete reimagining of how you and your employees work. The organizations that learn to incorporate AI into their processes will stop chasing the industry and start defining it.

The Amazon Success Model

Amazon's growth came from two key factors:

Empowering all employees to innovate
Using AI to scale that innovation beyond human ability

With generative AI, this same capability is now available to every organization without requiring billions in investment—just leadership, vision, and action.

Critical AI Insights

What Happens When Intelligence Becomes Cheap?

For all of human history, intelligence has been expensive. We've built entire organizational structures around routing decisions through intelligent people. Now intelligence is:

Instant and on-demand
Available 24/7
Approximately $30/month

The cost of intelligence is approaching the cost of electricity—but unlike electricity, AI doesn't just wait. It thinks and takes action.

Current AI Adoption Statistics

40% of knowledge workers are already using AI in their jobs (even without authorization)
Daily AI users report 20% productivity improvements and better quality work
Weekly users see only 5% improvement
Less frequent users see no benefit

The takeaway: Daily use is essential to gain competitive advantage.

The Two Big Mistakes Leaders Make

Mistake #1: Treating AI as just another tool rather than a fundamental operating system change.

Mistake #2: Using AI to optimize for a world that no longer exists—applying AI to old processes instead of reinventing processes with AI at the center.

The Future of Commerce

Customer Behavior is Changing Rapidly

58% of consumers are already replacing search engines with generative AI tools
Most businesses don't appear in AI search results yet
Few businesses are set up to service AI agents

The Agent Economy is Here

Every person will soon be a manager of AI agents—not just one, but 5, 10, or however many needed to get work done. These agents will:

Automate entire workflows
Communicate with other AI agents
Even hire humans when AI can't complete a task
Cost as little as $50/month per person

Agent-to-Agent Commerce

Your customers may never browse your website or call you again. Instead, their AI agent will:

Search for products/services
Compare options
Make purchase decisions
Complete transactions

You won't just sell to humans—you'll sell to their AI agents too.

Practical Demonstrations

Building Applications in Minutes

Live demonstration showed building a customer reactivation application in 15 minutes for $1.45 that would typically take companies 3-6 months to develop. This exemplifies how cheap intelligence enables anyone in an organization to solve problems and build solutions.

Vision is the human advantage.

When intelligence isn't your limit, imagination becomes the new constraint. The ability to:

See opportunities on the horizon
Create plans to reach them
Bring entire organizations along
Think and innovate with AI

This responsibility applies to every level of the organization, not just leadership. The people closest to the work—touching customers and understanding challenges—will find the best opportunities.

The AI Sprint Framework

A six-step acronym for organizational transformation:

S - Spark Action (Leader Education)

Educate leadership hands-on with AI
Assign a transformation owner (this is business transformation, not just IT)
Start monthly AI sprint cycles for continuous experimentation

Key insight: Leadership teams are rarely aligned on AI. You can't convert a spark into a fire unless leadership is there to catch it.

P - Position Your Company to Win with AI

Design your company for serving AI-enabled future customers through a half-day workshop answering five critical questions:

What do your customers value most today?
Which values still matter when know-how is free and instant?
What can you no longer charge for because it's expected?
Where will customers still desire a uniquely human touch?
What brand new value can you create because intelligence is cheap?

Example shift: Past expectations like catalog lookups evolve to AI co-pilots, selling parts becomes predictive services, and just-in-time inventory becomes AI-powered forecasting.

R - Rally Employees to Use AI Daily

Create an environment where AI use is normal, expected, and supported:

Create safety and guardrails: Implement AI acceptable use policies
Clarify job safety: Address AI job concerns directly (focus on growth through new opportunities)
Equip and train: Provide tools and keep employees updated
Incentivize usage: Recognition, small rewards ($20 gift cards), celebrate innovations

I - Integrate (Sales & Marketing First)

Start with revenue creation (top line), then address bottlenecks (bottom line):

Marketing: Content creation and personalization (400% productivity increase possible)
Sales: Lead scoring and hyper-personalized sales strategies for each prospect
Operations: Focus on your biggest bottleneck (predictive maintenance, process automation)

Defer everything else until these are working.

N - iNnovate (Enable Culture of Innovation)

AI provides a 100% improvement in innovation ability even without training. Create lasting innovation culture through:

Set expectations for AI use in performance reviews
Establish monthly experimentation rhythm across all levels
Create systems for idea submission and prioritization

Creative exercise: Have employees write fictional job descriptions for their imaginary AI assistant.

T - Trailblaze with New Offerings

Build new products and services that redefine your industry:

Customer AI co-pilots exposing your full catalog
Predictive replenishment as a service
AI-backed uptime contracts (sell uptime instead of parts)
Industry-specific innovations enabled by cheap intelligence

Specialized AI Agents for Distribution/Manufacturing

Agent-Based Prospecting System

Multi-agent workflow that operates autonomously:

Prospecting agent: Searches entire internet for potential leads
Qualifier agent: Trained on your company, products, service areas
Research agent: Gathers comprehensive information on qualified leads
Strategy generator: Creates hyper-personalized sales strategies

Result: Sales teams arrive at work with pre-qualified leads, fully researched, with personalized strategies ready to execute.

Practical Tools and Resources

Recommended AI Platforms

General purpose AI: ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot
Agent builders: Lindy ($50/month for personal automation)
Process automation: N8N, Make.com
Application building: Replit (AI-powered development)

Custom GPTs Provided

Future Customer Vision: Guides your team through the five-question framework
Automation Finder: Identifies tasks you can automate
Sales Call Brief: Researches prospects and creates personalized sales strategies

(Horizontal Rule for separation)

Action Items

Start using AI daily yourself (if you haven't already)
Scan the QR code for access to slides, AI summaries, custom GPTs, tool recommendations with discounts, and 30-day action plan checklist
Begin monthly AI sprint cycles in your organization
Schedule a half-day workshop with leadership on future customer vision
Identify your transformation owner
Create AI acceptable use policies and employee guidelines

"Lasting advantage only comes from building for your future customers—from where your industry is going, not where it has been. And you do it one step at a time, every month."

WIN WITH AI: How to Build an AI-Enabled, High-Growth Business WITH TRENT GILLESPIE