The Truth About AI Employees

Kasra Dash: Today we're going to have a debate about whether AI employees are worth it. We have similar stances in some cases and slightly different stances in others. I think AI employees right now are at the very start. There are maybe four or five companies that fully offer the service and I don't think they are as good as a human controlling the AI. So what's your thoughts on that, James? James Dooley: Answering the initial question, are AI employees worth it? I'd say yes, AI employees are worth it. However, a lot of business owners think they can completely take over and replace all humans and I completely disagree. AI can do tedious tasks like chasing information, acting as a support chatbot, gathering names, addresses, phone numbers, almost like a multi-step contact form. It can share testimonials, case studies, act as a legal assistant. But some people let it run loose doing SEO blog writing and that becomes garbage in, garbage out. It's only as good as the prompts you give it. There are certain tasks I definitely wouldn't use AI employees for. But when it’s 10pm and the office is closed, an AI voice agent answering the phone is better than missing the call. During the workday at 1pm when sales staff are present, I want humans dealing with sales. So I have two sides. Yes it's early, yes it's improving every month, but overall I believe AI employees are worth it. Would you tell a non-tech-savvy business owner to get an AI employee? Kasra Dash: That depends on which AI employee they use. Some platforms like Go High Level have great support, so you don't need to be tech-savvy. Others leave everything to you and you'd need to upload emails, tonality, services, scrape your website and more. I know business owners who couldn't even log into an AI employee, never mind upload company data. I've got a quick fire round for you. For repetitive, time-consuming tasks like data entry, would you use AI? James Dooley: Absolutely. That's the number one task I'd use AI employees for. Kasra Dash: What about when data privacy is sensitive? James Dooley: No, definitely not. It can hallucinate. Kasra Dash: What about when you need 24/7 coverage? James Dooley: Absolutely. Overflow is where AI shines. When offices close at 5pm, leads get lost. An AI voice agent that captures email, phone number and job details means staff return in the morning to proper enquiries they can follow up on. Kasra Dash: What about when accuracy or compliance is critical? James Dooley: Absolutely not. For FCA approval or legal compliance, AI can hallucinate or give wrong information. You need humans. Kasra Dash: I think AI employees are great as a foundation layer, but they still need a human touch. AI won't get you a million followers on social media. It doesn't understand strategy or posting times. Funny you mentioned overflow. I booked a restaurant recently and the phone was answered by an AI agent. It checked availability, synced to a calendar and booked it instantly. So it works well for certain tasks. James Dooley: For sure. Any more quick fires? Kasra Dash: When cost of error is too high? James Dooley: No. AI can be trained but still hallucinates. When the cost of a mistake is high, you need a human. Kasra Dash: What about scaling without increasing headcount? James Dooley: Yes to a degree. But I haven’t replaced any humans. I’ve taken tedious tasks off them so they can focus on better work. Rinse-and-repeat tasks are perfect for AI employees. But one thing is critical. Business owners think an AI employee works instantly. It doesn’t. It takes one or two steps back to go five steps forward. Short term it’s harder. You need to train it, feed it information, correct it. Lazy business owners think they press a button and everything runs itself. It doesn’t. Kasra Dash: I think part of that comes from how AI agents are advertised. They claim to automate your entire social media calendar at agency-level quality. That’s not realistic. It comes down to prompts and data. One last quick fire. To enhance decision-making with data? James Dooley: Yes. AI can gather more information than a human because it asks unlimited questions and never rushes. More data means better decisions. Humans often rush and miss key details. AI fills those gaps. Kasra Dash: So that has been our video on whether AI employees are worth it. Drop questions below and we'll do an updated version in six months because the talking points will definitely change. Thanks for watching.