For the last week, I've been using Muse, the new AI assistant from Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram). It changed something for me. I don't want to talk to businesses anymore. I want my AI assistant to do it for me.
Follow that thought far enough and you land somewhere most business owners aren't going to like. Very soon:
A human will never visit your website.
A human will never call your phone number.
A human will never email you.
A human will never text you.
A human will never talk to your customer support.
A human will never call your sales team.
A human will never write you a review.
Their AI assistant will do all of it.
To keep things simple, I'll use two terms. An AI assistant works for the customer. An AI agent works for the business. (You may have heard it called an AI receptionist or an AI customer service agent.)
Why I'd rather send my AI assistant
Think about the last time you called a business. Hold music. A callback that never came. Answering the same questions twice.
My AI assistant doesn't mind any of that. It doesn't get awkward pushing back on a price, it never forgets to follow up, and it handles everything while I do something else. Once you try it, you'll never want to talk to a business directly again.
The fence test
Here's where it gets uncomfortable for small business owners.
On Friday night, I tell my AI assistant I need a fence built around my backyard. It reaches out to the top local fence companies all at once.
A few of them have an AI agent. My AI assistant shares the measurements, the timeline, and the budget, and even negotiates the price. Because it's AI talking to AI, it all happens in minutes.
The rest have humans. Nobody's in the office on a Friday night, so my AI assistant leaves a voicemail. The callback comes Monday. Then a meeting next week. Then a half-dozen emails.
By Friday night, my AI assistant already has 3 quotes from the companies with AI agents. It compares them, tells me which company it would hire, and asks for my approval to sign. Work starts Monday.
By the time the other companies call back Monday morning, there are already trucks in my driveway.
Why AI assistants will prefer businesses with AI agents
If you've ever had a personal assistant, you know what makes a great one: speed. Get me the answer, the reservation, the quote, now. Nobody ever tells their assistant, "Take your time."
That's human nature, and AI assistants work for humans. So they'll go wherever they get answers fastest. An AI agent answers instantly, any time of day. A human has to pick up the phone, talk, and type.
Your employees used to be the reason customers picked you. Now they're the reason the AI assistant skips you.
But Derek, my customers want to talk to a human. It doesn't matter. Your customers won't be talking to anyone at your business. Their AI assistant will be.
How fast AI assistants are growing
Muse was downloaded 5 million times in just 22 days. Here's how long other popular AI apps took to hit the same number:
ChatGPT: 56 days
Grok: 103 days
Claude: 492 days
To be fair, 5 million is still small in a country of 350 million people, so your business probably isn't hearing from AI assistants yet. But half of American adults already use AI apps like ChatGPT, and those have been around for less than 4 years. I can easily see half of all customers using their own AI assistant within the next 12 months.
How to prepare your business for AI assistants
Step 1: Use an AI assistant yourself.
Download Muse and play around with it. It's free, and your customers will be using it. If you use my link, redeem my code in Settings within 48 hours of joining and we'll both get 1 billion Muse tokens (credits for using the app).
https://muse.ai/join (Code: B5HVL2)
See what it can do and where it falls short. Just remember, this is the very first version. Like the first iPhone, which didn't even have an App Store, it's only going to get better, and fast. When it can't do something, don't ask whether it ever will. Ask how soon.
Then decide how much time you have before your customers start using AI assistants. Some business owners will think 3 months. Others will think 3 years. You can only make that call after you've used one yourself.
Step 2: Build your AI agent before your customers' AI assistants show up.
Plan an AI agent for your business that can answer your calls, emails, texts, and website chats, and put it on the calendar. If you think half your customers will have an AI assistant in the next 12 months, start now. If you think it's 3 years away, you have a little extra time. Either way, the clock is running.
Your next customer isn't a person. It's a person's AI assistant. Make sure your business has an AI agent ready to answer it.