AI Breakdown

IT Impact Inc. at ASCII

AI Breakdown

Show Notes

๐‡๐ž ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐€๐ˆ ๐š๐ญ ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐›๐จ๐จ๐ค๐ฌ ๐›๐ž๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ๐ž ๐ก๐ž ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ ๐ฉ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐ข๐ญ ๐š๐ญ ๐š ๐œ๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ญ'๐ฌ. ๐Ÿ“Š Juan Soto is president of IT Impact in Chicago, a Microsoft data and AI certified partner and one of only a handful in the country carrying that designation. We caught him at ASCII Edge in Toronto. ๐…๐ข๐ง๐š๐ง๐œ๐ข๐š๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ž ๐œ๐š๐ฌ๐ž ๐ก๐ž ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ ๐’๐Œ๐ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ž๐ซ ๐ญ๐จ๐๐š๐ฒ. His before picture will be familiar to a lot of owners. The P&L and the balance sheet arrive after the fact, so you spend the month reacting. Agents now read his numbers daily and weekly, and the month becomes something he manages while it is still happening. ๐Ÿ”ด Juan's rule for owners: budget, revenue and cost are where AI earns its keep first, because that is where the decisions live.

๐Ÿ”ด Daily visibility changes the questions you get to ask. A margin drifting in week two is a conversation. The same drift found in week six is a write off.

๐Ÿ”ด The myth he would erase: that you can hand employees the tools and productivity magically doubles. Employers owe their people the education, the training, the guidance and the policies alongside the licence.

๐Ÿ”ด His read on the next twelve months for MSPs: AI will keep getting better and it will keep getting more expensive, and your clients will call you first when a new feature lands.

๐Ÿ”ด What he does about it: two hours every single day on podcasts and articles, so his clients do not have to. If he is not on top of it, the call goes to his competition instead.

๐Ÿ”ด That is the quiet job description of a modern MSP. Absorbing a firehose of releases and turning it into one clear recommendation an owner can act on.

๐Ÿ”ด His event highlight was other owners. Trading real issues, growing the referral network, learning from people running the same business and carrying the same problems. Preparation is the product. ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ Stream on: โ–ถ๏ธ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SMBAIHUB โ–ถ๏ธ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/b93fd52f-bc53-4ee9-98d7-3b9e10ea0e6f/ai-breakdown โ–ถ๏ธ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/ai-breakdown/id6799578599 โ–ถ๏ธ Web: smbaimagazine.com โ–ถ๏ธ Web: smbaipodcast.com Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. This is an Independent commentary. Third-party excerpts are credited on screen or in the show notes. Some voices in this program are AI-generated.

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Oct 23, 2026

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Oct 22, 2026

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Oct 21, 2026

๐Ÿ–๐Ÿ% ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ง ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ฏ๐ž ๐ฉ๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐›๐ž๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐ฏ๐ž ๐€๐ˆ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฆ. ๐Ÿ‘€ This week Kree and Varun sit down in studio with Mehnaz Tabassum, social entrepreneur and one of the founders of CogniCo AI Consulting, which exists to help nonprofits, lean teams and changemakers adopt AI on tight budgets. This week on ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐€๐ˆ ๐๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ค๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง: ๐’๐ฆ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐๐ข๐  ๐€๐ฆ๐›๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ. ๐‹๐ž๐š๐ง ๐›๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ž๐ญ. Named Atlantic Canada's most inspiring immigrant, she has built four purpose driven ventures from the ground up, and was once one of the youngest senior IT project managers in the Government of Canada. She knows the technology, the mission, and the reality of doing a great deal with very little. Inside the conversation: ๐Ÿ”ด The adoption gap between small and large businesses shrank from 1.8x in 2024 to about 1.2x in 2025, and 91% of small businesses using AI say it lifted revenue

Oct 20, 2026

๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฌ ๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ž ๐€๐ˆ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐š๐ข๐ ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ข๐ญ. ๐๐จ๐›๐จ๐๐ฒ ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฆ ๐๐ž๐œ๐ข๐๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ. ๐Ÿ‘€ Ramp's latest reading shows token spend down 5.2% while the number of tokens used went up. The explanation on offer is price competition between the big labs, which means the saving arrived from outside the business entirely. This week on ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐€๐ˆ ๐๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ค๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง: ๐’๐ฆ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐๐ข๐  ๐€๐ฆ๐›๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ. ๐‹๐ž๐š๐ง ๐›๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ž๐ญ. A discount you did not plan for is a discount you will not keep, unless somebody is watching the bill. KPMG surveyed more than 2,100 senior leaders across 20 countries and found which habits separate the organisations with an established return from the ones still experimenting. Inside the episode: ๐Ÿ”ด 77% of the established group track AI costs on a dashboard, against 43% of the experimenters

Oct 19, 2026

๐…๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ญ๐ž๐ž๐ง ๐ญ๐จ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฌ. $๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‘๐ŸŽ ๐š ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ก. ๐…๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฆ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ž๐ง๐ž๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐š ๐ง๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ๐š๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ž๐ž๐ค. ๐Ÿ˜ณ Which is a team of fourteen where ten have never turned up. Most owners have never added that column up, because every line was small enough to ignore and they arrived one at a time. This week on ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐€๐ˆ ๐๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ค๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง, we open a theme that runs all seven days: ๐’๐ฆ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐๐ข๐  ๐€๐ฆ๐›๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ. ๐‹๐ž๐š๐ง ๐›๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ž๐ญ. Output stopped being tied to headcount. For most of business history, doing more meant hiring more. That equation has quietly come apart, and the gap between what a lean team can attempt and what it can afford narrowed sharply in about eighteen months. Inside the episode: ๐Ÿ”ด Solo founded US startups rose from 23.7% in 2019 to 36.3% by the first half of 2025

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