Episode #179: How AI is Revolutionizing Leadership and Finance with Albert Ramos

Albert Ramos joins the "Leaders and Legacies" podcast to unpack transformative leadership strategies. Through personal anecdotes and professional insights, Albert shares how authenticity, vulnerability, and embracing failure shape impactful leaders. He highlights the critical role of mental health, recounting his personal challenges and the importance of seeking support. Albert also explores the power of AI in leadership, explaining how automation and predictive tools can optimize workflows, free intellectual bandwidth, and drive innovation.

He emphasizes practical applications of AI, including streamlining finance operations, improving decision-making, and reducing workplace stress. Albert calls on leaders to stay open-minded, embrace change, and strategically integrate AI into their teams. With actionable advice, this episode is a masterclass in blending personal resilience with technological innovation to lead with purpose and efficiency.

Want to learn more about Albert Ramos’s work? Check out their website at https://www.StrategoIntel.com .

Connect with Albert Ramos on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertramosjr/.

Key Points with Time Stamps:

[00:01:01] Simplifying AI and leadership strategies for modern businesses.
[00:03:34] Authenticity and vulnerability in leadership: Building trust.
[00:07:00] Mental health challenges: Albert’s personal story and actionable advice.
[00:15:05] Embracing AI: How businesses can enhance efficiency with automation.
[00:19:00] AI in finance: Streamlining cash flow and predictive analytics.
[00:27:29] Future of AI: Delegation and the rise of digital agents.
[00:33:00] Practical GPT applications: Reducing inefficiencies in HR and operations.
[00:34:00] AI adoption tips: Empowering teams with accessible tools.
[00:35:35] Conclusion: Encouraging leaders to share their legacy.

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:16
Albert Ramos
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00:00:30:18 - 00:00:51:08
Albert Ramos
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00:00:51:17 - 00:01:01:19
Craig Andrews
Today I went welcome Albert Ramos. He works with Strategic Intel consulting and builds finance ops and AI strategy.

00:01:01:19 - 00:01:04:19
Craig Andrews
Leading digital transformation and roadmap,

00:01:04:19 - 00:01:13:17
Craig Andrews
to help you embrace this whole world of AI and GPT and all that stuff. We're going to de convolve that make that simple, meaningful,

00:01:13:17 - 00:01:17:05
Craig Andrews
and actionable here in the next few minutes.

00:01:17:05 - 00:01:17:16
Craig Andrews
Albert's,

00:01:17:16 - 00:01:19:00
Craig Andrews
fractional chief financial,

00:01:19:00 - 00:01:22:05
Craig Andrews
operating officer with 15 years executive leadership,

00:01:22:05 - 00:01:26:13
Craig Andrews
including responsibility over 200 million in annual revenue,

00:01:26:13 - 00:01:32:19
Craig Andrews
achieving 75 million in profit and commanding a robust 45 million EBITDA.

00:01:32:21 - 00:01:37:12
Craig Andrews
And we may even cover what that is and why that matters. But,

00:01:37:12 - 00:01:42:20
Craig Andrews
anyway, you know, one of the things, Albert said is that he wants to help.

00:01:42:20 - 00:01:51:03
Craig Andrews
He wants I to take things off people's plate, and that sounds pretty fascinating. So let's dig in. Albert, welcome.

00:01:51:05 - 00:01:57:15
Albert Ramos
Fred, thanks so much. I appreciate the introduction for having me on this huge fan of the show.

00:01:57:17 - 00:02:19:01
Craig Andrews
Thanks. Thank you. Well, and we've gotten to know each other here in the last few weeks. And. Yeah, I just gotta say, you're, like, one of the most delightful people to engage with. You know, it's, you know. Yeah, you just come across. In a way, I feel like I've known you for years, and we've just barely met.

00:02:19:03 - 00:02:28:11
Albert Ramos
I appreciate that, you know, it's. I could say the same thing about you, and I've. I've. I always appreciate those that are authentic and a little raw, too. And you,

00:02:28:11 - 00:02:38:00
Albert Ramos
sharing your story with me. And I've gotten to learn more about you and have some good chats. And so I, I feel the same way. I feel I feel good like we have mutual.

00:02:38:02 - 00:02:39:13
Craig Andrews
Well, I was talking to my wife,

00:02:39:13 - 00:02:41:13
Craig Andrews
this morning. We were I was doing a,

00:02:41:13 - 00:02:54:23
Craig Andrews
a live event. I was telling her how I was weaving my story. I, you know, always lead a discussion with a story. And I said, you know, that that three months in the hospital, it's a gift that keeps on giving. I have a story for everything.

00:02:55:01 - 00:03:05:17
Craig Andrews
And I said, you know, we paid the price. Might as well make something out of it. But it does. I mean, there's an application for everything. And, you know, in a different time,

00:03:05:17 - 00:03:07:18
Craig Andrews
you know, maybe 60 years ago,

00:03:07:18 - 00:03:15:03
Craig Andrews
no, not even 60, 40 years ago, we would hide that type of stuff and, you know, that that was.

00:03:15:03 - 00:03:34:18
Craig Andrews
And these are natural cycles. These are 80 year cycles. And so another 40 years from now, we're going to get back to the point where we wouldn't talk about that. But what's really cool about the time we're in right now is authenticity rules. And I think that's I think that's one of the reasons that podcasting is so appealing is it's just an authentic conversation.

00:03:34:18 - 00:03:37:05
Craig Andrews
It's not produced.

00:03:37:07 - 00:03:39:02
Albert Ramos
I, I agree with that. I think,

00:03:39:02 - 00:03:49:04
Albert Ramos
I heard it the other day and obviously we've heard the term vulnerability. That's not a hot word, but someone reframe that for me. And it really hit home.

00:03:49:04 - 00:03:56:05
Albert Ramos
It was being emotionally available. It's like, oh, that's interesting, I like that. I actually like that one a little bit better. So yeah, I think,

00:03:56:05 - 00:03:59:14
Albert Ramos
you know, the conversations I've been having is,

00:03:59:14 - 00:04:14:08
Albert Ramos
one that's come a person coming from the corporate environment and, you know, more recently as an entrepreneur, you know, can we have these conversations that are authentic, specific to some of the the trials and roadblocks and shortcomings that we have?

00:04:14:10 - 00:04:24:11
Albert Ramos
You don't see that a lot too much? Yeah, I think it's coming out quite more on social media, but I love it when I see it because you really get hey, I can relate with that. I can do that too.

00:04:24:13 - 00:04:39:18
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, and from a marketing standpoint, there's nothing more seductive than being relatable for somebody looking at you and saying, he seems like me. He's he seems human. You know, these I, you know, most companies try to,

00:04:39:18 - 00:04:49:06
Craig Andrews
turn themselves into some sort of plastic Superman doll. And everybody looks at that and they all they see is the plastic, and they're like, who's really there?

00:04:49:08 - 00:04:54:07
Albert Ramos
It's so true. And I used to tell a lot of teams and team members and,

00:04:54:07 - 00:05:02:15
Albert Ramos
those that, you know, friends, family members, success leaves clues. And I realize now as I get older and have kiddos and all of that,

00:05:02:15 - 00:05:02:19
Albert Ramos
and,

00:05:02:19 - 00:05:07:09
Albert Ramos
and I've opened my mind up more so to failures for failures lead clues to and they're okay.

00:05:07:09 - 00:05:26:01
Albert Ramos
And I say failure is not in the sense like done you're it's over with. It's learning. Opportunities also leave clues. And I'm so glad now that we're getting more of that, that it's it's a little bit more natural. And I think it's okay to acknowledge, hey, I, I didn't do well here. Please learn from me. And I think people are more willing in this current,

00:05:26:01 - 00:05:27:15
Albert Ramos
environment to share more of that.

00:05:27:15 - 00:05:36:23
Albert Ramos
And so for those up and comers and even myself being curious, I love picking up on that more so than seeing the shiny object or the success story,

00:05:36:23 - 00:05:42:02
Albert Ramos
without the messiness. I like to read through the messiness. I I'm real curious about that.

00:05:42:04 - 00:05:47:09
Craig Andrews
Yeah, well, and speaking of messy, one of the things that you like to talk about is,

00:05:47:09 - 00:05:50:18
Craig Andrews
mental health issues and stress.

00:05:50:20 - 00:06:06:16
Albert Ramos
I do, and I wish, you know, I think it's been talked about quite more, you know, I, I used to do it quite privately. Well, one alone and then to my wife and then, you know, being in an environment where I had a platform in the corporate environment and,

00:06:06:16 - 00:06:08:11
Albert Ramos
you know, director and, and,

00:06:08:11 - 00:06:18:13
Albert Ramos
executive role, I knew that I had to start chatting about it because I knew there were team members and employees out there that were dealing with similar things.

00:06:18:13 - 00:06:21:14
Albert Ramos
You know, back in 2017,

00:06:21:14 - 00:06:30:13
Albert Ramos
out of nowhere, I woke up next to my wife and thought I was having a heart attack. And it it lasted for about two years. I was one of those,

00:06:30:13 - 00:06:31:01
Albert Ramos
that,

00:06:31:01 - 00:06:36:18
Albert Ramos
could hear my father saying in my head, you know, thank you for it being positive. Snap out of it. You can get through this.

00:06:36:18 - 00:06:42:09
Albert Ramos
Albert. And I realized there was something far more serious going on, and I allowed,

00:06:42:09 - 00:06:43:07
Albert Ramos
what I think,

00:06:43:07 - 00:06:56:19
Albert Ramos
was occurring was I allowed work, the corporate environment and the stresses that come with that, in addition to being an entrepreneur and the stresses that come with that to to really shape what I thought was my identity. And,

00:06:56:19 - 00:06:59:09
Albert Ramos
you know, the body signaled,

00:06:59:09 - 00:07:00:01
Albert Ramos
an alarm.

00:07:00:01 - 00:07:00:23
Albert Ramos
And so,

00:07:00:23 - 00:07:01:16
Albert Ramos
not only,

00:07:01:16 - 00:07:06:00
Albert Ramos
the panic attack, it wasn't a heart attack. The panic attack that ended up happening,

00:07:06:00 - 00:07:07:08
Albert Ramos
multiple times.

00:07:07:08 - 00:07:13:16
Albert Ramos
Taught me a lot. And eventually, after doing some scans and blood work and all that,

00:07:13:16 - 00:07:19:06
Albert Ramos
I ended up realizing there was a there's an actual proactive Noma. What? That is, is a tumor on your pituitary gland.

00:07:19:06 - 00:07:27:18
Albert Ramos
And so it's so important, number one, I think, and I'm sure we'll talk about this to really find true meaning and purpose,

00:07:27:18 - 00:07:34:21
Albert Ramos
in our lives. And it's the watch out for is to not let your work, the corporate environment or even the, the,

00:07:34:21 - 00:07:39:22
Albert Ramos
the things that you're doing as an entrepreneur to, to dictate that to, to make that your identity.

00:07:39:22 - 00:07:45:14
Albert Ramos
I think there's far more things that are important, but also to when you start feeling these things or,

00:07:45:14 - 00:07:47:07
Albert Ramos
dealing with some of these issues,

00:07:47:07 - 00:08:00:22
Albert Ramos
to get help. It's okay. It's okay to, to reach out and talk more about that. And I learned that quite a bit. Not not as smoothly as I just probably communicated. There's a lot of bumps to the road of figure out what the issues were going on.

00:08:01:00 - 00:08:07:04
Craig Andrews
Well, you know, it's funny you mention that because I've recently found myself getting a little bit stressed about,

00:08:07:04 - 00:08:30:14
Craig Andrews
work issues. And I look at the amount of energy it's consuming and how much it's distracting. And I'm going to take it back to something that may seem weird. I for me, I started thinking I was like, you know, the one thing the Marines taught you how to do was to tune out your environment and take the world shot.

00:08:30:16 - 00:08:51:05
Craig Andrews
And when you do that, you know, in that world you end up being a lot more lethal there. You know, when you can say, okay, I know everything around me is complete chaos, but I'm just living in this, this little bubble. I know where I need to aim. I know, you know, I need to control my breath. And I need to take that while I'm shot.

00:08:51:07 - 00:09:07:03
Craig Andrews
And it hit me that how much energy I was burning, getting stressed. I was like, I know where I need to aim, I know how I need to breathe. Let me just take that while I'm shot and tune out the noise.

00:09:07:05 - 00:09:31:01
Albert Ramos
You know, you said something right now that hit home and I still use that tool. But the power in controlling your breath and the connection that it has to the rest of your body, in your brain is, is huge. Right? And I think when I chat with people about this or even teach my kiddos as we're going through stressful environments, the power of controlling your breathing and that heart rate is is key.

00:09:31:01 - 00:09:52:00
Albert Ramos
I remember reading a book and I still recommend it to this day called Rewire Your Anxious Brain, and it talks about the difference between your prefrontal cortex and that amygdala. Right. So when you're in a moment of chaos, your brain protects you and fires on that amygdala. I'm no expert at this, but kind of summarizing it. And,

00:09:52:00 - 00:09:58:07
Albert Ramos
the only thing that can get you out of that state is or to, to get through that environment,

00:09:58:07 - 00:10:04:08
Albert Ramos
alive, let's put it that way or successfully, is to control the breathing.

00:10:04:10 - 00:10:24:00
Albert Ramos
Or and another way is use that fuel, use that whatever you're feeling as you scan your body and move movement. So I always tell people's two things is if you're in that environment and if it becomes that extreme of anxiety or panic attacks, movement or breathing, controlled breathing really helps.

00:10:24:02 - 00:10:32:16
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And for those that aren't familiar, I think the way I would explain the prefrontal cortex, that's the intentional brain. That's the thinking brain.

00:10:32:16 - 00:10:34:01
Craig Andrews
The amygdala,

00:10:34:01 - 00:10:45:20
Craig Andrews
you know, Daniel Daniel Kahneman referred to that as, you know, the center of the, your system, one thinking it's reactionary, it's fast. You don't control it. It and and so that's really interesting.

00:10:45:20 - 00:11:04:18
Craig Andrews
What you're saying is you're like 95% of your decisions are made in the back of your head, either in the medulla or around the amygdala. And what you're saying, if I'm hearing you correctly, is if you can control your breathing, you can get more control over those 95% of your decisions.

00:11:04:20 - 00:11:08:05
Albert Ramos
Yeah, it's it's intentional, right? It's being intentional.

00:11:08:05 - 00:11:22:17
Albert Ramos
Not about what? Not just about what you're doing, how you're doing it. You know, I have a long history in the health and fitness space and very similar to when working out. Right. If you're working out or doing a squat and you're not breathing, it's not going to be a fun time, right?

00:11:22:17 - 00:11:27:17
Albert Ramos
Right. For blood flow, oxygen, etc.. And so like anything else, right,

00:11:27:17 - 00:11:31:16
Albert Ramos
controlling your breathing or at least being intentional, being mindful of how you're breathing,

00:11:31:16 - 00:11:34:06
Albert Ramos
is really important and you're spot on.

00:11:34:08 - 00:11:37:08
Craig Andrews
You know, going back,

00:11:37:08 - 00:12:05:13
Craig Andrews
when I was in my second hospital and the goal for PTO and this particular day was to get me to sit upright in bed, which sounds easy until you're dealing with somebody who's muscles of atrophy and you have no core muscles. And my sister in law was watching me and I sat up. I held my breath while I was sitting up, and I didn't realize I was doing it.

00:12:05:15 - 00:12:11:20
Craig Andrews
And then everything went out of control because I had little peewee lungs back then. And,

00:12:11:20 - 00:12:19:19
Craig Andrews
and they tried to stabilize me back. I, they couldn't stabilize me sitting up. I had they had to lay me down again.

00:12:19:19 - 00:12:29:10
Craig Andrews
Because I just completely I'd held my breath unintentionally. And that just tanked my oxygen so much. It just sent me in this negative spiral.

00:12:29:12 - 00:12:32:06
Albert Ramos
I could see I could definitely see that happening.

00:12:32:06 - 00:12:37:09
Albert Ramos
It's it's it's amazing how powerful the breath can be.

00:12:37:09 - 00:12:43:18
Albert Ramos
And how it connects your lungs, heart, brain, how all of it is so connected. And I always say, you know,

00:12:43:18 - 00:12:55:02
Albert Ramos
as someone who still stole what I would call, I don't know, babbling or struggling, maybe experience is anxiety still and rarely panic attacks.

00:12:55:04 - 00:13:04:02
Albert Ramos
It's it's not a bad thing if you think about it. And you read more about our biomechanics and just biology, it's it's actually your body protecting you.

00:13:04:02 - 00:13:15:19
Albert Ramos
There's a lot there's a lot of research behind that, a lot of things people can read about there. I think when it comes to mental health, there is or has been this like negative stigma to it.

00:13:15:21 - 00:13:24:04
Albert Ramos
As you do more research about what's happening and what the body is doing, it's actually a pretty beautiful thing to know just all

00:13:24:04 - 00:13:40:00
Albert Ramos
how we're designed. And once you change your paradigm there in that mindset and you do more of the scientific research, you realize, wow, like something's wrong with me. My body's doing exactly what it was designed to do and what it thinks of the current environment.

00:13:40:00 - 00:13:50:05
Albert Ramos
Right? What what it thinks it should be doing in that current environment, which in a lot of cases and I and I think we'll chat about this, is the amount of inputs that are flowing at us left or right.

00:13:50:05 - 00:13:53:13
Albert Ramos
And you mentioned being a marine, the bullets flying around, which is

00:13:53:13 - 00:13:54:22
Albert Ramos
blue light, white light,

00:13:54:22 - 00:13:59:19
Albert Ramos
as in information, data, etc..

00:13:59:21 - 00:14:01:23
Albert Ramos
I don't think the brain has,

00:14:01:23 - 00:14:04:19
Albert Ramos
or at least I think the brain has,

00:14:04:19 - 00:14:11:10
Albert Ramos
evolved, but it hasn't evolved at the pace that the day that information is coming at us, I really think that's what's happening.

00:14:11:10 - 00:14:15:09
Albert Ramos
In a lot of ways, that is leading to many Cheetos and a bunch of,

00:14:15:09 - 00:14:21:13
Albert Ramos
corporate executives like myself or entrepreneurs to start getting this sense of anxiety.

00:14:21:15 - 00:14:25:09
Craig Andrews
You know, so, well, let's talk about,

00:14:25:09 - 00:14:39:00
Craig Andrews
let's talk about AI because, you know, it's an amazing tool that maybe can help unleash some of this anxiety. I think it gives some people anxiety because they know, you know, it's it's like the old,

00:14:39:00 - 00:14:45:07
Craig Andrews
the old teenage sex joke. Everybody says they're doing it. They're all lying, and nobody really knows what it is.

00:14:45:09 - 00:15:05:03
Craig Andrews
And I think there's an element, you know, I had somebody tell me, like, well, I need to start figuring out. I am like, do you know how to have a conversation? She's like, yeah, let's just have a conversation. Yeah, just it's it's picture Google search that can now talk back to you and answer your questions.

00:15:05:05 - 00:15:12:01
Albert Ramos
That is so funny. Well, I do want to acknowledge with any type of change and I say the same things to my team. And I'm a big,

00:15:12:01 - 00:15:18:02
Albert Ramos
proponent for change. If anyone knows me, I like to move fast and I like to create change.

00:15:18:02 - 00:15:27:20
Albert Ramos
So that it's so long as that it's not negligent. But what I tell people and I acknowledge it's okay to feel some angst when it comes to something completely new.

00:15:27:22 - 00:15:33:19
Albert Ramos
What I would recommend, though, is that people get started one foot forward, right, one step at a time, and use it.

00:15:33:19 - 00:15:36:20
Albert Ramos
Because there's a lot going on in the AI space.

00:15:36:20 - 00:15:41:22
Albert Ramos
And so I recommend step one is, is using it to learn the ins and outs of it.

00:15:41:22 - 00:15:54:19
Albert Ramos
It's funny, I find people that know how to prompt and to your point, have a conversation, a natural conversation actually do much better with the AI tools currently because it's going through every single word that you're looking for.

00:15:54:21 - 00:15:57:13
Albert Ramos
And if you're really good at being precise,

00:15:57:13 - 00:16:05:00
Albert Ramos
lengthy or brief, it doesn't matter if you're great at having a conversation and then pick up a lot that it can work with. And so I'm really excited about that.

00:16:05:00 - 00:16:28:18
Albert Ramos
What I will say to going back to our previous point about information overload, I think something that's really brought the angst down with those that I work with is what AI is going to be doing it, it is doing for us is not only augmenting or optimizing your workflow or productivity, but it's also offloading all of those inputs that you get hit with every day in the corporate arena as an entrepreneur.

00:16:28:20 - 00:16:51:12
Albert Ramos
So think about it that way. You're going to have more intellectual horsepower to create versus having to memorize and store. AI is going to be able to offload that off of you. And so your brain is going to feel less of a wire feeling and more about how I'm free to now do what I want and do something different, or think of something new.

00:16:51:12 - 00:16:59:11
Albert Ramos
And so I'm really excited about that pathway and chatting about that portion of the positives of what I will bring.

00:16:59:13 - 00:17:13:17
Craig Andrews
So what do you think? What do you think? Businesses what's the big missed opportunity that businesses are missing because they're not doing? Blank and I.

00:17:13:19 - 00:17:15:11
Albert Ramos
Yeah I think

00:17:15:11 - 00:17:31:18
Albert Ramos
and you can even say talking about it I think businesses in the businesses that I experience as a fractional CFO who implements AI is more often than not, they don't realize that they have this tool, tools available to create efficiencies to optimize,

00:17:31:18 - 00:17:46:02
Albert Ramos
and make their team members far more productive. You know, coming from the finance land, from top line and bottom line, there is not only growth opportunities using AI and automation or what they call a genetic AI, and you can chat about that some more.

00:17:46:03 - 00:17:47:09
Albert Ramos
We have time.

00:17:47:09 - 00:17:53:02
Albert Ramos
But also the flow through the bottom line. And it doesn't necessarily mean AI to replace,

00:17:53:02 - 00:18:03:10
Albert Ramos
a payroll or anything like that. It can be other things that I can do to make you far more efficient. And start reducing some of the spend in your line items that,

00:18:03:10 - 00:18:04:23
Albert Ramos
impact as you kicked off.

00:18:04:23 - 00:18:05:18
Albert Ramos
And so,

00:18:05:18 - 00:18:17:06
Albert Ramos
I think the big miss is that enterprise is or within these enterprises are made up of people your C-suite executive or leadership are just not not open minded to use it.

00:18:17:06 - 00:18:28:06
Albert Ramos
And I really challenge them all to use it. Use it first, and then we can go roll it out, educate with a great, you know, digital roadmap, etc..

00:18:28:08 - 00:18:41:15
Craig Andrews
So in the realm of finance, what are some things I should be doing today at its current level? Maturity. What are things businesses should be using AI for?

00:18:41:17 - 00:18:57:22
Albert Ramos
That's a good question. That's an exciting question. Those are some of the, plenty of conversations that I'm having on a daily basis. And I'll kick it off with some areas that I have experience with, that I help businesses with number one on the bookkeeping and or the,

00:18:57:22 - 00:19:02:13
Albert Ramos
accounts receivable are and the accounts payable API side of things.

00:19:02:19 - 00:19:13:14
Albert Ramos
You know, a lot of the times when I look at that by the businesses, that's typically what's broken. First is their cash flow management or the AR, AP cycle, the revenue management cycle. And,

00:19:13:14 - 00:19:26:17
Albert Ramos
what businesses don't realize or haven't been challenged to use yet is automation tools that are out there. And then using AI and predictive analytics to rightsize their cash flow management cycle.

00:19:26:17 - 00:19:40:04
Albert Ramos
And so I'll go in and and educate and show and find some of the bottlenecks or inefficiencies, introduce AI. And I hope we can talk about GPT at that at some point today.

00:19:40:04 - 00:19:43:21
Albert Ramos
But cash flow is, as I said, cash flow is king and queen.

00:19:43:21 - 00:19:49:09
Albert Ramos
Business. It is realized. Well, I can have real time stats. These things are taking care, care of up

00:19:49:09 - 00:19:50:20
Albert Ramos
from automation and AI.

00:19:50:20 - 00:19:59:11
Albert Ramos
And now I have something really meaningful to look at from a cash flow perspective, but that could go on and actually impact. I use it for,

00:19:59:11 - 00:20:02:02
Albert Ramos
modeling budgets, pro formas.

00:20:02:02 - 00:20:15:00
Albert Ramos
That's really important. And then what people realize is finance, apps, marketing and all the different departments are so intertwined. And if you really look at it as one unit, you'll start to find little bottlenecks and,

00:20:15:00 - 00:20:18:09
Albert Ramos
and little issues there that I can, can really help.

00:20:18:11 - 00:20:29:20
Albert Ramos
What I will say, though, is the first thing that I would do, even aside from the finance side, is each one of your team members on the team should have their own AI assistant, and it's really simple.

00:20:29:20 - 00:20:40:04
Albert Ramos
As you get on to, platform like ChatGPT or, you know, maybe you have the Microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft Copilot was coming out with an email with amazing features.

00:20:40:06 - 00:20:46:03
Albert Ramos
Google Gemini, which is making its run now, or come back or catching up in cloud.

00:20:46:03 - 00:20:52:14
Albert Ramos
There's some great tools out there that can really enhance the team member experience and their productivity.

00:20:52:16 - 00:21:18:17
Craig Andrews
Well, you know, and as I'm I'm not a finance guy, far from it. But as I'm sitting there listening to you, you know, I'm I call AI the Great Summarizer. It's great. You can feed a ton of information and say, hey, what's this mean in terms of this? I'm picturing like, loading a year of a bank statements and AI and then just start asking some basic trending things.

00:21:18:17 - 00:21:24:22
Craig Andrews
Could it tell me things like, would it, come up with some good targets for r,

00:21:24:22 - 00:21:29:05
Craig Andrews
versus a P you and to start optimizing now?

00:21:29:05 - 00:21:34:23
Albert Ramos
Absolutely. Now I will add a disclaimer there. Right. And I think one of the big things that,

00:21:34:23 - 00:21:38:08
Albert Ramos
enterprises and C-suite leadership are

00:21:38:08 - 00:21:53:19
Albert Ramos
battling with are worried about is that data security. So as it stands today, I would say if you are going to do something like that, then you chat through it with the decision makers around any type of financial and sensitive data.

00:21:53:21 - 00:21:54:20
Albert Ramos
There's always,

00:21:54:20 - 00:21:59:18
Albert Ramos
the ability to make it anonymous, remove the logo, the name, etc.,

00:21:59:18 - 00:22:03:09
Albert Ramos
so that there's no affiliation and people can't just research,

00:22:03:09 - 00:22:16:19
Albert Ramos
Craig and Albert LLC and find out all our financial information. So I'd add that little asterisk or disclaimer. But to your point, if you were to go do that and add a financial statement or rows of data from an Excel.

00:22:16:19 - 00:22:18:03
Albert Ramos
Absolutely.

00:22:18:03 - 00:22:24:13
Albert Ramos
You can have some forward thinking forecast setting. You can even create dashboards using AI and,

00:22:24:13 - 00:22:31:23
Albert Ramos
some integration and automation to have predictive analytics. I mean, there's some great platforms out there and tools,

00:22:31:23 - 00:22:38:19
Albert Ramos
as of this morning, I was having great conversations with people on the front end of ERP cash flow. And then,

00:22:38:19 - 00:22:39:12
Albert Ramos
even on the,

00:22:39:12 - 00:22:48:16
Albert Ramos
insights that you can gather quickly, not 30 minutes, an hour or two hours of going through financial statements, financial statements, or even for those that,

00:22:48:16 - 00:22:51:05
Albert Ramos
need to read their contracts or,

00:22:51:05 - 00:22:54:22
Albert Ramos
proposals, you can do it within seconds, seconds.

00:22:54:22 - 00:23:03:14
Albert Ramos
And by the way, I don't say that because it's the hot thing to say. I timed it. I'm the operator to I come I have a financial background, but I'm also,

00:23:03:14 - 00:23:14:19
Albert Ramos
I like to execute. I come from the operational side as well, and I time these things. So make sure. Okay, am I getting the best ROI from this tool and my time and I beats it by far.

00:23:14:20 - 00:23:37:13
Craig Andrews
I can't remember if it if we talked about it. Or it may have been a video I saw from the CEO of Microsoft that like one of the biggest products that may be threatened by AI is Excel. You know, instead of building a spreadsheet to do analysis, you just feed the AI the data and you start asking it questions.

00:23:37:15 - 00:23:41:20
Albert Ramos
Yeah. So that is really that's a really interesting topic.

00:23:41:20 - 00:24:01:09
Albert Ramos
So you've probably have heard of gentle AI and agents. So right now what's doable to what you just said is, is it can happen through the GPT process. And don't ask me what that stands for. I just know that it's still human intervention. It's creating a bot or some sort of,

00:24:01:09 - 00:24:03:16
Albert Ramos
generate a generative,

00:24:03:16 - 00:24:06:16
Albert Ramos
again, don't ask me what that stands for, but,

00:24:06:16 - 00:24:14:00
Albert Ramos
you can build these bots that actually take that on and take that information and actually can create an Excel, create a PDF from,

00:24:14:00 - 00:24:14:22
Albert Ramos
using that data.

00:24:15:04 - 00:24:29:07
Albert Ramos
But eventually what would occur and how I help organizations is I create an agile framework with these GPT, so that you are prepared, future proofed for agents to come in and agents is a whole different story. Agents or eugenic AI is,

00:24:29:07 - 00:24:38:07
Albert Ramos
while you're training it, it can then go off on its own to grab things from websites, from financial statements autonomously.

00:24:38:09 - 00:24:52:19
Albert Ramos
And that's a whole different world for people to get their mind around. And at times I even, you know, stop and don't even go that far, because using it is the first step learning how to build or build GPT, or even use GPT as assistance,

00:24:52:19 - 00:25:04:11
Albert Ramos
is key right now, but in the next 12 to 16 months, I mean, we're talking about these agents and eventually robotics and humanoids that will come in and we'll be working with humans.

00:25:04:11 - 00:25:24:23
Albert Ramos
And I think as a leader, and for those that are listening, that are in leadership roles, our responsibility will be how to how do you delegate? What is human, what requires human intervention? What is agent specific that you can delegate so that they can go do their thing? And then it's even crazier to think, what can robotics take on?

00:25:24:23 - 00:25:29:15
Albert Ramos
And humanoids that will be what is coming around the corner.

00:25:29:17 - 00:25:35:08
Craig Andrews
And so, let me see if we can bring this, this concept of agents down to street level.

00:25:35:08 - 00:25:47:10
Craig Andrews
As you're talking, I was picturing almost like a concierge at the hotel. You know, you check into a hotel and you stop by the concierge and you say, hey, while I'm in town, these are the things I want to do.

00:25:47:12 - 00:25:56:05
Craig Andrews
And you go off to dinner and drink wine or whatever, and the concierge is working on your behalf to make everything happen for you.

00:25:56:07 - 00:26:08:11
Albert Ramos
Zachary, you're first of all, when you said wine, you're speaking my language. That's great. So I'd be right there with you. We can have a glass together. But now you're spot on. So if you think about how we currently shop today. Right.

00:26:08:11 - 00:26:20:19
Albert Ramos
And I'm talking about those that shop online and you research and finding the right product that you want, you put in your information if it's not already automatically on there, you make the purchase, you push the button.

00:26:20:21 - 00:26:41:16
Albert Ramos
You have to do all that. Maybe it takes, you know, ten, 20, 30 minutes on a future. These agents will not only know what you like, what you want, and obviously your you'll tell it when you want to want to have something or purchase something, but they'll go off to your point as like a concierge and they'll select what they know you'll like at its price point.

00:26:41:22 - 00:26:44:13
Albert Ramos
Make the payment as they will have when we give

00:26:44:13 - 00:26:56:17
Albert Ramos
them access to. And I say to them, when we get it, access to our funds, and you'll come back and you'll have a notice that you have something being delivered overnight. It's going to be right at your door.

00:26:56:17 - 00:26:59:09
Albert Ramos
That is what's coming. So think of the

00:26:59:09 - 00:27:00:13
Albert Ramos
and that's purchasing product.

00:27:00:13 - 00:27:02:21
Albert Ramos
Think about when you book travel or

00:27:02:21 - 00:27:23:12
Albert Ramos
a hotel. Speaking of, we'll be able to offload those things. We won't have to do them in the future. And not and I'm not talking about five years based on the conversations that I'm having and some of the groups that I'm in and cohorts that I'm in, and some pretty prominent AI leaders, including some CEOs of some of the the businesses that we've,

00:27:23:12 - 00:27:25:12
Albert Ramos
we've chatted about today or,

00:27:25:12 - 00:27:26:13
Albert Ramos
AI officers,

00:27:26:13 - 00:27:29:01
Albert Ramos
these things are within 12 months.

00:27:29:03 - 00:27:41:04
Craig Andrews
Wow. Okay. Well, something you brought up a couple months ago, and I want to make sure we cover this before we wrap up is GPT. What are GPT? Why do I care?

00:27:41:06 - 00:27:46:06
Albert Ramos
Yeah, GPT, these are huge. And everyone should be using them or have one,

00:27:46:06 - 00:28:05:13
Albert Ramos
at their fingertips. Right. So everyone is pretty familiar with using and I'm going to use ChatGPT because that's kind of the generic platform that people hear about, read about, or see on social media with what most people don't know is you can really narrow in your series, your increase or your search,

00:28:05:13 - 00:28:06:06
Albert Ramos
and,

00:28:06:06 - 00:28:07:15
Albert Ramos
be far more precise.

00:28:07:15 - 00:28:14:17
Albert Ramos
And so what a GPT allows you to do is actually configure this bot, let's call it this bot,

00:28:14:17 - 00:28:30:07
Albert Ramos
that you can be far more precise on what you're looking for as you're looking at, generate and create new ideas or even search and ask questions the way it does it and why it's more precise is you can then upload items into its knowledge base.

00:28:30:09 - 00:28:40:13
Albert Ramos
Let me give you an example. So I was recently consulting for an organization where they had ticket after ticket, call after call to the HR department.

00:28:40:13 - 00:28:40:23
Albert Ramos
And

00:28:40:23 - 00:29:00:08
Albert Ramos
I already tell and you probably know this the HR department, I don't know how they do it. They get a ton, right? People are people. But we noticed that it was just taking a long time to get back to these team members that were needing help and let's just, you know, talk about their benefits or this SOP, standard operating procedure or,

00:29:00:08 - 00:29:01:13
Albert Ramos
payroll.

00:29:01:15 - 00:29:29:11
Albert Ramos
What we found is we can create a bot, a GPT that was fed all of the shops from the organization's departments, all their knowledge base, right data, PDFs, articles, how to and rather than the team member emailing and waiting for a response from another human or calling and waiting for that answer to be picked up or their ticket that they put in a classic service desk.

00:29:29:13 - 00:29:50:09
Albert Ramos
They can go immediately to this GPT, ask the question, and within 10s, because it went into its knowledge base, was able to provide them that answer immediately. So imagine a team member that is waiting or taking all this time, and now we're asking for other resources to answer those questions. And this is hours and hours that can add up throughout the entire year.

00:29:50:09 - 00:29:56:04
Albert Ramos
And the amount of payroll that goes into that. I mean, it's not even the payroll, but the amount of resources and,

00:29:56:04 - 00:30:09:19
Albert Ramos
mind power that goes into that rather than and I'm a finance guy, revenue generating activities. Think about how much time you save there so that people are far more focused on what we need to do to drive the business forward.

00:30:09:21 - 00:30:19:19
Craig Andrews
Now, when you're talking about programing these GPT. So, I mean, what comes to my mind is you probably need like a computer science degree from MIT to program them.

00:30:19:21 - 00:30:38:14
Albert Ramos
No. So that's so funny because I think that's where a lot of the angst comes to. Right? It's got to be super technical. I need to come from the IT space or be a programing engineer. Not at all. Now there are some nuts and bolts when it comes to labs, or even some of the smaller versions that are that exists or coming out.

00:30:38:16 - 00:30:56:22
Albert Ramos
And definitely there are some developers when if you're really looking at integrate this throughout the enterprise. Yeah, sure there's builders. But when we're talking about GPT or even using chat or some other of the platforms, you don't need a technical background. I have no technical background whatsoever. No. Do I plan on having it?

00:30:56:22 - 00:31:00:21
Albert Ramos
I'm one of those that is just a first mover and I use iterate experiment.

00:31:00:23 - 00:31:09:12
Albert Ramos
And so that's what I challenge people to do, is use the tools. No need to know or have a technical background. And what I've learned as I go business to business,

00:31:09:12 - 00:31:23:08
Albert Ramos
around the country, is as soon as I flip out the computer or even on my salon, and I show them, they learn it within the next 30 to 60s because it's that easy to do and build now, accumulating all the knowledge base that takes a little bit longer.

00:31:23:08 - 00:31:31:22
Albert Ramos
But again, it's, it's, it's as easy if and those and people out there know what upload means. Uploading a file is very easy to do.

00:31:31:22 - 00:31:34:04
Albert Ramos
And building it is very easy to do.

00:31:34:06 - 00:31:40:06
Craig Andrews
Well in the little bit that I've seen, you know, as you know, I've written in GPT three, that you've used.

00:31:40:08 - 00:31:40:16
Albert Ramos
And

00:31:40:16 - 00:31:42:16
Albert Ramos
it.

00:31:42:18 - 00:32:07:13
Craig Andrews
It's it's a little more structured than casual conversation, the programing of it, but you're basically it's like you're working. It's like you have an intern working for you and you say, hey, I want you to go do this, and here's how I want you to do it. That's the programing of it. It's you're just kind of writing a narrative of what you want to do.

00:32:07:15 - 00:32:29:01
Albert Ramos
That's exactly what you're doing. I mean, you can do it as simple as let's create mini creatives and mini Alberts, right? I just there's been times and I'm sure there's people out there that say, I wish there was like four of me, so I can do all of that. And now you can as you program it or you configure it to be able to do those things.

00:32:29:03 - 00:32:41:18
Albert Ramos
I was having a great conversation the other the other day from someone in marketing who has hundreds of clients, and the owner who's really open minded about AI and now is just outfitting his team, is his team of,

00:32:41:18 - 00:32:57:18
Albert Ramos
marketing associates and professionals with their own assistants. Right. And GPT three. And he made a good point. He said, well, why can't I have a GPT that are brand liaisons that every time I have a conversation with my client that we're providing marketing services for,

00:32:57:18 - 00:33:01:11
Albert Ramos
if I were to just upload their brand book and everything about them.

00:33:01:13 - 00:33:04:20
Albert Ramos
So it and I have that for every single one of my 100 clients. And I know

00:33:04:20 - 00:33:25:14
Albert Ramos
that's a lot that may be to the extreme, but what a great idea. As you now have, I can switch my mind to just focusing in on this one brand and again, within seconds can have a ton of ideas for social media content for, you know, XYZ content that I'd love to support them with so that they continue to build their business.

00:33:25:16 - 00:33:46:09
Albert Ramos
It was such a great idea. It really pivoted me. I'm I'm just to I'm just touching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to GPT. But there are these digital, these digital digital species. I heard that the other day, these digital species, these digital bots that are here to support, augment and optimize us to make us more productive.

00:33:46:10 - 00:33:49:16
Albert Ramos
It's really it's a really exciting time,

00:33:49:16 - 00:33:52:13
Albert Ramos
when it comes to being able to really,

00:33:52:13 - 00:34:00:01
Albert Ramos
reach your potential to do more with, with, with less. And again, I'm finance. It's cost effective as well.

00:34:00:03 - 00:34:02:17
Craig Andrews
Yeah. That's awesome. Well, our,

00:34:02:17 - 00:34:07:20
Craig Andrews
this is probably worth 2 or 3 podcasts, but we got wrap.

00:34:07:20 - 00:34:09:19
Craig Andrews
This has been awesome.

00:34:09:19 - 00:34:12:01
Craig Andrews
How can people reach you?

00:34:12:03 - 00:34:29:10
Albert Ramos
That's right. So it's it's Albert Ramos Jr. You can find me at Stratego Intel Consulting, and I'm all on LinkedIn. One stop shop. So connect with me, DM me. And as I always tell people, I'm ready to have a virtual coffee, or if you're out here in Houston, I'll do it in person.

00:34:29:12 - 00:34:32:14
Craig Andrews
That's awesome. Thanks for sharing this. Leaders and legacies.

00:34:32:16 - 00:34:35:12
Albert Ramos
My pleasure. Thank you.

00:34:35:12 - 00:35:02:07
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00:35:02:07 - 00:35:04:02
Craig A ndrews
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00:35:04:04 - 00:35:27:12
Craig Andrews
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00:35:27:14 - 00:35:35:18
Craig Andrews
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00:35:35:18 - 00:37:37:19
Craig Andrews
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