By Jorge Mercado Friday, November 13th, 2026

In this line of work, I meet a lot of interesting people every day and I am particularly excited to share some of the highlights from my conversation with Connor Abrams, a marketing executive from Thousand Oaks who has worked with some big brands — including Kelley Blue Book, Warner Bros. and Amgen — and to share his thoughts on how and why small businesses should be incorporating AI where they can. 

He said it is “a huge advantage” for small businesses today, starting from scratch, that they have access to AI.

“I know how to run campaigns on programmatic platforms and Meta. But with the right instructions, I can use AI to build tools that automate parts of that work,” Abrams said. 

He gave the example of an automotive business trying to figure out its competition. He said a bot could do research to find potential customers, build a plan for society, hire a third-party videographer, all while the owner of the shop keeps his focus on taking care of the cars.

“There are so many unique ways of mixing human elements with AI because if we are talking strictly AI-driven content, humans are not liking that as much, but if we are talking about taking some tasks off your plate, it becomes such a huge help for individual business owners, especially the one-man team that’s trying to build something,” Abrams said.

He spoke about how AI could help pick up phone calls, do research, help sift through documents — all things that would not take a job away but rather help.

Having worked with big corporations as well for most of his career, Abrams highlighted how much easier it is for small businesses to incorporate AI.

“It’s a lifesaver for small businesses. They can get help with work they might not have had the time to execute or staff to do before,” Abrams said.

Abrams has been incorporating AI into his workflows since 2023, but he will be the first to admit, even three years later, that you can’t trust it to do everything correctly.

He also noted that he wasn’t a tech-savvy person when he began using AI in 2023 but has come to learn how to work with it. 

“Don’t expect AI to replace an employee. Always be the person on the other end that is checking the work because it’s still wrong. It’ll still make false claims,” he said.

But bots are still very capable. Funny enough, my introduction to Abrams was through a bot of his reaching out to me via email, flagging one of my articles on AI and seeing a connection for us to speak. 

He likened the bot to a student fresh out of college.

“It still makes mistakes,” he said, “but does it help? Absolutely.”

He also warned about companies spamming their websites with AI-driven content, as it will not be ranked on Google. 

“There are ways a local business could mess up by weighing too heavily on AI, just like many of the big companies that I’ve seen weigh too heavily on AI and then have to rehire or have to figure out other workarounds,” Abrams said. “The companies I’ve worked for gained value using AI to improve specific processes.”

He said for people who do not want to use AI to help build their business that it is “not the end of the world.”

He understands that some people are hesitant, even scared to incorporate AI, but he said that “until AI can think for itself, it’s just an assistant.”

“AI is like an extra assistant. If you’re one person doing the job of four, getting a few hours back each week can make a difference,” Abrams said.

• Jorge Mercado covers technology on the Central Coast for the Business Times. He can be reached at [email protected].