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2026 Tech Trends Whisper in Your Ear

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Freelance professional are not only happily engrossed in performing paid client work; you must simultaneously perform labor that is unpaid—not yet— searching for more work. Ambitious Freelancers are networking to maintain visibility and participating in activities that showcase your professional chops, such as appearing on webinars and podcasts and publishing a blog or newsletter. Your core business development strategy is to convince prospects of your ability to consistently produce the deliverables they need when planning to hire a Freelance worker in your professional category. But in addition to carrying out your revenue producing strategies, the often unspoken role of a Freelance professional is that of small business owner.

As you work both hard and smart to develop and maintain a thriving client roster that generates your preferred number of billable hours and bottom-line revenue, you can never lose sight of the responsibility for managing and optimizing all aspects of business operations. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that staying abreast of major developments in the constantly evolving B2B technology sector is a significant portion of your business management obligations. Dozens of technology tools have been brought to market over the past three or four years and it is certain that one or more potential is capable of creating operational efficiencies in the back-office operations that support your accounting, contract management, lead generation, email marketing, or client onboarding, for example. Time and/or money could be saved, clients will become more satisfied with the after-sales support and other customer service functions you will seamlessly deliver. Even if you are by nature a late adopter, let 2026 be the year that you introduce at least one innovate and undeniably practical technology tools to make a positive impact on your business operations.

Responsible decision-making can only take place when trustworthy information is available; you can keep up with emerging technologies by simply paying attention. Speed read articles and watch videos to learn about new tech products so that you can assess their potential relevance for your organization. You may already be familiar with the sites TechCrunch and Wired and may also find them informative.

While researching, keep this question in mind—does it appear that incorporating this technology will enable you to expand your business success by capitalizing on the outcomes and results it is expected to produce? You already know that most newly released tech products are outside the scope of your needs and budget but as a new year approaches, consider that late adopters often find that they’re leaving money on the table by ignoring technology advancements. Your perspective must always be big-picture and long-term.

Finally, to fully access the intended usefulness of your new technology tool, it must be integrated into your workflow. If you have an employee, develop a strategy to encourage buy-in of the tech tool’s purpose and benefits, so that this new resource will become part of your company culture—how things are done now. Be strategic as you evaluate tech-enabled upgrades you might like to introduce. Below are areas where recently released technology tools could enhance your business operations.

Use emerging tech for leadgen and marketing

The days of cold calling have all but faded away. The gold standard of B2B lead generation in 2026 and beyond is powered by AI-driven tools that enable targeted personalization and feature text, audio and video marketing content, product demos, case studies or testimonials and even live streaming that allows prospects to interact with your company in real time. AI has transformed B2B leadgen to enable marketing campaign activities to deeply engage prospects, a capability that results in higher sales conversion rates.

AI-powered leadgen tools enhance your marketing funnel by analyzing prospect behavior and interaction data to identify to identify and nurture top-quality leads—while complying with current privacy regulations and best practices. By addressing prospects’ specific needs and challenges, you will be able to design marketing campaigns that truly resonate and deliver. As marketplace competition intensifies and customer demands become more exacting, Freelancers in the B2B sector may discover promising benefits in tech innovations.

Account-based marketing has revolutionized the way B2B leadgen by identifying a more narrow swath of high-value prospective client leads rather than reaching out to a less dicrete audience. ABM delivers customized information to key decision-makers, which often leads to better sales conversion rates and smarter use of your resources. ABM uses a precise, data-driven strategy and takes a deep dive into target lead profiles, cross-department priorities and key insights. ABM tactics include:

  • Personalized Outreach: Creating tailored marketing campaigns for individual accounts based on the industry, whose messages will acknowledge client pain points, business goals and other priorities.
  • Custom Content: Developing case studies and presentations that address the challenges of target accounts. Providing relevant educational content, which is one of the most effective ways to attract and nurture B2B leads. Instead of pushing a sales message, content marketing educates by providing useful insights, industry best practices and potential solutions that facilitate informed decisions that yield good results. By addressing typical pain points and offering effective solutions, Freelancers can build trust and position themselves as a partner and go-to resource.
  • AI-powered opportunity identification: Growth leaders in B2B sales are using AI to find new niche, potentially lucrative markets.
  • Value-based AI-enabled pricing: B2B companies are using tech innovations to more comprehensively define value, as they gravitate toward dynamic models that can automate pricing models that are personalized to attract discrete customer segments.
  • Customer Relations Management: Automation software tools will help you analyze customer data, industry trends and competitor behavior to identify accounts that have the most sales potential for you.
  • Search Engine Optimization: SEO is a foundational lead generation strategy that helps B2B companies attract high-quality leads by improving their visibility in search results. When potential customers search for industry solutions, thought leadership content, or service providers, for example, a robust SEO strategy can ensure that your business appears at the right time. By consistently optimizing for search engines and user experience, your Freelance entity can attract a steady flow of organic leads who are actively seeking solutions, thus making SEO one of the most cost-effective B2B leadgen strategies. By optimizing website content, technical website structure and backlink profiles, your business can drive organic traffic and generate leads that convert to paying customers. SEO tactics for B2B lead generation include Keyword Optimization, that is, targeting high-intent search terms that align with buyer needs and search behavior and On-Page and Technical SEO, that is, improving page speed, site structure and mobile usability to enhance search performance.

Use emerging tech to improve the customer experience

Customer experience can be defined as the impression that customers and prospects have of your brand—the company, its products and services and, by extension, you—as they move through your company’s buyer’s journey. Each touchpoint on the journey is an opportunity to create a confidence-building impression that contributes to a satisfying and memorable customer experience. The presentation of an excellent customer experience has for some customers become non-negotiable and in fact, a customer experience that’s perceived as exceptional for some customers outweighs the importance of pricing. B2B customers are responding more like B2C shoppers and adopting many more consumer-like behaviors, e.g., seeking more robust buying experiences.

Include operating with a thoughtful strategy, delivering effective value propositions, optimizing for a wide variety of channels, and sustaining growth. But to stay on the front foot, B2B sales organizations can leverage technology to find the right markets while discovering, retaining, and delighting customers across all channels. Today’s leaders understand the value of embracing innovation and using cutting-edge technology to execute strategies. McKinsey’s latest B2B Pulse Survey reveals a widespread willingness to adopt advanced digital solutions,  yet only 20 % of respondents say they have consistently implemented technologies that fuel outsize growth. 

An exceptionally positive customer experience is a powerful differentiator that can drive revenue and brand loyalty. According to a 2025 Zendesk CX Trends Report, 60% of customers have purchased a service or product from one brand rather than another based on the customer experience they expect to encounter. A 2017 World Economic Forum report predicts that your customers will obtain “more choices and control than ever before” over the next decade thanks to technological advances.

To distinguish your company from competitors in the crowd, Freelancers would be wise to explore and evaluate tech innovations as a way to optimize your operations and appeal to the evolving demands of your clients and prospects. An exceptional customer experience will prioritize:

  • Personalization–Tailor services and communications to respond to individual customer preferences and purchase history
  • Efficiency–streamlined, fast and accurate delivery of service
  • Consistency–Provide a predictable and comforting level of product performance and service
  • Empathy–Show customers that you feel genuine concern for their needs and perspective by actively listening and recommending solutions that your services or products can provide
  • Communication–Provide customers with accurate and timely information
  • Feedback–Provide methods for customers to comment or request assistance and demonstrate that you value their input

Use the new technology to make available a customer experience platform for your company so that you can account for all client and prospect interactions with your company, from the first viewings of your website to advancing through your buyer’s journey to become a qualified lead, to making a purchase and becoming a full-fledged customer and culminating with post-sale support activities. Click here to view options.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Gamutstockimagespvtltd

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Get It Right: How to Make It While Freelancing

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About one in two American workers will participate to some degree in the Freelance labor market by 2027, according to researchers at Statista, the German global business intelligence platform, who project that about 86.5 million workers, more than half of the U.S. workforce, will earn their living as Freelance professionals or other independently employed workers.

That more smart and ambitious professionals are expected to join the Freelance labor market is a powerful vote of confidence, but a growing numbers of professionals will inevitably result in a marketplace crowded with competitors and making it increasingly difficult to stand out and build a thriving, sustainable Freelance business entity.

As a new year approaches and the “fresh start” impulse kicks in, you may be inclined to take up some future-proof thinking; your brainstorming may lead you to remember that the best defense is a good offense. What proactive and assertive strategies can you explore and enact now to strengthen your position in a marketplace that is destined to become more competitive?

A defensive strategy known to augment the power of your brand is to include in all marketing initiatives and collaterals campaign messaging that describes and promotes your brand’s Unique Selling Proposition—those singular benefits that appeal to your ideal clients and distinguish your services or products from competitors. It is imperative that USP attributes are consistently and unambiguously communicated in marketing messages, to ensure that your marketplace offerings are recognizable to those who value them.

Robust marketing is just one vital component needed to build and sustain a successful Freelance venture. Below are a few basic actions that, if enabled by big-picture thinking and working smart, along with a dose of good luck, can help you to climb to the top of the Freelance earnings pyramid. Here you go!

1. Freelancing is sales

Freelancing means that you must work so that you can work—and the work you must do is selling. It’s an unavoidable fact that in order to be hired for client work, Freelancers must persuade prospective clients to become your paying clients. That can occur if your capabilities are superior to any competitors who are also vying for the assignment. Furthermore, you must demonstrate that you are well-organized and efficient, pleasant to work with and that you are good cultural fit for the client’s company and team. Finally, you must have two or three credible references to provide third-party verification of your abilities and good qualities. If the client, which could be represented by a hiring committee, is satisfied with your competencies and credentials, you will be awarded the contract.

Note that the primary ingredient in this process is sales. To make money, Freelance professionals (and all business owners) must become adept at sales and that includes understanding the “pain points” that motivate clients to seek out the type of services or products that you offer. Before client work is obtained, the Freelancer must sell—and that begins with identifying and connecting with viable prospects who may have a project scheduled for which you are qualified. Selling is probably the most important competency a Freelancer must develop, whether you are a software developer or a make-up artist, because you can’t entirely outsource it. The owner of the company must be able to sell the product or service to prospective clients.

Face2face networking is the most effective way to meet those who might hire you, although quite a few Freelancers regularly connect with prospects who become paying clients when working through a Freelance marketplace such as Xolo, Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr, which vets the legitimacy of Freelancers and prospective clients. In addition to possessing the necessary skills to satisfactorily complete the project, the Freelancer must also communicate that s/he is trustworthy, dependable and, oftentimes, has done work similar to the project in question, in order to instill sufficient confidence in either online or in-person prospect introductions to extend an invitation to interview for the project and green-light the hire.

2. Identify your market niche

What services will your Freelance consulting business provide and who can you expect to become your clients? Freelancers must acquire expertise in a marketable skill and understand the typical “pain points” of prospective clients. You must learn to articulate the problems can you solve, which goals you can help the prospect achieve. Aspiring Freelance professionals cannot simply decide that you’d like to earn a living as a social media marketer or special events photographer and voila, you will receive offers of work. High-level skills and significant experience are needed before you can go out on your own and expect to make a living.

When pondering the possibility of launching a Freelance business, research the marketplace need in your geography of the current and trending demand for skills that you can demonstrate at expert level. That you are “passionate” about certain activities is not enough. Which trends are emerging and which once-dominant trends are waning?

Finally, research and learn how those who would be your prospective clients getting their needs met now. The answer to this question will reveal your competitors. Research who is making money in your niche. Visit websites and social media accounts to find out the identity of big clients and learn how your prospective competitors sell to clients.

3. Freelancers are business owners

Freelancing calls for more energy, determination, savvy and creativity than social media cheerleaders let on. As detailed above, Freelance professionals do more than provide the contracted services by providing an effective solution that solves a problem or achieves a goal. Freelancing also means you must become adept at managing the business aspects of your entity.

In all likelihood the best way to obtain comprehensive business development skills capable of building a robust and sustainable Freelance venture is to contact SCORE, The Service Corp of Retired Executives, the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors who, at no charge in most cases, will help you, a small businesses owner-operator, plan, launch, manage and grow your entity.  SCORE is a not-for-profit organization launched by the Small Business Association in 1964 and is dedicated to developing thriving small business communities through mentoring and educational workshops.

4. Your story Is your power

Storytelling can be an opportunity to share your unique experiences that differentiate you from competitors and help you and your company, services, or products to stand out in the ever more crowded marketplace. Your stories communicate your brand identity and brand persona as they connect you with potential clients in a memorable way. Your stories are one of your most important relationship-building marketing assets.

You can share professional experiences, personal reflections, obstacles you’ve faced and tackled and observations that have taught you powerful lessons. Regardless of the type of story, you should follow a clear structure by ensuring you highlight what exactly happened (the context), the lesson to be taught through the challenge or crisis in the story and conclude with the positive outcome or result—even if it was unexpected. Your stories bolster your relatability, build transparency and trust, demonstrate your resilience and resourcefulness and might also opens doors to opportunities like speaking engagements and co-hosting workshops. A resonating story is all about how you tell it and for that bit of magic, I refer you to champion storyteller Kelly D, Parker.

5. Price like you understand the job

Don’t allow fear to cause you to under-price your services, including all the “extras” that collectively represent the quality of the customer experience your clients have come to associate with your organization. Like the classic L’Oreal tagline for Preference Hair Color said, “Because you’re worth it“. Freelancers who underbid projects, thinking that low project fees result in more work only misinterpret the psychology of sales. Freelancers who don’t ask enough questions to apprise the scope of the work and client expectations, don’t account for revisions and don’t build in a buffer zone of time to mitigate timeline delays caused by unexpected complications that could undermine achieving the preferred project completion date don’t really understand the meaning of cost-effective.

Your project price quote tells a prospect that you understand the scope, you’ve thought things through and that the client can trust you to stay calm and in control, whether in the best-case scenario, when all goes according to plan, or when something goes sideways. If your price is too low, the client may silently worry that you’re missing something important. On the other hand, if your quote is too high as compared to others that were received, the client may suspect that you’re padding the estimate as a way to enrich him/herself.

The pricing sweet spot is a balancing act that must satisfy both the client and you. Your project quote must be not be so low as to raise red flags, nor so expensive as to create anxiety, but realistic and competitive enough to suggest you know exactly what you’re getting into. Price like you understand what it takes to do the job right and clients will trust you to do it.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Edmund Dantes/Pexels for iStock

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Curb Customer Churn

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Does your business exist in a one-off world? Once you’ve had the pleasure of bringing in a new customer, completed the transaction and received payment, what’s the likelihood of that customer doing business with you again? Acquiring new customers are a feather in your cap and your reason for being but as Dad told me, when it comes to money it’s not what you make, it’s what you keep. That bit of wisdom refers not only to business and living expenses: it also refers to your ability to keep customers coming back.

The expected percentage of repeat customers is different for every business, but it’s widely known that customer loyalty, demonstrated by repeat business, is a success factor and customer churn, also known as customer attrition and refers to the rate that customers disappear from your business, ought to be limited. Nurturing customer loyalty that translates into repeat business and adds to the long-term value of your customers is a much better use of your resources than constantly chasing new customers—even though attracting new customers is an eternal business necessity. See below a sample of customer retention statistics sorted by industry. How does your customer list look in comparison?

Top Customer Retention Stats in 2025 (source: Exploding Topics September 12, 2025)

  • Media services customer retention rate (84%).
  • Professional services customer retention rate (84%)
  • Tech/IT services customer retention rate 81%
  • IT/software services customer retention rate 77%
  • Consumer services customer retention rate 67%
  • Hospitality/travel/restaurant customer retention rate 55%.
  • Facebook 24-month user retention rate 69.6%
  • LinkedIn 24-month user retention rate 59% (estimate–LinkedIn does not release this metric)
  • Instagram 24-month user retention rate 39.1%
  • Pinterest 24-month user retention rate 37.5%
  • Snapchat 24-month user retention rate 30.2%
  • Twitter/ X 24-month user retention rate 22.9%
  • Customers who have a positive experience spend 140% more than those who have a bad experience.
  • Email is the top delivery method used to contact customers and encourage retention (89%)
  • 75% is the average customer retention rate across all industries
  • 60% of customers believe that good customer service is essential to promote customer retention.

Owners and leaders of what is probably the majority of commercial enterprises are inclined to believe the prevailing opinion that claims it costs the average business entity 5x more to bring in a new customer than it costs to keep an existing customer. In fact, research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company found that increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase profit anywhere from 25% to as much as 95%. The standard advice about customer retention appears to be still valid, but thought leaders now warn that hyper-prioritizing customer retention introduces the risk of losing focus on what really matters—connecting with customers and delivering value. Freelancers and business leaders must understand which customers are worthy of receiving resources intended to recruit their business and which are worthy of resources intended to keep their business. In that way, finding a balance between the two apparently opposed, but nevertheless important, customer segments can be achieved.

When considering how much to spend to either acquire or retain customers, it’s essential to consider the customer’s lifetime value (CLV), the long-term revenue potential of a customer. When discussing business decisions about attracting new customers and keeping existing customers, University of Pennsylvania/ Wharton Business School Marketing Professor Peter Fader told Forbes Magazine Senior Contributor Blake Morgan, “Here’s my take on that old belief: who cares? Decisions about customer acquisition, retention and development shouldn’t be driven by cost considerations—they should be based on future value.”

Still, getting ghosted by customers is not to be disingenuously explained away. You need to know what motivated now former customers to stop doing business with you. Then you must fix the problem(s). Unfulfilled expectations are known to result in high churn rates as customers jump ship and either take up with a competitor or do without. You can calculate your company’s churn rate by dividing the number of customers you worked with during a specific time period by the number of customers you worked with at the start of that time period. Quarterly, semi-annual, or annual churn calculations will give useful insights to Freelance professionals and other business owners.

Common causes of customer churn

  • Difficult user experience: if some aspect of using the product or service is frustrating, customers are likely to use the product/service less often and they’ll be unlikely to recommend it to friends.
  • Unsatisfying customer experience: if customers do not feel welcome, or if the process of doing business is disorganized and appears unprofessional, it leaves a bad impression. Furthermore, many customers expect a personalized experience and would like your company to periodically introduce new features or upgrades to your product or service that add functionality, luxury, or other distinction that heightens the experience. If this expectation is unfulfilled, some customers will leave.
  • Competitor intervention: every business has competitors, but it is important to discover why customers think the grass is greener somewhere else. Are those customers a bad fit for your business, or was your offering a poor product/market fit for them all along? Alternatively, might some customers be more price-sensitive of late and feel compelled to explore lower-priced solutions? Or, is there something you are doing—or not doing? Once you figure out the cause of the ghosting, you can decide who is worth working to keep and who can be let go.
  • Incomplete onboarding: it is beneficial to teach buyers how to appropriately utilize the product or service that’s been purchased and coaching them on the optimal use of the service or product purchased is especially urgent when the customer has paid several hundred to several thousand dollars. An onboarding process that provides adequate user education will also address customer expectations of personalization and counteract difficult user experiences and, in most cases, head off an unsatisfactory customer experience.

Minimize customer churn

There will always be customers who leave your company to take up with another and the reasons for that are varied—needs evolve, budgets shrink, competitors appear. Nevertheless, directing your focus to customer priorities and expectations to shape your delivery of positive experiences will minimize customer churn and maximize customer satisfaction and retention. In short, make it rewarding to do business with your organization. It has been shown (see above) that the impact of a satisfying and memorable customer experience is enormous— customers spend 140% more if their past experience with a business is positive compared to those customers who encounter a negative experience. Top companies know how important customer experience is in maintaining high retention. The marketing pros at Hubspot suggest a short list of practices that will limit customer churn.

  • Invite customer feedback by creating a short survey to send to customers you’ve worked with over the past four or five years. It’s important to know what customers perceive as your company’s strengths and weaknesses and get insight into how their needs and expectations have evolved. Besides, you might even provide incentive for a lapsed client to return!
  • Provide excellent customer service, from onboading to after-sale support. Define a user roadmap, especially for new customers.
  • Create a welcoming and supportive customer experience. Community building is a powerful engagement strategy that keeps customers talking about your brand. Use social media to create a community for customers and use it to generate loyalty that creates referrals and repeat business.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © SCMP Pictures. Shoppers riding the escalators in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island (2015).

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Milestones Are Your Reason for A Reset

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Certain dates on the yearly calendar are noteworthy—birthdays, holidays and anniversaries, a new year or a new season, as well. The dates have meaning; they mark special occasions and hold a certain power. You might call them milestone dates. Some milestones merely mark the passage of time, but others suggest growth and development, an inflection point and the possibility of making a positive change. Those milestones beckon you to consider new options, new experiences, or a new perspective.

A particular milestone date or occasion may motivate you to do better and give yourself an upgrade. You might feel it’s time to press the reset button on some aspect of your life. You’re primed to open the door to new options and opportunities. You recognize that you’ve reached a psychological milestone and life is telling you to reassess and redesign, reinvent, or recharge some part of your life or some part of your business enterprise or career. Think New Year’s Resolutions.

This spark of inspiration is called the “fresh start effect.” It’s a psychological phenomenon that explains why milestones—the arrival of a new year, a birthday, or the first day of a new season—make you inclined to self-reflection. You feel the urge to take on beneficial new habits and drop an old habit that’s outlived its usefulness. You’re ready to attach jumper cables to your personal or professional life, start the ignition and make things come alive.

Because the fresh start effect is universal, your clients are likewise inclined to experience a restless feeling that creates a longing for something new and different. For that reason, milestones are an excellent time to make use of the prevailing zeitgeist and shake up a client-facing sector of your business. The strategy is powerful because you’ll align your company and its solutions with your customers’ existing expectations, rituals and rhythms.

Your mission is to position your brand to align with customs or expectations that your clients and prospects will likely experience when they think of your target milestone occasion. How might your service or product be perceived as part of their fresh start? Your goal is to not only meet their needs and wants, but also portray your brand as a timely, trusted partner during noteworthy moments in their lives. Milestone dates are the right time to stir the pot and offer up—what? An activity or information that aligns with your company and its services or products and simultaneously resonates with your clients and prospects to show them why they trust, relate to and value your brand.

Your potential milestone occasions could be the beginning of a new school year, the arrival of spring or fall, the anniversary of your business launch or getting your first paying client, or even Black Friday (U.S. readers know that’s the fourth Friday in November). This post was inspired by the arrival of the fourth quarter on October 1. 4Q is powerful because it closes on December 31, the end of the calendar year, and business owners and leaders are anxious to have a strong finish to the year.

Commemorate your milestones

The fresh start effect is a golden opportunity you don’t want to miss. Your clients and prospects can be positively influenced by milestone dates, even if the occasion is linked to your business and not a national holiday or change of seasons. It’s not a stretch to persuade your audience to take on a mindset that opens them up to change and new beginnings that happen to align with your company, products or services. In other words, don’t shy away from celebrating the anniversary of your company’s launch as your Founder’s Day and build a promotional campaign to celebrate it—and bring in revenue as you do!

Make your marketing message about a restart and transformation

Marketing messages that include a theme of renewal and transformation often resonate with audiences during fresh start milestone periods because your audience is already in a self-assessment and growth-oriented mindset. For example, presenting a new angle to your brand story to refresh client enthusiasm and promote engagement is among the milestone-themed campaigns you might choose to develop. To tap into this power, invite a client to give a testimonial—audio, video, or written—that describes how your product or service sparked meaningful change in the client’s business operations, whether it’s a small but powerful effect or a game-changer.  

You can get the ball rolling on client testimonials by creating a survey that asks questions such as, “How has our product or service made a difference in how you do business? Can you share a specific example?” These questions will focus testimonial responses on the tangible benefits and transformational power of your products rather than generic praise like, “Your product or service is awesome!” Often, you’ll even uncover surprising ways your product made a difference.

Alternatively, you (and your team, if that applies) can present a backstage story by creating a video of you on your way to give a presentation at a local business association, or to do volunteer work. Your clients may enjoy getting to witness an uncensored, up-close and person look that nevertheless illustrates your business acumen and, if philanthropy is the focus, your values and the importance of corporate social responsibility and giving back to your community.

Good stories are always about transformation. You want to position your service or product as a catalyst for your clients’ positive evolution and so that you can connect with them on a deeper, emotional level so that you will take on the role of guide in their journey. By presenting useful, or fun and always compelling information about your brand you’ll capture the attention and imagination of your audience and strengthen their bond with you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: A “Sweet 16” birthday party at The Crystal Ballroom in Daytona Beach, FL

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Research Says Soft Skills Outshine AI Expertise

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New research published in February 2025 gives an unexpected vote of confidence to a group of skills that don’t always get headlines—so-called soft skills, behaviors and competencies associated with Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and often ranked by hiring managers and those who report on hiring trends in lucrative professions as second tier and less desirable than the hard skills that dominate the STEM professions, including the golden child knowledge base that comprises Artificial Intelligence. Study authors Moh Hosseinioun, Frank Neffke, Hyejin Youn and Letian Zhang say their data suggests that while proficiency in the use of AI-centric technologies and other hard skills usually has a positive impact on employment prospects, soft skills are more important to cultivate, for both workers and the companies that hire them.

Researcher Hosseinioun is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Management & Organizations at Kellogg School of Management; Neffke leads the Science of Cities and Transforming Economies research programs at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, Austria; Youn is an Associate Professor at Seoul National University and she’s a former associate professor at the Kellogg School of Management /Northwestern University; and Zhang is an Associate Professor at the Kellogg School of Management. The team analyzed millions of data points associated with U.S. job skills from 2005-2019—1000+ occupations, hundreds of skill sets and 70 million job transitions—and came to one elegant conclusion. When comparing how people’s skills changed over time during their careers, they found that having better “foundational” skills—soft skills, e.g., the ability and willingness to collaborate with team members, problem-solving ability and being highly adaptable — is considerably more impactful on one’s career than technical competence in AI models, coding, or other hard skills.

Contrary to the prevailing opinion that assumes developing technical skills is the gateway to steady, lucrative employment, the researchers instead concluded that employers would be wise to recognize the value of EQ-defined skills in addition to hard skills capabilities. The study data revealed that basic logic, big-picture thinking, analytical ability and follow-through are more important for individuals and employers/business owners and that soft skills are likely to become even more relevant as AI becomes more entrenched in the workplace, creating questions around not only the technology’s potential and limitations, but also the ethical and privacy questions it raises.

In the study, the researchers organized job-related competencies into soft skills (including reading comprehension, basic math skills and the ability to work well in teams) and specialized, advanced hard skills (e.g., competency in Blockchain). Then, they examined how people’s skills developed over the course of their careers; they found that those who scored highly on basic skills are more likely to earn higher wages throughout their careers, move into more advanced roles, learn complex, specialized skills more quickly and are more resilient to industry changes.

The development of soft skills enhances the ability to not only make job candidates more competitive for entry level employment, but also determines how far up the career ladder they’ll climb. When Hosseinioun et al. examined how soft skills can impact long-term job performance, adaptability and career advancement, they found that workers who acquire an array of soft skills, including reading comprehension, communication skills and also basic math, tend to learn faster and master more complex capabilities over time.

In other words, business owners and leaders whose growth and expansion strategies have a long-term trajectory and will rely on a solid team to help them build toward their preferred vision of the future, should take notice. When in hiring mode, keep at top of mind that soft skills matter as much as technical skills and sometimes more. Soft skills shape the worker’s skills development path, boost their long-term value to your organization and also enhance their own career advancement potential.

Flexible, adaptable, agile

The study found that workers with a broad range of soft skills are more adaptable to industry changes. This adaptability is especially useful in a volatile marketplace, when demand for highly specialized skills might quickly wax and wane. For example, Adobe Flash was once the gold standard for interactive web content and supported a whole generation of developers. But when Flash was discontinued and browsers phased it out, only those who could pivot to HTML5 and JavaScript remained in demand.  HackerRank’s 2025 Developer Skills Report lists the fastest-declining skills and LinkedIn data shows that once red-hot Blockchain-related job postings and developer activity have dropped by 40+% in just one year as investment and interest shifts toward AI technology.

The findings in this study, however, suggest that survivors of volatility possess soft skills competencies—strong abilities to problem-solve, clear communication styles and the ability to collaborate and work well with teams. These core strengths help workers relearn faster and allow companies to redeploy their current talent without significant rehiring to stabilize operations.

Play nice with others

Hosseinioun also found that one subset of soft skills in particular helped workers to achieve the highest levels of professional attainment—social skills. The rise of cross-functional projects, remote working and corporate mergers and acquisitions makes it imperative for organizations to quickly rally and persuade team members to communicate, share knowledge and collaborate, to keep productivity high and conflicts low.

Previous research reveals why social skills are particularly important today. David Deming’s landmark study of U.S. jobs shows that positions requiring a high level of social interaction grew by almost 12% between 1980 and 2012, while math-intensive, low-interaction roles shrank. Wages followed the same pattern—jobs that blend cognitive ability and social skill pay the highest premiums, according to his study.

The Amazon Upskilling 2025 initiative has invested over a billion dollars to help thousands of their employees attain new skills, from technical training to attaining clearer and stronger language and communication skills, and confirming that soft skills are as integral to professional advancement as technical expertise. Google reached the same conclusion in its Project Oxygen study After analyzing thousands of performance reviews, their study team found that its best managers excel at coaching, communication and collaboration across teams; company leaders now use soft skills competencies as must-haves for promotion eligibility.

Leaders in both of those famously tech-centered organizations eventually realized that as job complexity rises, it is social skills—communication, empathy, conflict resolution and the ability to coordinate diverse expertise—that enhances team work and builds a work force that is resilient and quick to adapt to a constantly evolving business environment. Soft skills are integral components of a dynamic and collaborative work environment that is the engine of business today.

Soft skills are foundational

Hosseinioun and his research team conclusively found that workers who “scored highly on basic skills were more likely to earn higher wages throughout their careers,” and to also “move into more advanced roles, learn specialized skills more quickly, and were more resilient to industry changes.” Those who have a broad base of soft skills, as opposed to a few highly specialized skills like coding, learn new things faster, earn more money, move into more advanced positions and are more resilient despite episodes of uncertainty throughout their careers. Amid massive technological changes, like the arrival of gen AI and its estimated impacts on jobs, the study makes a strong case for the continued development of soft skills—for self-employed professionals, traditional W-2 employees and the organizations with whom they work.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © iStock/stockbyte (1950-1959)

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Meeting Primer: Make Every Minute Matter

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So you’ve decided to call a meeting. Maybe you and your client’s team are due for an update/ check-in; or has an unexpected glitch created a project roadblock that demands a problem-solving strategy? Let’s look at the bright side—-has what appears to be an opportunity revealed itself and the purpose of your meeting is to verify that the opportunity is not a mirage and deciding how to proceed?

Oftentimes, a meeting means a decision must be made. When it comes to meetings one thing is certain—the purpose is always about finding the way forward, where you’re going and how you’ll get there. Moreover, there are always action items to follow-up on.

Meetings have a checkered history; there is an unfortunate tendency to deviate from the agenda and get lost in the weeds. Salvation is within reach, however, when the convener—you!—thinks through the key components of the meeting so that you will enable the meeting to both fulfill its purpose and leave the participants feeling energized, engaged and effective.

Agenda

It is your job as meeting convener to create the conditions for a successful meeting. Begin by identifying the purpose of your meeting—must potential solutions to a problem be explored, or must the team determine strategies that will advance a certain goal? Once the meeting purpose is confirmed, the convener will then consider which information and/or actions will be needed to support the meeting purpose and inform the creation of the meeting agenda—which will be the meeting journey roadmap. To create the agenda, allow yourself to do some some free association thinking to get a mental picture of what must be discussed and resolved.

Attendance

Next, decide who should attend, as well as those who perhaps for political reasons you would be wise to invite. There may be certain stakeholders or power brokers who must be in the room (or in virtual attendance), whether you want them there or not. Those on the must-invite list could be a net-positive, however; you may be able to convince one of the VIP attendees to troubleshoot, green-light, recruit allies, approve funding, or somehow advance your vision of what needs to happen.

Following the list of heavy weights, you’ll be free to draw up a list of those who should attend, who you want to attend, because they have the subject expertise and insight that will benefit the meeting purpose. Finally, there are those you should ask to attend because they know how to get things done and can be trusted to carry out important action items—and just as valuable, if there’s a vote taken, they’re with you!

Bear in mind that there may be stakeholders /VIPs who simply appreciate receiving info regarding the outcome of your meeting, but they do not need or want to attend. If someone doesn’t need to be there, offer them alternatives, such as asking them for pre-meeting input or sending them a follow-up meeting summary. Fewer attendees mean more-focused conversations—and ultimately better outcomes.

Use the “Five W’s”—who, what, where, when, and why—to generate the participant list. Who needs to be there? What, if any, special information should you bring in resources to support the conversation (meeting handouts or presentation slides? What information can drive decision-making and needs to be shared and what is just a distraction and doesn’t need to be included?

You must also consider the most inclusive and welcoming format for the meeting—in person or virtual? It’s entirely likely that your meeting will be hybrid and it will be necessary to design logistics that will make those who attend virtually feel fully present.

Engagement and participation

As you know, the best meeting outcomes are achieved when you bring together participants who have the means and motive to contribute something relevant to the proceedings. Lackluster participation in meetings weakens the result by reducing collaboration, hampering decision-making and eroding team unity. How can you encourage more fruitful engagement? Step One is to create an agenda that directs attention to the core purpose of the meeting, whether check-in, problem-solving, or decision that must be made, or opportunity to exploit.

Start by clarifying expectations for the meeting and participants by outlining some of the supportive behaviors you want to see in your meetings. For example, you might emphasize mutually supportive behaviors such as nonjudgmental communication, collaborating to tackle challenges together, sharing of resources and information. It’s also helpful to offer team members different ways to contribute—for example, allow for written input before, during, or after meetings. Giving those who are typically less vocal a structured role can help empower them to speak. When participants know that their insights and wisdom are valued, they’ll find the motivation and courage to speak up and they have the potential to perhaps bring an unexpected idea or perspective that will greatly improve the outcome and relevance of the meeting.

Finally, make every minute count and don’t run over. Set meetings for the shortest time necessary, not by default increments like 60 minutes. Honoring to the agenda and ending on time helps people sustain focus, reduces frustration and communicates to everyone that your meetings are worth attending.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Siphosethu Fanti/peopleimages.com for Adobe Stock

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Contract Management Promotes Business Growth

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Congratulations Freelancer colleague, as summer ends and the fourth quarter approaches, you’ve landed a client and have been asked to sign a contract. You are well aware that receiving a contract is the road to revenue but that’s only part of its power. When a contract and the arc of its lifecycle are recognized and utilized, you can initiate a mutually agreeable working relationship with your client and make the possibility of repeat business amenable to the client.

To the best of your ability you, Freelancer friend, should ensure that all contracts you sign advance and protect your interests, as well as the client’s. Keep at top-of-mind that expectations are foundational to contracts. A well-written contract defines and describes what the client expects of you—primarily, to produce the desired outcome or deliverable that also meets the client’s quality control standard and is completed and available by a specified date.

At its core, a contract is a commitment whose purpose is to guarantee that client expectations and your responsibilities are defined and achieved. When you think about it, a contract is potentially more than a method to certify a working agreement. In particular, contracts that pertain to B2B services or products can be considered strategic tools that provide risk management for both you and the client, in addition to revenue generation for you.

Contract management is the process of creating an official document that identifies client expectations and defines the responsibilities of the party that produces the outcome or deliverable and meets the deadlines. Contract management also includes the discussion and negotiation of factors such as payment for work performed and contingencies that, when agreement is reached, are written into the document. Contract management is considered completed after the outcome or deliverable are produced and the document is reviewed and analyzed to assess the execution of the work performed against the terms of the contract. This final step of contract management is of particular interest to B2B service providers, whether the deliverable is a one-off project or an ongoing subscription, as it may reveal where and how you could have utilized your company’s operational processes more efficiently to reduce monetary expenses or time associated with producing the deliverable.

A written agreement

Contracts typically begin with discussion and a verbal agreement, but that process should be viewed as only the first step of new client engagement. It is in the interest of both parties to commit all major business agreements to writing by creating a contract after first discussing client goals and expectations, timeline and budget to attain understanding and mutual agreement and then following-up with the development of a written document that will be signed by the parties involved.

The author of the contract will depend on the client. Corporate and not-for-profit organizations typically have a standard contract that is used for Freelance talent. Small businesses and organizations that engage with few Freelancers may be happy to allow you to author the document. Over time, many Freelancers develop a standard B2B professional services contract template; however, it will be worth your while to investigate contract templates that can streamline and speed up the contract management process, from creating the document, to negotiating terms and facilitating online docu-signing. You will find contract management software available on several platforms.

Regardless of its author, know that you owe it to yourself to carefully review all contracts that you intend to sign, to ensure that both signers will be able to meet the terms. Put questions and answers in writing (email), to provide documentation. When you are not the contract author, diplomatically suggest that you and the prospective client collaborate and negotiate when you find it necessary, to ensure that you can fulfill your responsibilities and please the client. All changes to the agreement should be in the form of written amendments, or at a minimum, an email that documents the changes.

Finally, caveat emptor—a contract is only as good as your ability to enforce it. A written agreement is nearly always useful, but if one of the parties fails to fulfill the agreed-upon terms, the other will be stuck. Even a contract written to anticipate nearly every contingency is only as good as the behavior of the signers. Integrity and trust matter and maintaining complete records is a must.

  • Document changes: If changes are made to the original contract, write them down. Make sure everyone signs off on all changes and attach amendments and signatory approval to the original agreement.
  • Keep original copies: Keep signed copies of all contracts safe and organized, whether they are in hard copy or digital format.
  • Track communications: Keep a record that includes notes and the dates of all contract discussions. This includes emails, letters, meeting notes and phone logs.

Payments

Let your contract specify when, how much and by what payment method you’ll be paid. While W-2 employees receive regular weekly or bi-weekly paychecks, that is not the scenario for Freelance consulting talent. At some organizations, we are the last to get paid and late, sometimes scandalously late, payments can be distressingly common.

Defend yourself by making it clear to the client that you expect to be paid according to the timeline that was discussed and agreed upon. In fact, once you and the client have committed to the amount of your project fee and scheduled the initial payment that you require before commencing work, as well as the milestone or other interim payments, if applicable, plus the timing of the final project payment, be certain to specify the amount and schedule of those payments in the contract. Furthermore, you might also note that all payment amounts and associated dates are non-negotiable. Trust is central to every contract and committing the agreement to writing encourages trustworthy behavior.

Along with a dispute resolution clause in your agreement, also specify how you will handle non-payment. You shouldn’t be expected to continue work if you aren’t getting paid but collecting unpaid debt can be a real challenge. Include a clause about debt collection, either through an agency or a lawyer— and that cost should be on the client, not on you.

Client expectations

Before you enter into a working agreement, you and your client must have similar expectations of one another’s roles. Assume nothing and in particular, ask questions to confirm the project deliverables and timeline—milestones and deadline. Ask also for your client’s description of a successfully achieved milestone and a successfully completed project.

In a Freelance B2B contract for professional services rendered, outline what you agree to do and how it will be done. There must be no ambiguity about the desired outcome or deliverable, or the quality of the work that the client expects. It’s also helpful to make clear what happens if you do not meet the agreed-upon deliverable deadline; usually, it means some portion of your payment is withheld until both parties are satisfied with the progress of the project.

Ensure that the client knows the full spectrum of services you’ll provide to satisfactorily produce the outcome or deliverable and the amount of time you expect will be needed. If there are complicated elements to the project, make sure the client comprehends what is needed to achieve the that vision.

Milestones

Milestones are essential for independent projects, as well as for organizations that hire Freelance talent. By detailing a project’s milestones, you can ensure that you and the client know when to expect key deliverables. If no milestones have been discussed and agreed upon before your hire, you might raise the issue yourself, in order to keep your client apprised of the project’s progress and document your intention and ability to satisfactorily complete all work by the deadline.

Intellectual property

If the assignment you’re hired to complete involves intellectual property of some sort, the contract should describe and define who owns what. Do you exclusively own the intellectual property, or does your client have some rights to it? Be sure that you understand precisely what you’re handing over and what rights you retain to make sure that you identify which party owns what rights and royalties for each product or service made available. It’s a good idea for both parties involved to have their IP attorney review a Freelance contract before signing on. The last thing either of you wants is a misunderstanding over ownership to break out after a project has been completed, especially if a significant amount of money is at stake.

Confidentiality

It is assumed that you will not share any information about your client’s business without written consent. You may be asked to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement and if so, maintain a copy in your records, along with the contract.

Confidentiality includes financial data, proprietary information and other protected details. There should be a clause that prohibits you from releasing any of your client’s personal information without permission. If you feel it necessary to disclose confidential or protected information for legal reasons, make sure that you obtain your client’s explicit permission before doing so.

Support and resources supplied by the client

Identify your client contact either in the contract or in an email and confirm that person’s availability to you and the type of support that will be provided. If on-site access to company resources, equipment, or materials is needed to execute the work you are hired to do, specify in writing what you’ll need to use and document your intention to return it and to whom it will be returned when your work is completed.

An out clause

It can be frustrating if you’ve been led to believe that signing a new client is imminent, only to have the agreement unexpectedly fall apart. In the Freelancing universe, it’s anticipated that some projects might end prematurely, whether the result of an unexpected hire of a W-2 employee or a sudden funding loss. Alternatively, you may face a health crisis or family emergency that will make it extremely difficult to fulfill the contract and forces you to terminate the agreement.

Regardless of the determining factors, a termination for convenience clause allows either party to unilaterally end a B2B contract without cause and without engaging in litigation. The client can simply provide notice that s/he must end the agreement and pay you for any work that’s been done, or you can inform the client in writing, in accordance to a predetermined specific termination notice period (14 to 30 days is common), and agree to certain post-termination obligations.

 Effective communication will be critical to soften negative perceptions and sustain future collaboration. A transparent explanation of the reason for termination is essential to preserving credibility and trust.

Next steps

Once the contract is signed, be certain to send your new client a welcome letter and schedule a face2face or videoconference meeting to begin onboarding and officially inaugurate your new client engagement!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Treaty of Paris, More Than Meets the Eye, 1783 (Benjamin West, 1738-1820) courtesy of The Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Winterthur, DE. The treaty officially ended the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and marked England’s acknowledgement of the U.S. as an independent sovereign entity with defined borders.

Professional Development , , , Leave a comment

Public Speaking: A Competitive Advantage You Can Attain

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Communication is essential to professional success and the quality of your communication skills can directly impact the trajectory of your career, whether you occupy a high or humble station on your employer’s organizational chart, or you own and lead a business entity, large or small. Regardless of your status or stature, well-honed communication skills can bring significant benefits to your professional fortunes, whether you’re attempting to network your way into a new employment opportunity, pitching potential investors needed to launch a start-up venture, trying to attract capital to fund the expansion of an existing venture, or searching for future clients. All communication formats, from personal conversations to videoconference meetings, telephone calls to email correspondence and even online social media chats, can help to polish your communication ability and contribute to your advancement in the professional sphere.

There is another communication format that delivers significant benefits and you should not ignore it—public speaking. If you aim to raise your profile in your business community, position yourself as an expert and thought leader and expand your professional network, recognize that public speaking will not only contribute substantively to your business agenda, but also showcase you as a leader. Public speaking enhances professional credibility and trust as it increases business growth potential. Public speaking is a competitive advantage that you can attain.

Step up to the podium

Public speaking is a valuable soft skill that you can make one of our strengths. In the public imagination, public speaking is associated with standing on a big stage and facing an audience of hundreds—a sometimes frightening prospect for many of us. However, public speaking is more often the domain of mere mortals—classroom teachers, speakers or moderators on panels, podcast guests and featured speakers at conferences and other events—and those who introduce those speakers. You can build your public speaking proficiency by taking on any of those public speaking roles.

Strong communication skills build networks and reputations that attract prospective clients, potential business investors or partners and may bring other business opportunities to your door as well. The key to public speaking is to clearly and confidently communicate your vision, value and unique offer to people who matter and whose support and cooperation you need— your team, investors, clients, or community. Developing your public speaking chops can be a game changer. While many skills matter in business, this one may be the most influential.

Public speaking skills suggest leadership ability

Engaging public speakers are perceived as more competent, likable and persuasive by their audiences; exceptional verbal communicators are likely to be perceived as experts and an authority in their field. According to a 2017 study published by the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, public speaking skills are associated with leadership ability, credibility and influence in professional settings.

Once you’ve demonstrated the ability, and the courage, to stand in front of a group of people and clearly and convincingly present relevant information, that is, tell your story, your plan and your track record, with confidence and passion, you will likely gain the respect and trust of audience members. That respect and trust will establish you as an authority and has the power to persuade many of your audience members to follow your call to action and hire, buy, invest, partner, or support you or your concept. Even now in the age of virtual meetings, to mount the stage and communicate your ideas, thoughts and unique offer in a relatable manner will set you apart from others.

When you speak engagingly and confidently, you naturally attract people. You become memorable and people want to connect with you. A reliable and supportive business network isn’t built by handing out business cards — it’s built by making connections and bringing value. When you speak at conferences or other meetings, the value you deliver to audience members is amplified and you are able to create connections at scale. Each public speaking venture results in a growing network of people who trust you and want to work with you.

Know Your Audience

Enable yourself to deliver clear, valuable and relatable information by ensuring that you are apprised of the audience’s understanding of your topic and what it means to them. For example, avoid using niche acronyms that are acceptable when speaking to those who are highly engaged or have deep knowledge of the subject, but are largely not in the lexicon of those who are interested observers, but not experts. Understanding the perspective of whom you’re speaking to helps you communicate your talking points more effectively.

Furthermore, be mindful that your body language and other forms of non-verbal communication can say more than words. Pay attention to your posture, facial expressions and tone of voice. Refrain from frowning, maintain a pleasant facial expression that communicates your engagement with the topic and the audience and keep good eye contact by looking at audience members seated in different parts of the room. Let your posture communicate your confidence by straightening your spine, relaxing your shoulders and standing with your feet at about hip distance apart, to take on the so-called power stance that radiates both authority and comfort, without appearing aggressive.

Prepare for your speech

Some of you are “natural” public speakers, but most need lots of practice to attain the confidence that makes one effective. Here are some tips to improve your public speaking skills:

  • Be confident – Confidence makes you appear more credible and likable.
  • Be authentic – Speak naturally, don’t over-rehearse or memorize and let the real you be present.
  • Use voice modulation – Vary your tone and pace to stay engaging.
  • Keep it short and digestible – Attention spans drop after 20 minutes.
  • Tell stories – Storytelling creates an emotional connection and makes messages memorable.
  • Use repetition – Reinforce key ideas by repeating them clearly—tell your audience what you’ll say. Tell them what you have to say. Conclude by summing up what you told them.
  • Practice with intention – Rehearse like you’re live to build confidence and flow but do not try to memorize.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © freepik.com. University of Maryland Global Campus

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AI Agent, AI Assistant, or Chatbot?

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New technology continues to come at us fast and furious—wow, what can you do with it all? Does it overwhelm and make you want to hide in bed, under the covers? Maybe that’s not the worse response if it helps you to (eventually) feel safe and calm enough to check out a few things and get an idea of what may be useful for your organization. As it happens, you can consider three new technologies right now—well, two of them you’ve probably been using for a while, but you may not be aware of the full extent of their capabilities and how they’re able to bring operational efficiencies to your Freelance empire. About the third technology on the agenda you may have a vague idea at best and little to no experience using it. The three processes are connected in that they help you, the user, efficiently complete a number of administrative tasks that keep your business operations rolling. The level of functionality you’ll want, that is, the technology you may bring on board will, as expected, depend on what will serve your purpose.

Why AI Assistant?

If you’ve ever picked up your phone and asked Siri (iPhone) or Alexa (Samsung Galaxy, et al.) a question, you’ve used an AI assistant, also known as a virtual assistant, a type of AI-powered technology that can perform simple administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments, retrieving data, giving you directions to where you need to go and controlling smart home devices. AI assistants can also operate transportation systems, schedule calendar software and manage other types of systems that are designed to complete specific tasks. All you have to do is start talking or typing and give the prompt, the more specific the better. Your AI assistant is an intelligent application that understands natural language commands and you are able to use conversational prompts to initiate your tasks. Keep in mind that AI assistants are reactive, so you must request a task to be done.

The technological capability known as large language models (LLMs) specializes in text-related tasks and enables AI assistants to “understand” questions submitted by humans and will respond to those questions with relevant information, suggestions, or next step actions. Your AI assistant /virtual assistant can also help you simplify access to information, automate repetitive tasks and streamline complicated workflows. In business, AI assistants also perform basic data analysis that enables you to efficiently obtain insights that you can factor into decision-making.

Freelancers are happy to know that an AI assistant/virtual assistant can play a role in improving the customer experience you offer by providing real-time support across online chat, voice and email. AI assistants can manage common customer inquiries, guide users through self-service options and manage complex issues when necessary. Using natural language processing (NLP), they’ll answer questions, recommend products/services and help customers complete transactions quickly and accurately. AI assistants provide interactive support, adapt to user needs and learn from feedback and conversation history to enhance the quality of responses. Their 24/7 availability can substantively enhance customer satisfaction and reduce costs, most notably, staffing.

However, AI assistants have limitations. They require specific prompts to produce the best results and their capabilities are limited to predefined functions they have been equipped and trained to handle. For example, an AI assistant can use a spreadsheet to generate a table that compares “x versus y,” but cannot independently take action to create such a comparison without your prompt.

Furthermore, AI assistants do not necessarily have persistent memory and they do not inherently retain information from past user interactions. Some AI assistants can reference prior conversations within a session by storing relevant details in their context window or by using a feature that is called “memory” to recall selected information and use the stored info to improve future responses. In sum, Freelancers can think of an AI assistant as your virtual personal helper and an efficient support system for a busy Freelancer. 

Is AI Agent the way to go?

AI agent refers to a system or program that can independently complete tasks on behalf of users, or another system, by designing its own workflow and using available tools. The AI agent is more autonomous, connected and sophisticated than AI assistants and can encompass a wide range of functions beyond Natural Language Processing, such as decision-making, problem-solving, interacting with external environments and executing actions.

While the AI assistant requires users to provide prompts to initiate every action, AI agents can operate independently after an initial kick-off prompt. AI agents are proactive and able to work independently to achieve a specific goal by collaborating with your other technological tools. They evaluate assigned goals, break tasks into chunks and develop their own workflows to achieve specific objectives for you. AI agents are versatile and can be used for many tasks, from software design and IT automation to code-generation tools and interfacing with your chatbot or AI assistant to provide customer service that enhances the experience. Using advanced NLP from LLMs, AI agents understand and follow user prompts and have the ability to strategize their actions and determine when to call on external tools to complete tasks.

After your initial prompt, the AI agent is off to the races, working without further input and reducing the need for your involvement at every stage. Unlike AI assistants, which will suggest actions for you to review and approve, AI agents have the capability to independently reason, make decisions and problem-solve for you by using external data sets and tools. Their ability to surpass a purely chat-based framework enables proactive decision-making and learning, saving time by handling complex workflows on its own. 

  • Connectivity: AI agents are able to unify various capabilities into a single workflow, thereby eliminating bottlenecks that arise from disconnected systems. By integrating seamlessly with external applications, data sources and other AI models, the AI agent will enhance productivity while reducing friction between different components of a process.
  • Decision-making and action: AI agents go beyond chat to accomplish tasks on their own, based on a specific goal. They analyze problems, break them into chunks and plan next steps autonomously. This makes them effective for handling complex, ambiguous problems. Some AI agents can even demonstrate computer use, where an LLM can click, type and operate a computer to complete tasks.
  • Persistent memory and adaptive learning: Compared to AI assistants, AI agents have a greater capacity to learn. They store previous actions, conversations and experiences, enabling them to refine their approach over time. With persistent memory, AI agents can recall past interactions to improve future responses, while adaptive learning allows them to adjust their behavior based on feedback and outcomes. Because they integrate with external applications and tools, they can act on real-time data rather than relying solely on their initial training. Over repeated interactions, they become more efficient, sensitive to context and better aligned with your needs.
  • Task chaining: AI agents don’t complete tasks on its own; instead, it will they break complex workflows into smaller, manageable steps—chunks. AI agents identify the connections between tasks, which help ensure that each step logically flows into the next. This ability enables structured execution across multi-step processes and makes automation more dynamic.
  • Team play: AI agents often specialize in specific tasks—one may excel at fact-checking, while another is better at research. These agents can collaborate, forming teams that tackle complex challenges together.

AI agents take customer experience and customer support further by adapting to user behavior in real time. Unlike AI assistants, AI agents fully learn and improve interactions, whether it’s simulating job interviews or handling complex support issues autonomously. They work across websites, apps and Internet of Things devices such as smart watches, smart door locks and fitness trackers to create well executed and highly personalized user experiences. AI agents can improve task management and collaboration by interpreting user needs and assigning tasks to AI assistants, for example. Your AI assistant can use agent-generated data to create more intuitive outputs and enhance coordination.

The downside of AI assistants and AI agents

AI agents have a lot of promise and it’s all quite inspiring but–it’s all new and there can be the occasional system fail, as you might expect. There are risks and limitations with AI-powered technologies to consider. LLMs are susceptible to even the smallest prompt changes that can cause “hallucinations,” meaning that AI agents and AI assistants might fail if, for example, the underlying foundation model breaks. They may have trouble creating comprehensive plans, or may not logically analyze their findings. They sometimes get stuck in endless feedback loops.

Furthermore, because AI agents collaborate with external environments and tools, they must deal with the changes to those tools. Over time, those changes might cause the agent set up to break. AI assistants, however, do not use external tools, so the problem can be avoided.

Finally, for complex tasks, AI agents require a great deal of training and completing tasks might take a minute. On top of that, they can often be expensive. The technology is new and we are still in the early days of understanding and observing what AI agents can do. This future of AI might see nearly complete autonomy of AI technology but for now, human intervention is often still necessary to keep things on track.

Where does Chatbot fit?

By now, you’ve probably used a chatbot to get quick answers to basic questions you may have had about a purchase you wanted to make, like “Is curb side delivery available?” or “What are your store hours on Tuesdays?” A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversation with the system user. Not all chatbots are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), but recent configurations increasingly use conversational AI techniques such as NLP to understand user questions and give responses to them.

The earliest chatbots were merely interactive FAQ programs that relied on a limited list of common questions and pre-programmed answers. Unable to interpret natural language, these FAQs generally required users to select from simple keywords and phrases to move the conversation forward. Such rudimentary chatbots are unable to process complex questions, nor answer simple questions that haven’t been predicted by the developers.

The next generation of chatbots with generative AI capabilities offer more desirable functionality with their understanding of common language and complex queries, their ability to adapt to a user’s style of conversation and use of “empathy” when answering user questions. That means FAQ chatbots no longer need to be pre-programmed with answers to predetermined questions; it’s easier and faster to use generative AI in combination with an organization’s’ knowledge base to automatically generate answers to a wider range of questions.

Conversational-style AI chatbots can process user questions or comments and generate a human-like response, but generative AI chatbots have raised the bar and can even generate new content to incorporate into responses. The new content can include high-quality text, images and sound based on the LLMs they are trained on. When supported by generative AI, the newest chatbots can recognize, summarize, translate, predict and create content in response to a user queries without the need for human interaction. Generative AI can bring a whole new world to old-school chatbots that often gave a rocky performance, to put it politely. But today’s generative AI chatbots can become a 24/7 customer service department that plays a key role in delivering the customer experience that fulfills customer expectations of your brand—and it can be a good fit.

Today’s chatbots can seamlessly manage customer interactions 24/7—and every task becomes a lesson that continuously improves the quality of future chatbot responses. A chatbot can provide a capable first responder and provide back-up support during busy seasons and peak hours, or offload tedious repetitive questions so that human (paid) employees can focus on more complex issues. Chatbots can help reduce the number of users requiring human assistance, while ensuring that businesses efficiently meet customer needs, even after business hours.

A chatbot can also eliminate long wait times for phone-based customer support, or even longer wait times for email, chat, or web-based support, because the system is always available immediately to however many users at once. That’s a great user experience that creates satisfied customers who are more likely to exhibit brand loyalty and give your company good word of mouth, repeat business and referrals.

Again, be advised that caution and due diligence must be conducted when using AI-powered technology, that also includes the generative AI chatbot, along with AI assistants and AI agents. Security risks such as data leaks sub-standard confidentiality and liability concerns, incomplete licensing of source data and uncertain privacy and compliance with international laws. With a lack of proper input data, there is the ongoing risk of “hallucinations,” that undermine the relevance or accuracy of responses that may result in the customer finding it necessary to abandon the technology, creating dashed expectations and an unsatisfactory experience.

When choosing a provider, ask questions to determine if the chatbot meets your deployment, scalability and security requirements. Many chatbots are delivered via the cloud to draw on learning and outcomes from other customer conversations, so if this requires an on-premises solution or a single tenant environment, the list of available providers is much shorter.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Electronic Superhighway Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii (1995) created by South Korean artist Nam June Paik (1935-2006)

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Mix Master: Balance Branding, Marketing and PR

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When operating a business, whether that means a boutique, one person Freelance entity or an enterprise company that employs thousands of workers in dozens of locations, encouraging sales of products and services is most often the purpose of information that company leaders share with the public. Sharing specific types of information about the company and its services and products with those that research indicates have significant potential to become customers plays a vital role in building and maintaining a thriving business. The ability of said company’s services and products to capture the attention and inspire the loyalty and trust of prospective customers is reflected in name recognition, feelings of credibility and loyalty among target customers and customer evangelism for the company and its services and products.

The information created to be seen by prospective customers is without question a company’s most important communication initiative and it’s known as the marketing strategy—a comprehensive road map that defines how the company will reach out and appeal to prospective customers and convince them to become paying customers. The public facing components of the marketing strategy are advertising, branding and publicity/public relations, along with campaign-specific marketing activities. Ideally, all the aspects of marketing information will function in tandem and create competitive advantages against the company’s marketplace competitors. To most efficiently and effectively implement a big-picture marketing strategy, it is advantageous to follow a certain “order of operations,” a road map that enables each component to support the others. You may be surprised to learn that the road to a high-functioning marketing campaign begins with public relations and publicity.

The goal of marketing—whether the big-picture marketing strategy that includes branding, advertising and PR/publicity, as well as the campaign-specific activities of marketing initiatives that typically include email marketing, networking, social media and content marketing—is to introduce and create an appetite for your service or product. Many marketers (and that would include me) have been tempted to begin implementation of the big-picture marketing strategy with branding. We tend to assume that presenting an identity, a brand persona, for the company and its services and products will most immediately resonate with prospective customers. We’ve been taught that prospects will more readily understand and value the service or product by getting familiar with the brand, which would make that function the first step in cultivating loyal customers who, we hope, will give good word-of-mouth by making referrals and becoming advocates.

However, in the 2020s era to begin a major marketing campaign with branding is very cart-before-the-horse. Today, PR/publicity exacts considerable influence on the perception of product or service credibility. Maybe it’s the inevitable result of Instagram and TikTok? In the here and now, start-up founders and marketers for existing businesses must acknowledge the power of PR in their arsenal of promotional communication resources. Strategic and consistent PR/publicity is now recognized as the way to encourage visibility and instill credibility that distinguishes your company and its services and products in the marketplace. Marketing, and its advertising component, will drive awareness but the PR spotlight can make your services and products seem trendy and trustworthy and create an aura that drives sales.

PR is visibility and credibility

Publicity is born of look-at-me attention and buzz. PR means press releases, blogs, podcasts, special events and influencer shout-outs that echo through the digital metaverse and put your company’s name on the lips of target customers. PR expands marketplace awareness that sparks name recognition but it is not a direct method of generating leads or driving sales. Instead, PR works in the background, cultivating and elevating your brand’s reputation.

So make yourself visible on behalf of your business; you might start by exploring how to become a podcast or webinar guest or participate in a panel as a speaker or moderator. You could also research local events that resonate with your values, and the values of your target customers, and engineer another opportunity to receive visibility as you simultaneously verify your belief in corporate social responsibility.

Incidentally, be aware that CSR is sometimes a decisive factor in B2B and B2C purchasing decisions —today’s consumers increasingly prioritize ethics. B2B services company BusinessDasher explains that 84% of customers evaluate a companies’ ethics and values when considering a purchase, and 63% say they would prefer companies with whom they do business to adopt ethical business and social practices.

As noted, promotional communications are under the marketing umbrella and there is a degree of overlap between all marketing functions, but Public Relations/publicity and marketing have their differences. PR/publicity is focused on establishing and expanding the company name and reputation of its services and products by being seen in the right places. PR can encourage positive word of mouth so that prospective customers will realize that your entity is open for business.

After you’ve developed and implemented successful PR/publicity initiatives over several months or even a year, consult your marketing data to check on metrics that indicate when it could be advantageous to launch a boots-on-the-ground marketing activities that include implementing a sales/marketing funnel, publishing a newsletter or blog, setting up email campaigns, or stepping up social media presence, all to continue and further solidify customer engagement. Step Two in your marketing strategy is about shifting gears and bringing in high-quality leads you can convert into sales.

Marketing attracts customers

Marketing refers to everything that brings information and images that represent your company and its products and services directly to potential customers, to capture attention, educate them about your services and products, inspire trust and loyalty and promote sales—it’s Step Two in your promotional campaign. Great marketing doesn’t so much sell your product or service—rather, it creates a desire for your product or service. Effective marketing generates actions that are measurable, whether that’s clicks, email sign-ups, subscribing to your blog or newsletter and eventually, sales. If publicity is about awareness, marketing is about attraction. Now is the time to leverage the visibility that was generated by PR/publicity and use it to reach out to prospects and cultivate relationships, now that you’ve achieved name recognition and familiarity that are the seeds of trust.

As you know, a key component of marketing is content marketing, which is information that educates prospects about your product or service; particularly in B2B, content marketing has become the new advertising. In fact, the Content Marketing Institute found that 80% of corporate decision-makers prefer to review information about products or services that’s presented as objective research, rather than advertisements, which are considered to be biased. One study has put the number of prospects and customers who believe advertisers have integrity at 4%.

Customer trust in traditional advertising has tanked, especially for Millenials and GenZ.  Wharton Magazine reports that 84% of Millennials not only dislike traditional ads, but also distrust them. For companies that would like to expand their market reach, these statistics send a clear signal. Investing only in advertising and marketing campaigns is unlikely to move the needle. To develop a good reputation for your brand, it’s recommended to start with PR/publicity and then move into marketing activities that include content marketing, networking, podcast or webinar appearances and publishing a blog or newsletter.

Brand is identity

The impact of brand identity is revealed in the sum total of how customers experience and perceive your business and its services and products, from product packaging to tag line, price structure to social media presence. A brand encompasses all the touch points that shape how customers feel about interacting with the brand. The interpretation of those touch points belongs only to the customer because engaging with a brand involves emotion—what people feel when they see your company name, logo, service, or product. It’s your company’s identity and reputation and it expresses and represents what it means to customers.

Your brand will be nurtured by ongoing PR/publicity, from CSR inspired events to your active involvement in professional associations or business organizations. along with content marketing activities, from case studies to email marketing. Associating your company with respected business organizations and community events can only elevate its visibility and brand reputation—characteristics known to encourage brand loyalty and sales.

Identify what motivates customers to buy

To understand the motives behind your customers’ purchases, tap into information that’s provided by the inward-facing aspect of marketing—market research. After all, the best decisions are data-driven. Yelp’s Trend Tracker can give a big boost to the ROI of your marketing activities with analytic insights that are available to you free of charge—join the mailing list and you’ll receive data that is relevant and updated monthly and enables those who pay attention to access boots-on-the-ground marketing info that can steer the effective promotion your products and services. Supported by Trend Tracker data, you’ll be positioned to detect and quickly respond to customer preferences, adjust marketing strategies and/or tactics to better align with shifting customer priorities and maybe even tweak your service or product line to reflect a significant shift in customer tastes.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: David created by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564, Republic of Florence) and unveiled in 1504, the statue has been housed at Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy since 1873.