Challenges with AI - in The Next Five Years with Kyle Burnett (littletaller.com)

Show Notes — The Next Five Years Podcast Guest: Kyle Burnett, Founder of Little Taller (littletaller.com) Episode Summary Kyle Burnett is a former college professor turned technical strategist and founder of Little Taller, a growth enablement agency that helps businesses scale through CRM, automation, and tech infrastructure on platforms like HubSpot, Webflow, and WordPress. In this conversation, Kyle cuts through the AI hype and shares what's actually happening on the ground inside small and mid-sized businesses. What We Cover Why AI adoption inside most companies is "chaos right now" — and why that's not necessarily a bad thing The marketing automation parallels: why AI is repeating a cycle we've seen before How to calculate the true ROI of an AI tool before committing (and why 70% of companies can't justify what they've spent) Why you don't need to clean up your data before feeding it to AI — treat it like a consultant and show it the messy truth Data security non-negotiables for small businesses with no legal or compliance team The "teaching hospital" hiring model — why young hires are driving AI adoption faster than their bosses How to manage change resistance when AI threatens to displace team members The single biggest opportunity for small businesses in the next 3–5 years: verticalized, industry-specific AI platforms Why human taste, judgement, and soft skills will remain irreplaceable Kyle's one actionable piece of advice for CEOs who want to get started with AI today Timestamps 00:00 Kyle Burnett (littletaller.com) 00:56 Meet Kyle Burnett 01:54 About Little Taller 04:07 AI Trends in Business 09:45 Calculating AI ROI 20:45 Data Infrastructure for AI 23:56 Data Security Rules 27:03 Young Talent & the AI Skill Gap 31:19 Managing Change Resistance 34:47 Biggest AI Opportunity in 3-5 Years 40:06 Future of Little Taller 46:05 Maintaining Brand Identity in an AI World 48:35 Key Advice for Business Leaders 51:16 How to Reach Kyle Key Insights & Quotes: "AI's existence has been remarkably helpful but also remarkably disruptive. It's chaos if your team doesn't know how to use it, leverage it, implement it, and make it part of the workflows." "70% of surveyed companies are spending money on AI but can't actually justify if it's done anything." "I want to treat AI like a consultant — give it the naked, dirty, not cleaned up truth. I didn't prep it. I want you to see it as it is." "AI is not going to replace the ability to be nosy, inject yourself in the middle of departments, and orchestrate to help get stuff done. Not yet." "There's always going to be this space for somebody making a decision of taste. At what point are you going to trust AI's taste?" "Just be better. If you're better tomorrow than you were today, then you're doing okay." Resources & Links Little Taller website: littletaller.com Find Kyle & the team on LinkedIn: search Little Taller Platforms mentioned: HubSpot, Salesforce, Webflow, WordPress, Figma, Framer, ChatGPT, Claude About The Next Five Years A podcast for business leaders who want to skip the sci-fi theories and focus on what's actually working with technology right now. Growth Surfing: growthsurfing.com YouTube:    / @nextfiveyears5