An AV and integration-focused podcast broadcast weekly

This week's episode of Automation Unplugged our guest today is Ari Supran, CEO of Sonance, the parent company of Sonance, James Loudspeaker, IPORT, and TRUFIG.

With over 30 years in the custom integration industry, Ari has been at the forefront of merging technology with interior design and architecture. Before joining Sonance in 2006, he spent a decade at Lutron Electronics in sales and marketing, and today he leads a privately held, global company with more than 300 employees.

About this episode:

In this episode, Ari and I discussed:

• How Sonance continues to innovate, from architectural speakers to their recent expansion into amplifiers and pro audio with Blaze Audio.
• Why Ari believes AI is a tool to empower people—not replace them—and how his team is building custom apps and automations to streamline workflows.
• The importance of culture and leadership in shaping Sonance’s legacy and future growth.

SEE ALSO: Navigating Uncertainty Part II: Expert Insights for Growth in a Volatile CI Market

Transcript

Ron:

Hello. Hello there. Ron Callis with another episode of Automation Unplugged. Oh my goodness. Do we have a doozy for you today? I know you're gonna love the topic. Uh, I know that I'm gonna love the topic. I know that I'm gonna love the conversation and I'm gonna admit that I, I think all of you are also gonna love and appreciate the topic because we are gonna stay on this, uh, this track of talking about AI and, uh, and other things. But we're gonna talk about AI and where's the world going and what are applications for you and for your business, and how should you at least consider thinking about, uh, what's happening in the world of this technology innovation? This change that's happening so rapidly and, uh, frankly, I believe, and many that believe that's gonna change the world in so many ways in the coming years. By the way, it's changing the world in so many ways right now, here in the fall of 2025. So I am very excited to bring you the, the one and only, uh, Ari Suran. He is the CEO of Sonance. Uh, you all know him. You've all likely seen him speak. You've all likely, maybe you just saw him recently on the c Dia trade show floor, or maybe you were at a buying group event. I know he's actively, uh, attending and teaching and training at the buying group activities this fall. Um. I have him here on Automation Unplugged, and we are gonna dive deep on a bunch of hot and fun topics. So without further ado, let's go ahead and bring in Ari and, uh, and let's begin. Ari, my friend, how are you?

Ari:

Good, Ron. How are you? Nice to see you.

Ron:

I'm good. I am, I'm, I'm not gonna lie. Ari, I'm very honored that you're joining me here on Automation Unplugged.

Ari:

Honored to be here.

Ron:

Awesome.

Ari:

Alright. Way back. We used to work together a long, long time ago.

Ron:

Oh my goodness. Many moons. Uh, I, I wanna say I started at Lutron in 2000 and there within a blink you were at Lutron, but then you went off to school. At least that's what I think I remember.

Ari:

Well, I was there seven years before I left to go to school, and then I came back to Lutron for two more years, so almost 10 total.

Ron:

I remember. So you'll have to tell me if, if I'm remembering correctly or if I'm misremembering. Hmm. But what I think I remember was being at like a sales event. Sales meeting. And I remember you entering the building and maybe you had just come back from graduate school. And I remember there was like a standing applause and everyone's like, oh my God, Ari's back.

Ari:

No, I don't know about that.

Ron:

Is that possible? When, when would you have finished? So I started

Ari:

in 1995 at Lutron and I, I left to go to grad school in 2001. Okay.

Ari:

And I did two years of an MBA and I came back to Lutron in 2004, I guess. So must, yeah, 2004. And I left again in 2006 to join Ance. I've been here, uh, I was started January 1st, 2006, so it'll be 20 years, uh, this January.

Ron:

If anyone has been living under a rock and does not know who and what sonance is, uh, what's the, what's the skinny, uh, who and what is Sonance?

Ari:

Well, um, we're a 43-year-old privately held company, still owned by our original founders, which is a bit of a unicorn in this industry these days. Um, our founders kind of credited with commercializing and creating the category of architectural speakers in the world in 1983, and, um, we've grown into a global company supplying, uh, custom installers as well as. Making inroads in the pro market as well. And then we also have a brand I port, um, that is a subsidiary of sonance that does iPad accessories predominantly for enterprise. And, uh, anywhere people are dedicating an iOS device for a specific purpose as opposed to the device they carry around with them on a day-to-day basis. And we're about 300 plus employees right now with offices around the world. And, um, I think we're, um, still growing and, and, uh, still privately held with no plans to sell.

Ron:

Awesome. And you have a brand new European headquarters.

Ari:

Well, we do. We uh, we do, we go there.

Ron:

Let's, yeah. It's not, I'm not breaking the news. It came out months ago, but can we dive into that? You guys acquired, uh, blaze Audio?

Ari:

Yeah. We've been doing business in Europe for a long time, uh, as well as Asia. And we've had some employees working from their homes, but, but not really a, an office there. And then we acquired Blaze Audio in Copenhagen, Denmark, um, about three months ago. And Blaze Audio is, uh, 18 people and a line of high lowy amplifiers with and without Dante, as well as some sound reinforcement loudspeakers. And we acquired that from its parent company, Pascal Audio in Denmark. And, uh, incorporating that into both our professional and residential businesses. So, um, we've got a, a full line of now some loudspeakers here that we didn't have in our lines. Some, some, like I said, sound reinforcement products, line array type stuff that was in our roadmap, but we weren't there yet. And then we've got a line of amplifiers as well that we can immediately start selling to both pro and residential customers. Like I said, high Zi Lowy with and without Dante. Um, lots of different configurations, low power, high power, uh, and we just debuted this to the residential community, uh, at C Dia Expo, uh, very recently and was, uh, really well received. And we will be, like I said, bringing that to both the pro and residential markets.

Ron:

I am admitting my ignorance on the subject so that anyone listening doesn't have to admit their ignorance. So they're, they're all fully educated and aware. Tell me, what, what does this mean, at least to the residential CDA integrator, the person that's doing, you know, resi projects or, or resi and commercial projects. What is this bringing to there? Their lineup of offerings.

Ari:

Yeah, sure. I mean, look, we've, we've, Sance has always had, uh, amplifiers with DSP and this is just a broader line of them. And then you bring in products with Dante and Dante obviously more from the commercial market, but we have more and more residential integrators are starting to implement Dante and some of the larger projects. We also do a lot of business in the super yacht industry through the James acquisition five years ago. And Dante is becoming much, uh, very popular as a way to, um, move audio over IP around a project, um, in the super yacht industry. So it really kind of plugs right into what we're doing today in a, in a really compelling way. And then from a traditional residential integration business that may not be doing Dante today, this just gives us a full line of every configuration you can imagine with very sophisticated DSP. We're gonna be, um, or we have. Uh, created a gooey four residential that tries to speak more in the residential terminology and, um, makes it easier for a residential integrator to set up an amplifier and tune it both for the Sonance or James speakers that they're using or someone else's, as well as to, uh, correct for any room anomalies. And it, just trying to simplify this, you know, it's, uh, uh, residentially, a lot of integrators are looking for. They want to tune a room and get optimal performance, but they don't wanna spend a lot of time doing it. They don't want to have to have special expertise with microphones and RTAs and, uh, I think our, our GUI really simplifies things and I'm, we're excited to really show the residential community what's possible with DSP.

Ron:

I love it. What can folks in Europe expect? What does this means in terms of the expansion or exposure of the Sonance brands?

Ari:

So, um, we have a, an office now in Copenhagen. We have employees there in everything from sales to marketing to customer service, technical support, et cetera. And we will be over time adding to that team. And, you know, we really look at that as not the Blaze office because Blaze is just part of our company now. And we don't look at it as just a, a, a pro office. It's going to be our European headquarters for all of our brands and all of our channels. Uh, we have a, uh, a warehouse in Rotterdam. It'll get managed out of that office. We'll have customer service and tech support in time zone now for all of our European customers. Um, and we're just excited to continue to invest in that. Europe's an incredibly important market for us. And this really allows us to take all of our marketing that we're doing coming out of the US and localize it in Europe for the European audience, as well as, uh, like I said, have people in timezone there to support our customers.

Ron:

I love it. Well, that's cool. Well, that's, uh, that's exciting. How, how, what was your big takeaway, or what was maybe the sentiment on, I know just recently was the CDS show and you, you, you were breaking this news, or not breaking it, but exposing the attendees to the product mix. Yeah. How did, how did dealers respond?

Ari:

Uh, so first of all, we, we, we announced this right before Infocom in June, so Infocom was kind of our big, uh, coming out party there where I think it really put Sonance on the map professionally as like, okay, you guys are serious about this and you're making the types of investments in product and people. Um, combined with some of the investments we had already made to bring in people from the likes of both professional Q-S-C-J-B-L, et cetera. Then you go acquire Blaze and you have this relationship with Pascal, their parent company. You guys are serious. So that was exciting, bringing it to the residential community. Look, it's not a surprise to us that ally us not a lot of awareness of Blaze, but as we got a chance to show 'em the products and, you know, does it have this? Does it have that? Yes, yes, yes. Uh, the excitement is, is really, um, building for it. And, um, we're, we're, we're, we're ready to, we're ready to go and it's a really exciting time for us. It will, um, enable, you know, our philosophy is that the amplifier and the speaker are worked together as a system. And when they are built and designed to work together, they can really optimize performance, simplify installation, simplify setup, and you know, that our goal.

Ron:

C Dia 2025. What was your takeaway? I, I mean, I, I have our opinions and thoughts as, as one firefly, we were there in force. Mm-hmm.

Ron:

And, uh, got to see and, and hang out with our customers and meet new, new folks and see our friends in the industry. Overall, how was the show for you guys?

Ari:

Well, I think the show for Sonance was great. Um, it was, uh, we were there in ForSight. I don't know the exact, the booth was

Ron:

always busy. I tried to actually go over there and, and actually see you a few times, and it was all but impossible to break into that place.

Ari:

It was busy and, uh, everything, the products were received, we launched a lot of new products, uh, from James Sonance NI Port. We had a, a, you know, try to always one up ourselves with our experiential demo space. And the demo that we did, it was really well received. Uh, new Power pipes, new products, uh, you know, uh, new small aperture product that we showed from James. So it was exciting. Um, and, and as you said, the booth was jammed. Um, that being said, as I walked around the show, and I'm imagine you feel the same way, it just, the show felt small. It felt, yeah. Um, there were some booths that were really busy and some areas of the show that were pretty dead, and the, this show just felt small. Like, it felt like you could walk from one end to the other way too quickly. Yeah. Compared to what I think you and I both remember from CD's, uh, path

Ron:

CD at its peak, I wanna, I think not this may or may not be true, but I, I wanna see at its peak, maybe somewhere there's around 30, 35,000 people there and Ish. Yeah, I certainly

Ari:

number of 20,000, 2025. I don't know about the 35, but yeah, it's a lot, lot there a lot. There was definitely not that many people at the city.

Ron:

Uh, it was, it felt smaller. It, it certainly felt smaller. I mean, I, for example, my East Coast, uh, uh, account executive, I mean, he had made the comment in advance of the show that about 70% of his clients did not plan to attend the show. And, uh, and then, you know, as we pulled our account managers and salespeople, um, we then gathered sentiment that leaders were gonna be attending, but they were likely gonna bring less of their crew. And I just, do you have thoughts or like, why do you think it's smaller? I mean, we're post COVID, we're not afraid to hug and hand handshake. Like, what's the reason?

Ari:

Yeah. Look, I, I think that, um, nobody really knows for sure. But, uh, the theory, theory I subscribe to is, uh, I think the buying groups have all become increasingly important to a, not all, but, uh, all the members, right? And they're, they're growing. They're adding more and more members each year and they have each, if I'm not mistaken, two conferences a year. And those conferences, I think that might

Ron:

be changing in the next year, but that's been true forever.

Ari:

So, uh, and I think that, um, those conferences, you know, even in October know, HCSA has a conference OZ in November, I think ProSource in October as well.

Ron:

Yep.

Ari:

And, um, so they're not

Ron:

summit in there on top of that. Yeah. You might have some text. Not

Ari:

that far, far, uh, removed from the expo. And I, I think that those, uh, events are well attended. They're increasing the value of those events. They have mini trade shows with the vendors showing product there. And I think that that combined with just the, the, the times that we live in right now of, of easy access to information, lots of different methods, the tech summits, other factors that it's just like, do I need to be at the show? And I think C Dia a, you know, to, to Darryl's credit has done a, a lot to try to increase the value of being a member of C Dia. Um, the education that happens at C Dia I think is very, uh, good education. It doesn't seem to be all that well attended from an education. Uh, there, there seems to be a disconnect there with getting the word out. Um, but I just think people are struggling with, do I really need to be there? Um, can I get this information elsewhere? Can I see the people I need to see, uh, in a better setting that I have more time with them? And, and I, again, I think the buy-in group events are probably the, the driving force there.

Ron:

Yeah, I ditto everything you said. It's, uh, curious when, when you and I have been attending these events and all of these shows for so many decades to kind of sit back and just watch the trends, but what makes it, you know, I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna say anxiety inducing, but maybe something similar to that is when you and I then are also making the decisions, where do we spend our money? Yeah. Where do we send our people? Sure. How do we go out there and affect our customers? Um, spend time with our customers, meet, you know, potential new folks. It's, uh, yeah,

Ari:

I think I had 41 employees at the show. Um, I can't see us doing that again.

Ron:

Yeah. No, it's, I, I, I hear you. Alright, well I am super excited, Ari, I saw you at the ION Conference in the spring talk about ai. Mm-hmm. And I was just, I was fascinated, one, I was like, what the heck is Ari doing on stage talking about ai? Is this like a new sonance product or division? And I have the same question. E exactly. Well, but you answered it. So why are you and I gonna go and nerd out on all things AI here? Why, why have you taken a stance that this is important to you and important for you to spend your time on?

Ari:

Um, boy, I guess, uh, like all of us, Ron, I think I'm on a, a journey and, um, I, it started pretty similar to a lot of people. The, I had my GPT-3 moment, or when I first tried chat GPT and I was like. Wow, that's weirdly accurate and interesting, but many other things were not. But it kind of got me started on the topic and I started to play with it some more. And you know, I, I, I think that, um, I started to realize that there were things that I didn't know how to do, uh, that I could all of a sudden do. And I think that started my feelings of like, Hmm. And it be kind of became a hobby, right? I, I started watching different people on YouTube at home and nights and weekends and sitting there with my laptop and I'd watch somebody do something and then I would pause and I'd try it myself. And I would try, try to twist it a little bit to, uh, the topic of, of my business or my life, but the same tasks that they were doing with ai, and I had so many. Mind blowing moments where I was just like, I can't believe I just did this. Look, look at this thing. And you know, I always did the first steps. Always I show my wife and if, if she's, uh, if she's, um, actually like, wow, that's interesting. I, I kind of feel like I'm onto something. And then I started to show some employees and it just built from there. And, and I, I think as far as, uh, it wasn't meant to be, I didn't have any sort of like, I need to go tell the industry about this. It was more. Internally showing friends and family and employees how to upskill themselves and enable themselves to do more. And then, um, a friend of ours, viewers of mine, mark Hoffenberg, asked me to speak at his, uh, company Audio Visions, uh, you know, entire team Summit that they host here in our office, in our studio downstairs. And, um, he said, you know, are, you've spoken before, it's been on culture and it's been really well received. What's on your mind these days? And I was like, this was about nine, 10 months ago. And I said, well, mark, I've been doing a lot of stuff with what I would call practical uses of ai. And he said, that's perfect. My team's asking for training on ai. So that was my first public speaking on ai. And it was well received and it kind of snowballed from there. And I, I got some invitations coming out of that to speak to some different rep groups. And then the Synergy Group asked me to come to Mexico and speak at their event, which I did. And there's a few ozone board members that were there that recommended to Ozone that they invite me to Indianapolis in May, um, which was also. Well received. And, uh, that led to a couple invitations to speak at CEDIA on the smart stage and in the Cdia education series, which has now led to some more invitations. So, yeah, I, it's a little surreal. You know, I'm standing up there with Alex Capra from Josh ai. I mean, the guy's brilliant and has a degrees in machine learning and all sorts of, been working in AI for 20 years. And he and I are co-presenting on AI and, and it's, it's a little surreal. Um, I think we work well together in that, uh, I'm able to do some more, um, simple, practical. Things using consumer products. And he's able to talk more about the, the science and why we're having this AI moment and what the, the, the, the trends in the world are that are leading to this. And, uh, we had, we had fun doing it.

Ron:

What, back when you had that personal aha moment or that light bulb moment, do you recall what one or two of those things were that you were like, this is. This is extraordinary. Yeah. I need to show my wife

Ari:

so many. But, um, boy, okay, so the first time that I really understood that I shouldn't just be going into a large language model and asking it a question straight, straight there, that's where you're gonna get all the same frustrations that we've all experienced of, you know, it makes stuff up and it doesn't know enough about me. And I sort of learned kind of custom GPT being the first foray into this of like, how to build a container of context, give it instructions, give it knowledge. Um, and then I started to get really good answers and, and, and in, and most importantly, I started to be able to have, it helped me write. And I think I'm a decent writer. It's not like I, I don't know how to write. Um, well, I, I feel like I'm a pretty good writer to begin with, but boy, when I was able to teach it my voice and our brand voice and get, um, it to help me write important communications. Then I discovered Canvas inside of Chat pt, and Google has their version of it as well. And, and that was sort of the frustration then it was like, all right, I, it helped me write something and it's really good. Let's say it's 80%, but I wanted to edit it. And it was that really frustrating experience I think we've all had where we're like, okay, in the third paragraph, second sentence, change the following. And of course, it changes all sorts of stuff. We don't want changed. And when I discovered Canvas inside of chatt PT and how I could surgically edit and I could actually just like delete a sentence manually and type in a word manually, and then I just started to use it so much more because I feel like, you know, I'll never put something out that AI wrote that I didn't edit, right? I take responsibility for everything that I put out, whether I used AI for it or not, it's still me. And so I edit everything I wrote, but now that I can surgically edit it. Um, I, you know, anything important, I'm gonna, I'm gonna leverage AI to write. So that was a big one right there. Um, and then perplexity, um, huge unlock for me, right? I, I know you're a user and, uh, I'm still shocked at how few people use it. Um, uh, when I do, I always say how many people are using perplexity? And I think it's probably on average, 15 to 20% of the audience. And so what was the unlock there? You know, I, I like the world. I Google search stuff, right? And I would put a question into Google and I would get all these links, and then it was up to me to go figure out which link to click on and decipher, well, I know this is number one on the list, but somebody probably paid to be there and how do I trust this? And all sorts of things. And I would actually go read the articles to go find my answer. And when I first discovered perplexity and, and, and tried to use it, it was just like. Where has this been my whole life? I mean, instead of getting links, I got answers. And instead of just getting answers that I wasn't sure where those answers came from, every one of those answers had a citation next to it that I could click on and go to the article, their YouTube video or wherever it got its answer. I could, I could, uh, uh, remove certain sources if I didn't believe in them, and it would rewrite the answer, and then I could ask a follow-up question like, you know, how did we live for so long with Google search where you couldn't ask a follow-up question without having to give it all the same context over again? And Perplexity just was like, such an unlock for me. And I don't think I've Google searched something in a year, and Perplexity is a every day all the time. No matter what the question that I would've used Google for, I use perplexity for

Ron:

when I think of Culture First Companies, at least that I'm exposed to. In, in our, in my bubble called the Custom Integration Marketplace. And I'm admitting it's a bubble. Uh, you guys are, are one of the leaders. You, you personally, I've seen you speak on multiple occasions about people and culture and, um, you know, I, I know you follow Patrick Lencioni and some of his followings around the ideal team player. Mm-hmm.

Ron:

And I've, I've modeled a lot of what we do at One Firefly after a lot of what I've learned from you. In fact, appreciate that.

Ron:

And when we think about ai, at least in the media, we hear a lot of buzz about AI being anti-people. And we, we, we hear, and there's a lot of fear and anxiety across workforces and certainly I think a, a, a, maybe a reasonable threat that AI is gonna go for that white collar worker's job. And, uh, and replace people. And so there's, there's that looming that's like right under the surface, uh, all over society right now. Yeah. And has been for a while.

Ari:

Right.

Ron:

And at the same time, I see you leading with ai and I, I want to get into how you're deploying this within your business, but I, I do know you are deploying this within your business and you're trying to help our industry deploy it within their businesses. Okay. How

Ron:

do you put those two ideas together? Uh, do they, do they conflict?

Ari:

I don't think they do. Let, let me, let me give you my perspective. I, I, I really believe that AI is an enabler. It is something that is, um, meant, it's a tool. It's meant to be harnessed by people, to upskill and enable us to do things we otherwise couldn't or do them faster, better, and, and, and even at times, more creatively. Um, and so, you know. I didn't ask to be a voice of this in the industry, but I'll accept it particularly 'cause of what you point out, which is, you know, we've got a 40 plus year history of being owned by the same people. I know what our motivations are, right? I, I have no, there's no need for me to question that. I know that our motivations for implementing AI are not what you read in the paper of corporate America looking to eliminate jobs and boost profits. I know in my heart of hearts that we value our team members, we value our customer relationships. And if there is a tool that can help our people do their job better, freeing up their time to be used to take better care of our customers and our company, I'm gonna do it every time. And I think that there's a real fear around this and I understand it. I understand why there's a fear, and I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a fear. Because it is really up to the mindset of the company and its leadership as to what the goal is. And for us, the goal is not to eliminate jobs. The goal is to empower people to make their jobs easier to do. And uh, that's the approach that we're taking. Um, and look, we got over 300 employees. Do I have employees that are afraid of this and are worried about their jobs? I'm sure I do, but I also know I got a lot of employees that have seen some of the things that we've done through educating them and giving them access to these tools and encouraging them to experiment. And some of the things we've done recently to automate some processes using AI that they are like excited about, they're like, wow, that is such a pain in the ass part of my job, of manually moving information from one piece of software to another. And you're telling me that that can be automated and I could use that time to do the rest of my job. That is more value added, sign me up. So that's where we're at on the, that journey. And that's, you know, I just gotta stay true to our, um, core belief in our, in, in people are our greatest asset. And if we can upskill them, then they're more powerful to be able to help the company and help our customers. Uh, and, and as long as we stay true to that, I don't, I, I'm not, I, I, I can't predict the future. Um, but the employees that embrace it, that leverage it, that are proactively saying, I, if you can make this part of my job easier, here's what I can do with that time to help the company. I think they're gonna thrive.

Ron:

Ari, help me understand where it, where are you at with Sonance in your, this AI journey, you know, from you initially exploring and inventing and sharing with your family to ultimately bringing this into the business. Uh, I know you've come a long way in a very short period of time.

Ari:

Yeah. Okay. So where, where are you guys at

Ron:

right now?

Ari:

Well, like I said, it, it's definitely a journey and, and, and, uh, it kind of started with, with. That I kind of caught the bug and a couple others did as well. And we started to, um, do some trainings and, and, uh, you know, sort of, uh, lunch and learn type trainings within the company and teaching people about some of the tools that were available to them, ultimately leading to us saying, all right, we're ready to invest in this. We hired a AI specialist who had a background in AI and programming to come in as a technical resource. We've been doing, you know, newsletters and trainings and making tools available to people, trying to create a culture of, of, uh, encouraging people to experiment and try things and then share what they've learned and, uh, that ultimately led as the technology advance to really two things that I think are. Significant in our business, in addition to just general usage of the consumer grade tools. One is that we've started to build some internal apps. Um, and you know, that's, you were talking earlier about my aha moment, the, the first time I realized that I could actually build a application. I, I, I thought that the idea of building a webpage or a app had just missed me. You know, I, I, I, I didn't study that kind of thing, and I'm not, that, I'm not technical, and I thought I'll never be able to do that. And the moment that I first took a PDF dropped it into, I think it, I know it was Claude Anthropics model, Claude, and it turned it into an interactive web application known as an artifact in Claude parlance. Blew my mind. I was just like, wait a minute. That was it. I just used English and said, I want this, and it did it. And all this code went by that I don't understand, and then it opened up and I could use it and then, oh, I could share it with my friends and they could use it. Whoa. That was big. And as I went deeper into that side of it, I learned that, well, yeah, that's cool, but if you really wanna use it in the company, you probably need to go a little further than an artifact. And that's when I discovered some of the, well, first, that's when I discovered vibe coating.

Ron:

Mm-hmm.

Ari:

Which is a new term. Um, well for those

Ron:

that aren't aware, what is vibe coating?

Ari:

Vibe coating is, um, the ability to. Build and code using English language as the only language. Um, and so you, there are tools out there that are what are referred to as wrappers for the frontier models like Chachi, BD five and Claude's Sonnet and Opus 4.1. I personally think Claude's Opus 4.1 is the best coding tool out there, but I don't do it inside of Claude. I use products like Lovable and Rept and Bolt New, and there's many vibe coding apps out there. And these are tools that leverage the large language models like Claude and Chachi, bt. But they're built to create apps. And what I learned is that the front end that I was so impressed that I did is actually the easy part of building an application. The hard part's, the backend. What do I mean by that? Storing information in a database, having sign in authorization if you did want to take payment, uh, and having credit card payments. Uh, being able to make API calls to large language models to get some reasoning into your app. Any of those things or deploying it so that you can put it out into the world. Those are the hard things, and what I discovered is these vibe coding tools have made that all easy. One click away that you wanna connect to a backend database, like superb base. One click it, writes all the code and connects it. You wanna, I guess the best example is if you didn't, we're, we're not doing this, but if you did want to take payment for a tool that you built, you have a Stripe account, you give it your Stripe credentials, you click one button and it links your app to your Stripe account. And then when you put that app out there, if somebody wants to sign up and pay money, it puts it right in your Stripe account. That was, that was, that used to be hard. And I think it's easy now. And so that's this vibe, coding movement, if you will, has gained momentum. And, um, it's very, I, I understand that there's a lot of programmers that say, you know, you don't know what you don't know. All I know is this, that there are small, low risk tools that don't exist that we're building ourselves. Mm-hmm.

Ari:

I say that, somebody told me this, uh, a while ago, it was maybe nine months ago. They said, you know, are you in the future, we're not gonna wait for companies to put out a piece of software that does a thousand things, buy it, download it, and then struggle to get it to do the 50 things that we need it to do. We're just gonna build a tool to do the 50 things that we needed to do exactly the way we want it done. I thought they were nuts. Because that was before I discovered what Vibe coding was, and now I'm literally doing exactly that myself and Right. We have employees that are doing it, and now we've got that AI specialist in place that can make sure we're doing it in a secure, scalable way. And that combination, I think, super powerful. So we're building internal apps. The second big thing I would say is process automation. So there's been tools like Zapier out there for a long time, um, that, that are automation tools. The, I think what's new is that these tools and, and the one that we're, we've been using mostly is make.com, but there's N eight N, there's make.com, there's clay, there's others. What is new is that at each step of the way in a process that is automated, you can leverage AI for reasoning. So instead of it being extremely prescriptive that it's static and you move from here to here at each step of the way, which you can do now, is call upon a large language model to reason and apply some logic and reasoning and thought to, you know, should I, uh, send this to the next step? Or should I put it into junk? Is it real, is it not? Anything like that? And I think that has really unlocked the possibilities for these automation tools. And so we at ance are in the process of building an internal application that is a catalog of every process in the company that allows our employees to do a, let's say, a screen recording of how they do a certain process that may span two or three different pieces of software. Send that into the tool, it catalogs it and stores it, which is right there. That's just more than we've had before, which is every single process in the company recorded and cataloged in a nested organized way so that we can find it, et cetera.

Ron:

And AI is watching the video and interpreting it and doing the cataloging or humans are doing the cataloging,

Ari:

humans just deciding, okay, I have this process. It's um, accounts payable, and this is the process that I do today. And they're screen recording it. So there's no AI ne necessarily involved yet. Other than that, the, the, the tool that we, uh, catalog this stuff we built with ai, it was

Ron:

created using vibe coding, right?

Ari:

Yeah. Like, and to be fair, that tool was built using AI by a technical person who knows the code base, but is definitely leveraging AI to write a lot of the code to make it ha happen fast. Okay. Yeah. Um, so that's not just me vibe coding, it's such an a sophisticated tool. Right.

Ari:

Although I am building some less sophisticated tools in both business and personal life that I'm doing completely on my own. So the tool then captures that. The next step is that it analyzes it, and there are tools, particularly Gemini, that can actually not only, um, interpret the transcript of the video, but can actually interpret what it sees on the screen in a multimodal way. And so it's the employee showing their screen and narrating what's happening. And Gemini can, um, uh, interpret all of that. And then we standardized on a, on a certain way of presenting a flow diagram of a process that it converts that into, which kind of enables the next step in our,

Ron:

the AI will create the flow diagram, correct?

Ari:

Yes.

Ron:

That's pretty cool.

Ari:

Yeah. And then, and again, I I, I probably should have emphasized this, uh, uh, ahead of starting to talk about this, we are at the early stages of everything I'm talking about. We have not proven to ourselves, let alone me on air telling the world that we figured this out. But we're, we're, we have a vision and, uh, I'm describing to you our direction and we're, we're got, we've got traction though, and we're at the early stages of it, but we've, we've shown ourselves this is worth our time and investment for sure.

Ron:

What, what I, what my experience at when Firefly has been, and it, it, I would challenge, uh, may be similar for you, is that these tools, uh, offers so many unlocks. It allows us, it challenges us to think so differently about the outcomes we're trying to achieve, and what are the ways to ultimately achieve those outcomes. Yeah. Agree.

Ron:

It's, we've been stuck as humans in business, if you will, uh, thinking about our resources in a very specific way for many, many years. That's right.

Ron:

And now these tools. Yes. Like, I mean, to hear you describe this and if someone, two years ago was listening to you a

Ari:

hundred percent agree,

Ron:

they were like, this guy's a space cadet. Like this is not possible.

Ari:

I, I I, I say this often at, at, at Sonance. It's like, at no other time in history has there been a moment where the conventional wisdom of the paradigm that we live in, of how things are done, and you know, you just don't understand, should be challenged more now than ever because the,

Ron:

in human history, in human

Ari:

history that this technology is advancing, I believe personally that it is not just going fast, but it's accelerating.

Ron:

Yeah.

Ari:

And I just think that we have to rethink. Everything. And, and to be clear, at Sonance our, our philosophy is this, while we're rethinking it and trying to do it a different way, you keep going, doing it the traditional way. Also in parallel. 'cause I'm not convinced that we're right yet.

Ron:

Right.

Ari:

Okay. I am convinced that at, at some point we will be Right. I'm just not convinced that we're right yet. So we

Ron:

call that the sandbox. So we operate and invent in the sandbox.

Ari:

Right.

Ron:

While the, the, the work that gets done that actually pays our bills. That's right. Continues to go on uninterrupted.

Ari:

Exactly.

Ron:

And when we prove it out in the sandbox, we then roll it out to teams and update processes and train people. But otherwise, 'cause I, and I'm only saying that from my experience because I did it the other way at the beginning. And it was terribly disruptive. Yeah.

Ari:

Yeah.

Ron:

And so we had to learn from our mistakes and find out a better way. So we

Ari:

were at a really interesting point here at Sonance on this journey though, because we've actually been able to show the organization that we've been able to successfully, uh, implement some of these tools to the benefit of the employee and the company. And that's really changed, uh, a lot of people's minds. And, and they've realized that, not that they were like, oh, this will never help, but like, oh, huh, wow. That's literally helping right now. Ooh, what you just did there. I've got a process just like that, that, that, that I think would be right for this. And I, let me tell you a little bit more. So we analyze the process. Both from a traditional efficiency, lean, kaizen type of approach, but we're also analyzing it by looking at the different software that is involved in that process, figuring out the tools, aware of which of those pieces of software we've been able to successfully connect to with these no code automation tools. And then it's telling us, Hey, this process that I just analyzed is ripe for automation and let me help you do it. And so we've, we're, we're, we're implementing one of these right now, um, taking our time, going slow. Um, it happens to be, uh, in, in accounts payable in the way we pay our suppliers. Could you show? Is there

Ron:

graphical support? Could you show us Oh, yeah, yeah. And add

Ari:

pictures to words. Let me, uh, let's do this.

Ron:

We'll see if we can get technology to be behave here. Folks, if you are listening, you might, uh, want to try to follow along here to what Ari's saying, but if you are so inclined, jump over to the website or jump over to YouTube and, uh, you can watch Ari walk us through this. I'm gonna put this on screen here. Let's do it. All right. Here we go. Oh, let's see here. Oh, let me pull this one off first. There we go.

Ari:

All right, so this is a little bit of what I was just talking about, right? So that we're focused on process documentation, process improvement and process automation. We have sort of a process for our process here, which is that we're gonna first capture the process. We're gonna analyze the process. We're gonna try to automate the process. We're gonna take that automation and turn it into an app so that it's got a front end to it. And then we're gonna deploy it through what we're building now, which is sort of an internal app store. And I obviously use that term loosely since we're not charging our employees, but based upon their credentials, they have access to certain tools and, and not to others. So capture, we built this tool, this is the tool I was referring to, that our technical resource using AI built, which is a process catalog. And the idea is that every single process in the company will be cataloged here and documented. So you can see some finance and business management. We can then drill down to accounts payable. There's a process for automatic voucher creation, and this is, these are the steps they're set up. They're staging, building vouchers, et cetera. But we've also had the employees record their screen and upload that recording into the process catalog. Within the exact process that that recording is referenced. And then as an example, they could record, um, this, this happens to be a dealer setup, uh, uh, process that someone's recording here and send this type of screen recording into us. And then we analyze that, like I said, turning it into a flow chart diagram, which we can then analyze for efficiency as well as compare it to our technology stack so we know which pieces of software are involved. We're a Microsoft shop, so we know we can connect to Outlook we use, still use Slack, Asana, et cetera. And we can then look to automate. So the first process that we've been able to automate using make.com looks something like this. So, um. Simplified version. Each one of these nodes is a step in the process. So the first thing is that we monitor the accounts This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. inbox, looking for in emails from our suppliers with attachments usually, which are the invoice that we need to pay today. Somebody monitors that, opens it up, figures out if it's a real invoice, and then manually enters that information into our ERP. And so now we monitor the inbox and then this is a key step. It sends this information out to, we chose Claude in this case to interpret is it a real email? Um, if it's not. It sends it down this path, which is essentially into junk. And if it is, it sends it down this path where it then compares it to specific rules that we've taught. The system basically built a table and said Supplier UPS, their invoices are normally three pages. And on page two, you'll find the stuff we owe them, and that's where you look, and that just helps the model. And then we do some optical character recognition. And by the way, our team looked at off the shelf tools that do this exact process and compared their accuracy to this process and found that Claude was more accurate and make.com was more accurate than the off the shelf tools we would've had to pay for. Wow.

Ari:

And it does extracts the lines from the invoice using optical character recognition very accurately. And then it builds a, uh, staging table. We use super base for the, the table and then ultimately builds a payment voucher. And then a very key step here, we have an employee verify the accuracy of it. And that's where we're building this sort of front end. We call it amplifying, right? Turning it into an app, because this process will run completely and visibly in the background. Mm-hmm.

Ari:

But by putting a front end to it, it allows us to, number one, make sure a human is in the loop. Then ultimately we pay our supplier. So, as I said, amplifying it, we can put a front end to it like AP automation, then we know exactly who has access to that tool, who can make changes to it, who can fix it. There are, um, if the tool breaks in any way, it alerts the right person, we can go in there and see it. And this is sort of the beginnings of, of a, um, internal app store where we can deploy apps to our employees, uh, from their active directory permissions that they have.

Ron:

I I'm gonna go, uh, maybe a bit deep just quickly, and that is who in the case of these apps within your, your company architecture has the right to change or modify source code? Is it that head of ai or is it the department head within finance?

Ari:

Yeah, we're still figuring those things out, but um, what we're doing is pairing up someone technical with a business resource, so someone who understands it from our finance department inside and out, pair it up with someone who understands make.com and ai. And the two of them together built this. And so now we've got a business owner and a technical owner, and they're both alerted if the process breaks in any way, and then together they can go. And that's one of the, the great things about these tools like make.com is we can figure out exactly where it broke, right. We'll see an error on one of these nodes. That's where the process broke. It'll alert us of that. Right. And instead of just saying the whole process is broken, this step in the process is broken, we open up one of these nodes, change settings and we can fix it.

Ron:

How, how are you thinking, Ari, in terms of the investment you make? Uh, I'm gonna pull this off the screen here, uh, so we can be larger. How are you thinking in terms of the investment in r and d? Like as a manufacturer, you normally, uh, uh, likely have a, a, a a predetermined. And allocation of, of budget, percentage of revenue or other that you allocate into developing new products, uh, or software. And now this isn't a new category, which is, you know, internal operations, but it requires r and d, it requires personnel and time, both of your existing staff and of this new hires within your department. Right. Is there a new way in 2025 or even mid 2024 that you started to think about budgeting for this?

Ari:

Yes. Um, first of all, let's start with this five. We're, we're a privately held company. Um, I don't answer to Wall Street or a private equity firm. I answer to our founders and our founders see this vision, they share this vision with us, and so we're over-investing, right? We're double investing at times in doing things the traditional way as well as staffing up in our sort of AI task force that's going to be deployed with our business owners to automate process, streamline efficiencies, upskill employees, et cetera, et cetera. So we, we know that. And then, you know, as we get into, um, planning stages for different departments and looking at headcount and we see all the open positions at any given time at Sance, we have something like 20 open positions where we're trying to hire for and we're like, do we really need to add yet another person doing that job? Or should we take those dollars and add somebody to the AI team to be able to make the rest of the team more efficient and not need to add another person to the team? Mm-hmm.

Ari:

Okay. So that's, I'd say, first and foremost. And then, um, yeah, I think it's really just a recognition that there's, there's an overlap investment period that I was just alluding to. And, and knowing that, and, um, you know, I think that if the leader or leaders of the, of the organization aren't personally having those aha moments, it's hard to make that choice. But I, I feel like our leadership team here, um, and I have had those moments together and we've seen the light and we're, we're all in,

Ron:

I, I'm. I'm not you, but I'd like to think in a small way. I'm similar to you in that I'm, I'm also 10 toes down in their experimenting, uh, nights, weekends, yeah. Sometimes during the, the business day. And that passion and those aha moments I've personally had, have really helped inspire me to then invest and drive activity within the business. Mm-hmm. Um, and you just made a declarative statement that it's, it's easier when that executive team is doing it for them to then understand what's possible.

Ari:

Yes.

Ron:

Um, do you have a perception of how common or likely that is for executive teams out there, uh, to be doing this versus them thinking they can delegate this down to some member of their team to air quote, figure it out

Ari:

Ron o Only by what I've been told, and, and I, I, I get a lot of people say, you know. Not all CEOs do this, and I'm like, I guess so. I, I don't know. For me it's been, uh, that's Rebecca: my answer usually is I only know what I do.

Ari:

Yeah. But I, I, for me, it's been part just like hobby, passion, and part, just recognizing the, the power of what it can do for our employees and our, our company.

Ron:

Yeah. And I

Ari:

think the mistake that I, I see and, and hear is, is too often the leaders, like, you know, they, they don't really understand it. So anything that says ai, any article, any YouTube video, they send it to their team. Oh, you might be in, you'll probably be interested in this. And I, I, I think that's actually detrimental. It's just information overload and signal noise. And so I, when I, and I even check in with my team, like, I just wanna be sure, like, I'm trying not to overwhelm and inundate you, but did any of those things I sent you over the last few weeks were, were they not relevant? And they're like, no, this is like, really like, 'cause I, I understand it enough that I'm only sending them things that are really, really relevant. But I always say this too, it's like, um. We were talking about no other time in history kind of thing. Well, at no other time in history do I think that it is appropriate for the CEO of a company to be going to their people and saying, you know, I watched this guy on YouTube do something and I think you need to watch this because this is a, a new way of doing our, running our business. Like I think that in general, that should be shunned except for right now. Because there are things that I watch people do that I believe are not only incredibly relevant to our business, but basically are new ways of using these tools or maybe using more than one tool in conjunction to do something that has never been done before. That's really impactful and powerful. And I think that just having people with an open mind. Um, and, and, uh, and that's what we're doing. It's sharing knowledge, right? And they're teaching me things. I'm teaching them things, and we're collaborating. And I, and we've got, you know, ultimately I want to get the flywheel spinning where it's, it, it, I don't need to be pushing. And we're getting closer and closer every month where more and more people are seeing the opportunity and are excited about it. And, uh, and of course the technology's getting better and better. So I, I feel like things are, are heading in the direction of the flywheel spinning on its own and getting real, real momentum,

Ron:

you figuring this out. What does this mean to your dealers, your clients, the industry at large?

Ari:

Well, you know, for us to start with, it's, it's about first and foremost, I always kind of subscribe to the idea that if you take care of your people, your people will take care of your customers. And I think that that's, you know, it's, again, it's like this, this notion that AI is being used by corporations to eliminate people. It is just foreign to me. Like I, I understand that it is capable of being viewed that way and that there are likely companies that have that philosophy, it's just not ours. And so I see it as if we can upskill and enable our employees, if we can free up more of their time, we have really good people that want to take care of our customers, that want to improve the company and improve our culture. And if I can get them off of, uh, manually moving information. Drop down menus in one piece of software to another and free up their time to be talking to our customers, talking to our suppliers, getting up from their desk and talking to our employees. We're gonna be a better company and we're gonna take better care of our customers From there, I just say, it sounds like there's interest industry wide for who's doing something actually impactful with it, and I feel like we are. So I'm gonna try to share that experience in a hopefully humble way with people to say that I don't think we've got it all figured out, but here's where we're at and we're an open book. Right? If, if, I don't care if you're a customer, another vendor, or even a competitor, if you reach out, I will share where we're at, what we're doing, what, as long as I learn something too, right? I mean, as long as people say, well, have you tried this? And, and that's been most of my interactions on this topic, and I think there's a, a hunger for this. I know there is. Um. And by the way,

Ari:

out there, if anybody listening wants to reach out, please contact me either directly, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or you can email our AI team, so This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. So I'm gonna put r in the middle. You'll get me take the R out, you're gonna get a team of people, including me. And you know, look, we're not gonna go set up an entire automation for you, but we'll tell you which tools we've been using. We'll share our experience. Um, we'll do anything we can to help.

Ron:

I wanna step out of this industry and I wanna look at society at large, and I'd love your opinion. What does this mean for this generation of, of students that are in school right now? My son, for example, 16, he's a junior in high school. And, uh, the, I mean, we have talked regularly about what does this mean, this ai um, you know, this Cambrian explosion of technology innovation in the world. In terms of ultimately what area of study he goes into. And, and I'm yet, there still are so many school systems at all levels, even up to college, where even right now, in 2025, there's resistance to ai. Yeah. Using chat. GPT is considered cheating. What, what's your thought? Because, I mean, I'm, I'm thinking the whole education system has to be changed.

Ari:

I couldn't agree more. So I'm right behind you. I've got, uh, two daughters, 15 and 13. Um, both of them, um, are embracing AI and you know, we had these discussions. I had two discussions with 'em. Number one. Rebecca Del, do you know that you're gonna be able to cheat with this technology? I'm like, why would I do that? And I said, well, you understand that you're able to. And I said, yeah, I guess I understand that, but I, I wouldn't cheat. And so I, I said, I want you to think about it over the week. This was like a year and a half ago, and come back and tell me that you really wanna, wanna learn this. And I trust them implicitly. And I've also scared them in all of the ways that parents should scare them about using AI to cheat because you will get caught. But I think they've embraced the idea that it can be used for more than cheating. It can be used for learning. And the other conversation I had with them, 'cause there was some resistance at first, like, dad, I don't, you know, I don't wanna learn computer stuff. Like, that's not interesting to me. And it was like, I'm not actually wanting you to learn ai. What I'm wanting you to do is learn how to use AI to pursue your passion. And I think that's the mentality they have now, which is that it can be used to help them learn better and faster. So what do I mean by that? Uh, so many examples, but you know, they, I've turned them on to tools like Notebook LM to be able to put their study materials into a notebook and be able to easily create a, uh, a study guide. Uh, they just launched flashcards and quizzes so that they can put their curriculum into it and have it quiz them. When they're the night before a test. Um, that's just one of many examples and they really are starting to leverage it and, and you know, they're leveraging it for fun as well. And, and, um, they're, they're creative kids and they're building games and, you know, my, one of my daughters is really into pop music. And so we together quickly built a little game of a trivia game that she could play with her friends that was lyrics to popular, you know, Taylor Swift and whatnot, songs. And, you know, the fact that we built that ourselves, and I know you do stuff with robotics with your son and it's like, I'm not that technical. I'm not building robotics, but the fact that she and I built a game that can be played by people is just mind blowing to me. Um, and fun. And they've, they've started to catch the bug and I see them using it on their own. And my wife takes some art classes and art history classes and she's using it and it's a, it's a such an and notebook Ls, the tool I would. Highly suggest people with children, uh, in school or their own taking classes, try. That's the tool that does the podcast thing that went viral and now they have video overviews that you can build. And like I said, it's just tailor made for anybody taking any kinda class. So I think that additional to that, I, I really feel strongly that our education system's going to need to change. Um, you know, o obviously there was all sorts of outcry. Um, I think you and I are likely still too young to have experienced this ourselves when the calculator came out of like, no one's gonna learn math anymore. And of course, we still have to learn math. Um, it's a tool to be used and harness and I, I, I, I see it that way. As far as what does this mean for broader society? Those are really, really important questions. People, you know, I clearly am bullish on this topic, but if you ask me, uh, am I scared? Of course I'm scared. This is the, there's so many, uh, reasons to be scared about the, the possibilities of how AI can be used about it, eliminating jobs and what is our purpose and all of those things. And I don't, I'm not clairvoyant, I'm not smart enough to have really strong opinions about what's gonna happen. My general feeling is that we are going to, as a world and society, eventually get to a place where this is a massively positive thing in the world. Um, you know, I just think it, and I think it's obvious that there's gonna be bumps in the road and it's going to be disruptive. And, um, like any technology and any technol technical revolution, it will eliminate jobs. It'll create new jobs that didn't exist before. And so. When it comes to kids and learning all this stuff, it's like, as you're going through this right now, I'm sure it's like, what, how do we steer them? Right? And what, what role, what, what should they study to try to be prepared for four years or five years from now when they come out of college? Like our kids, right? And what careers? And I just think much like we've been talking about, you gotta change your paradigm and I don't have the answers. So I try to go do, what's the common denominators? I still feel like this, being able to communicate effectively, being able to create connection with people, demonstrating empathy, influencing people, these things aren't gonna ever go away. And in fact, I believe they're gonna become more important in the future. And so a lot of people, I, I think, misdiagnose this and say Stem, right? You gotta get into technology and, um. Technical things because the world's getting more technical. I kind of see it as the opposite. I feel like what, what This is democratizing technology, making it excel. No. Look, there'll, there'll be amazing pro jobs at the frontier model companies that pay huge money if you're that talented at machine learning and, and, and AI algorithms. Um, but I also think that there is going to be the rest of the world that is gonna leverage this technology to not have to be that technical. And what's gonna become important is the things I talked about, which is human connection and just being somebody people wanna connect with. Being somebody who can influence people and lead people. I just think that's gonna only become more valuable in the future. So that's the stuff I, uh, encourage my my kids to do. Lean into creativity, to, uh, passion and, and do things that you love doing and, you know, uh. I don't, but I don't know. I really don't. Um,

Ron:

it's, it's fascinating, isn't it, that when we try to look into the future, uh, I'll go three years out, you know, maybe it's, it's fairly opaque. Five years out. It's entirely opaque. Yeah.

Ron:

And there, there, I can't remember in, in my lifetime where that was true. Looking forward was so hard to predict. And, and by the way, I don't wanna be negative in saying that. I don't want to say doomsday is on the other side of that. It's just not so obvious. Okay. What happens when, you know, in particular, uh, you know, a GI, which is, uh, you know, when the Theis become as smart as us and then a SI, when the. When the AI becomes super human and has an iq, it has the, you know, the highest IQ ever recorded in every subject that's ever been recorded. And then it's genetically correcting itself and creating itself. I mean, it's, and that's like in the, in our lifetime, it's in our next three to five to seven years. That, that, that seems at the moment that that's gonna be true. That's right.

Ron:

And that's, uh, that's like fascinating. Like what an awesome time to be alive. It

Ari:

is. That's how I see

Ron:

it. It's, it's, it's incredible. Alright, we're gonna, we we're, we're at time. I know you have other meetings, you're a busy man. Um, but I would love Ari, if you'd point our audience in a few directions of resources that have been meaningful to you, YouTube channels, books, podcasts, influencers. What, what are places people could go to maybe if they, they're going All right, Ari's convinced me. I'm gonna start taking this seriously. Um, what should they do? What, what, where could they consume more knowledge or information? Yeah, I would say

Ari:

a couple places. So start with on, I, I prefer YouTube. I'm not, I, I, you know, I, me, it's just a visual medium, right? It's like I, I wanna watch somebody do something and then, you know, and I always, when I do my public speak, I always say like, put it on, I don't put YouTube on my laptop, right? I put my laptop on my lap and I put YouTube on the biggest screen I can find. Yep. And so for me, that's a projection screen and I put it on Apple tv and I watch somebody do something. I pause. Yep.

Ari:

And I try it myself, but I try to personalize it to my life and my business. And that's how I've learned everything. And so who do I watch? Um, I think the, the channel I've learned a lot from, I'd say is Matt Wolf. Yeah. I, I think he's done a really good job.

Ron:

My son and I watch Matt Wolf every Saturday morning.

Ari:

Yeah. He's really good at that. And then, um, you know, I know you and I both are, are friends with Issa Mais and, and his podcast, um, multiply ai, what's the name of the podcast?

Ron:

Yeah, multiply ai.

Ari:

That's his company. But, um,

Ron:

oh, uh, leveraging ai. Leveraging ai.

Ari:

Thank you. So I watched those, um, on YouTube. Uh, and he's done more and more recently where he's doing live demonstrations of things versus just talking. Um, but I don't do the newsletters and things like that because I do follow different people and I still call it Twitter. Um, but what do those do? They lead me to the YouTube view of it. Right. And I watch somebody do something. But, but, um, then I would also say I, I've, I've maybe, um, done a lot of this. Homework for you. And if you want, I'll send you recordings of, of me speaking and showing my favorite tools and how we're using them. And I'll, I'll send those to anybody who, who wants 'em. I'm not trying to be a content creator, but, um, if, if I'm speaking and we're capturing it, I speak so fast 'cause there's so much to cover and it's like no one's gonna actually be able to routine it all. You gotta record it so they can go back and, you know, try something and pause it and try it.

Ron:

Yeah. I, I, as far as

Ari:

tools, you know, just to list a couple that people, if you're not yet trying, you really should, uh, in my opinion, um, whisper flow for voice dictation into a computer is just game changing. It's probably the tool that I've had more people that I've introduced it to reach back out sometimes within an hour, sometimes a month later and be like, alright. Game changer. Thank you so much. Yeah.

Ari:

Um, so that one, and then, uh, yeah, I would say I use Claude a lot. It's probably my go-to model. Um, I still use Chachi, BT because of Canvas that we talked about earlier and editing, writing. I love Notebook, LM for any type of educational things. And uh, and then anyone who's kind of, uh, yep. Oh, perplexity. I can't not mention perplexity and kind of if you're like, all right, yeah, I'm doing those things, uh, I'm ready for the next step. Then it's vibe coding and no code automation and the YouTube channel that I find to be most informative. There is a gentleman named Mark Kashif, K-A-S-H-I-F. Um, and I would seek his channel out and watch some of his videos. They are a little more technical, but he's, uh, does a really good job of, um, simplifying and, and speaking in a non-technical way.

Ron:

Amazing. Ari, it's, uh, it's been amazing to have you on Automation Unplugged. Thank you for your willingness to join us and to to share. Uh, I've got, uh, I've got some of your websites here. I'll let you, uh, spell them out for folks, uh, just so we capture it in the transcript. Uh, but I'm just gonna put 'em on the screen.

Ari:

So sonance.com, S-O-N-A-N-C e.com is where you'll find, uh, all of our brands there. And if you want to go deeper into either Blaze or I Port, I'd visit those sites as well as well. So blaze audio.com, and then our I port This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Um, one more

Ron:

time, we'll put the email up there.

Ari:

Yeah. You wanna get ahold of me, Ari, at Sonance. Uh, don't hesitate to reach out. And then if you want to just get ahold of our ai team, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and, uh, give us a question or request of video of, of any of one of our presentations that we've been giving, and we will make them available.

Ron:

Ari, thanks for joining us on this episode of Automation Unplugged.

Ari:

Thanks, Ron. Thanks for having me.

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Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

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Resources and links from the interview:

• • Ari Supran LinkedIn Profile Page

• • Sonance LinkedIn Profile Page
    
    
• • Sonance Webpage