Most people, not in the software world, and a fair amount of them in it, think AI means ChatGPT. You type something in, it gives you an answer. Maybe you've used it to draft an email or look something up. That's a reasonable place to start — but it's a pretty narrow slice of what AI is.
While that is part of what AI is, the real capability isn't in the chat window. It's in what happens behind the scenes. It is how you use that chat window and what is behind that chat window.
Here's how I think about it: AI has two modes. The first is conversational — you ask, it answers. Most people live here, and honestly, it's useful. Many people would improve their usage by telling giving that chat window context, telling it to ask you questions, and saying exactly what you want back. This is the prompt. One of my first real uses was for my daughter - I told it to act as a college advisor, gave it the essay portions of entrance application, told it to ask questions, and spit out an outline for a college essay.
The second is operational — AI that runs in the background, doing work your business depends on, without anyone having to ask and this is where things get interesting. Think about the repetitive things that keep a business moving. Someone calls and no one picks up, a lead could be lost. With an operational AI setup, it is possible to have AI answer the phone, have the context about your business to voice chat with the caller, take information and deliver the message to the right person. This is exactly where I started with T2C. I tend to be a bit busy. With work, with the family, in the woods or on the water and not always able to pick up my phone if it rings. With AI, I now have an always on answering service that can discuss the business and what I do, get information and pass the message along to me - all for a few dollars a month.
The tools available today are accessible, affordable, and flexible enough to work inside almost any kind of operation. The gap isn't really about technology anymore. It's about knowing how and where to apply it.