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Exploring AI everyday use cases

Founder to Founder 🔥

With Jessica McKellar, CEO and Cofounder of Pilot.com

Jessica McKellar

Founder and CEO of Pilot

Kelley Griggs

Host at StartupNash

AI Use cases

with Pilot.com

In this AMA, StartupNash chats with the founder and CEO of Pilot.
Jessica McKellar, a Nashville born entrepreneur, started a company
that now serves thousands of startups and small businesses, ranging
from two founders in a garage to hundred-person teams. We asked her
about her lessons learned, best practices, and ended up having an
impactful conversation around AI use-cases. Pilot provides
bookkeeping, CFO, and tax services for startups and small businesses.

Founder to founder 🔥

Powered by Startups, Investors and Experts inclduing:

Chatting founder to founder about early startup
decisions, financial missteps that can cost you, and how
to avoid them with help.

About Pilot.com

In this AMA, founders chat with CEO and founder of Pilot.com, Jessica McKellar. Pilot.com is a company that provides back-office
services, including bookkeeping, tax preparation, and CFO services, tailored for startups and small businesses. Their offerings are
designed to help businesses manage their complete financial operations.

By partnering with Pilot, your business can benefit from accurate financial reporting, compliance with tax regulations, and strategic
financial insights. Their team of experts keep your financial records up-to-date, and ultimately help you make more informed early
financial decisions.

Pilot also offers CFO services to assist with budgeting, financial planning, and fundraising strategies, which can be particularly
valuable for businesses looking to scale. Pilot aims to streamline your financial processes, reduce administrative burdens, and provide
clarity on your business's financial health, so you can concentrate on growth.

Topics we covered in this AMA

Current AI Usage and Adoption Levels

• Most small businesses (e.g. retail, services) not actively using
  AI yet
• Startups/tech companies integrating AI more deeply into
  products/services
• Personal use cases include:
• Writing assistance (tone adjustment, creative prompts)
• Information lookup/research
• Image generation
• Meeting note-taking

AI Integration in Business Processes

• Pilot using AI for:
• Transaction categorization
• Service period detection on invoices
• Work review/quality checks
• Healthcare companies exploring ambient scribe technology
• Challenges in fully automating complex tasks without human
  oversight

Competitive Landscape and AI's Impact

• Concern that large companies adopting AI faster may pressure
  small businesses
• Potential for AI to reduce jobs/work available, especially for
  knowledge workers
• Importance of brand-building and customer relationships to
  compete with AI-enabled efficiency

Fundraising Environment

• AI startups attracting significant VC funding, creating challenges
  for non-AI focused companies
• Valuation compression affecting companies that raised at peak
  valuations
• Advice to focus on right-fit investors for specific business
  models/stages

Ethical Considerations and Societal Impact

• Concerns about job displacement and economic shifts due to AI
  adoption
• Need for society to address potential reduction in available work
• Hope for AI to enable more creative/fulfilling pursuits, but
  uncertainty about implementation

About your Host

Jessica McKellar is a software developer, entrepreneur, and author, currently the Founder and CEO
of Pilot.com. She was an early employee at Ksplice (acquired by Oracle) and co-founded Zulip, later
acquired by Dropbox, where she served as Director of Engineering. A former director of the Python
Software Foundation, she has received multiple awards for her contributions to open-source, served
as a technical advisor for HBO’s Silicon Valley, and co-authored Twisted Network Programming
Essentials.

Jessica McKellar

Founder and CEO of Pilot