Podcast April 12, 2026 38 min read

Ep. 1: Why AI, Why Now, Why the Tri-Cities

By Joe McKenna

The pilot episode. Joe McKenna makes the case for AI adoption in Northeast Tennessee -- what changed, why the timing matters, and why this region is positioned to move fast.

In the first episode of the TriCities.ai podcast, Joe McKenna breaks down why AI is no longer optional for small businesses, why the window for early adoption is closing, and why the Tri-Cities region -- Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, and Northeast Tennessee -- is uniquely positioned to lead on practical AI adoption. This is a direct conversation about what is changing, what it costs to wait, and what a managed AI partner actually does.

Welcome to the TriCities.ai podcast. I am Joe McKenna, and this is episode one.

If you are listening to this, you probably fall into one of three categories. You are a business owner in the Tri-Cities who has been hearing about AI and wondering what it actually means for your company. You are somebody who has already started using AI tools and wants to do more with them. Or you are skeptical -- you have seen the hype, and you are waiting to see if this is real or if it is just another tech trend that will blow over.

All three of those are fair positions. And by the end of this episode, I want to give you enough information to make a clear-eyed decision about where you stand and what to do next. No sales pitch. No hype. Just the facts as I see them after spending the last several years building AI solutions for businesses in this region.

I am going to cover three things today. Why AI -- what actually changed to make these tools useful for small businesses. Why now -- what happens if you wait. And why the Tri-Cities -- why this specific region is set up to move faster than most.

Why AI

Let me start with what changed. Because AI is not new. Machine learning has been around for decades. But something shifted in the last two years that made it relevant to a five-person dental practice in Johnson City or a 20-person HVAC company in Bristol. And that shift is worth understanding.

The tools got good enough. That is the simple version. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini -- these are not research projects anymore. They are real tools that real businesses use every single day. A receptionist who never sleeps. A document analyst who reads a 200-page contract in 30 seconds. A customer service agent who handles routine questions at 2 AM on a Saturday. These are not theoretical. They exist. They work. And they cost less than a part-time hire.

But here is the part that most people miss. The big shift is not the tools themselves. It is the move from what Sequoia Capital calls "copilot" to "autopilot."

Copilot means you use the tool. You open ChatGPT, you type a question, you get an answer. That is useful. But it still requires you to sit there and do the work. You are the pilot. The AI is just helping.

Autopilot means the tool does the work. You set it up, you define the rules, and it runs. An AI receptionist does not wait for you to type a prompt. It answers the phone. It asks the right questions. It books the appointment. It sends the confirmation. You are not involved. You are running your business, and the AI is handling the task.

That shift -- from copilot to autopilot -- is happening right now. And it changes the economics of small business in a fundamental way.

Here are the numbers. A small business spending $200 to $500 a month on AI agents can accomplish what previously required two to three additional full-time employees. Not because the AI replaces people. Because it handles the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that eat your team's day -- the scheduling calls, the follow-up emails, the data entry, the document processing -- and frees your people to do the work that actually requires a human.

Microsoft 365 Copilot runs $21 to $30 per user per month. That means a 50-person company is spending $1,675 a month just on the license. And that is one tool from one vendor. The AI consulting market -- the industry that helps businesses actually use these tools -- grew from $14 billion in 2024 to a projected $72.8 billion by 2030. That is 31.6 percent compound annual growth. The money flowing into AI services tells you everything you need to know about where this is headed.

So why AI? Because the tools are mature, the costs are low, and the results are immediate. This is not a bet on the future. This is a bet on right now.

Why Now

OK, so the tools work. But why does it matter whether you move now versus next year? Why the urgency?

Because of compounding.

Let me give you two examples. Both real. Both from businesses in this region.

Example one. A dental practice in Johnson City installed an AI receptionist three months ago. It answers calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It books appointments, confirms them, sends reminders, and handles routine questions about insurance and preparation instructions. Their competitor across town? Phone goes to voicemail at 5 PM. Every evening, every weekend, every holiday -- the competitor is losing patients to a practice that answers the phone.

That is not a small difference. That compounds. Every patient the AI practice captures after hours is a patient the competitor loses. And those patients tell their friends. And their Google reviews mention how easy it was to book. Three months in, the gap is already visible. In a year, it will be significant. In two years, the competitor is going to wonder what happened.

Example two. An HVAC company with automated follow-up sequences. After every service call, the customer gets a thank-you text. Two days later, a link to leave a Google review. Six months later, a maintenance reminder. Twelve months, another reminder. All automatic. Nobody in the office touches it.

That HVAC company is closing 40 percent more repeat business than their competitors. Not because they are better at HVAC. Because they are better at staying in touch. The AI does the follow-up that humans always mean to do and never get around to.

Here is the thing about waiting. The cost of waiting is not zero. It is measured in lost customers. Every day you are not answering the phone after hours, somebody else is. Every service call that does not get a follow-up is a customer who forgets you exist. Every lead that waits four hours for a callback is a lead that calls your competitor who responds in 60 seconds.

KPMG reported in April 2026 that 56 percent of managed services buyers now cite AI management as their number-one investment priority. Over 90 percent of executives say managed services are essential for AI delivery. The market is not debating whether AI matters anymore. It is debating how fast to move.

I am not saying you need to overhaul your entire business tomorrow. I am saying you need to pick one thing -- one process, one pain point, one bottleneck -- and start. Because the businesses that start now are building an advantage that gets harder to close every month.

Why the Tri-Cities

OK, so AI is real and the timing matters. But why does any of this matter specifically for the Tri-Cities? Why am I building a company here and not in Nashville or Charlotte or Atlanta?

Three reasons.

Reason one: business density. The Tri-Cities -- Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, and the surrounding area -- has a dense concentration of small to mid-size businesses. HVAC companies, dental practices, law firms, CPA offices, manufacturers. Hundreds of businesses, mostly between 5 and 50 employees, all facing the same challenges. There is enough density here to build a real business around AI services, but the market is small enough that one company can actually serve it well.

In Nashville or Atlanta, you are competing with a dozen AI consultancies. Here, nobody is doing what we do. The local IT companies -- Holston Technology Group, Burk I.T., IT Decisions -- are excellent at what they do. But they are IT companies. They handle your network, your email, your cybersecurity. AI is a different skill set, a different service model, and a different relationship. They are starting to add AI to their menus, but it is an add-on, not their core competency.

Reason two: institutional support. This region has something most mid-size markets do not: a real ecosystem of universities and workforce organizations that are actively investing in AI. ETSU has an AI and Machine Learning concentration in their computer science program. Tusculum just launched an Applied AI for Business minor through our CloudWise Academy partnership. UVA Wise and Northeast State are building complementary programs. The regional workforce boards are funding AI training for career changers and displaced workers.

That matters because AI adoption is not just about tools. It is about people. Businesses need trained staff. The region needs graduates who can walk into a local company and apply AI skills from day one. The institutional infrastructure here is building that pipeline.

Reason three: cost structure. This is the one nobody talks about, but it might be the most important. AI ROI hits faster in the Tri-Cities than it does in San Francisco or New York. Why? Because the cost savings are proportionally larger when your labor costs and overhead are lower.

An AI receptionist that saves 15 hours a week of scheduling calls saves the same 15 hours whether you are in Manhattan or in Johnson City. But the cost of the alternative -- hiring another front-desk person -- is different in each place. In the Tri-Cities, where $30,000 a year is a real salary for an administrative position, saving that hire through AI is a massive return on a $299 monthly investment.

And the AI tools themselves cost the same everywhere. ChatGPT does not charge more in Tennessee. Claude does not give you a discount in California. The tools are the same price, but the business impact is proportionally larger here because the baseline costs are lower.

That is why the Tri-Cities. Business density, institutional support, and a cost structure that makes AI adoption a no-brainer for businesses that are willing to start.

Wrapping Up

Let me bring it together. AI is not a trend. It is not going to blow over. The tools are mature, the costs are low, and the results are immediate and measurable. The businesses that move now are building a compounding advantage -- more customers, faster responses, better reviews, more repeat business -- that gets harder to catch up to every month.

And the Tri-Cities is one of the best places in the country to do this. We have the business density, the institutional support, and the cost structure to make AI adoption practical and profitable for small businesses right now.

That is what we built TriCities.ai to do. We are not selling you AI tools. We are the partner who sets them up, trains your team, keeps them running, and makes sure you are getting the value. Think of us as your IT company, but for AI.

If anything in this episode resonated, here is what I would suggest. Go to tricities.ai and take the free AI Readiness Audit. It takes about half a day. We will look at your current tools, your processes, and your pain points. We will give you a scored report with your top five AI opportunities and what they would cost. No commitment, no pressure. Just a clear picture of where you stand.

That is it for episode one. Next time, I am going to walk you through what we actually found in our first 10 AI audits. The patterns, the surprises, and the specific recommendations we made. If you are curious about what an audit looks like from the inside, you will not want to miss it.

Thanks for listening. I am Joe McKenna, and this is the TriCities.ai podcast.

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