From the Lab
Plainspoken notes on AI, automation, and the web for businesses in the Tri-Cities and Southwest Virginia. A new post every week.
More from the Lab
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How AI Can Help Local Offices Handle the Daily Paperwork Pileup
Your front desk is probably doing a lot more than answering the phone.
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We Took Our Website From 25 to 83 in One Evening. Here's What Changed and Why It Matters for Your Business.
This morning Google rolled out its May 2026 Core Update.
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He'd tried AI. He hated it. Then he watched me use it.
A retired detective and published author sat through a class and a half before he told me he'd written AI off completely.
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The Most Copy-Pasted Job in Real Estate (And How to Stop Doing It)
Every listing agent writes about the same house four different times before lunch.
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I Watched "The AI Doc." Here's What Small Business Owners Should Actually Take From It
I watched the new AI documentary on Peacock this weekend, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist.
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Reply To a Tough Customer Review Without Sounding Defensive
You see the notification.
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Claude for Legal Is Here. What It Means If Your Firm Has Four Attorneys, Not Four Hundred
This week Anthropic announced Claude for Legal, a new product aimed squarely at the largest law firms in the world.
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The Estimates Sitting in Your Truck Are Costing You Jobs
Every contractor in the Tri-Cities knows the feeling.
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AI Myth Monday: "Just Paste It Into ChatGPT"
There's a phrase floating around small offices across the Tri-Cities right now: "It's free, it's fast.
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How to Get Better AI Results: Ask It to Interview You First
Most people use AI the same way: type a request, hit enter, hope for the best.
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AI Is Not Just ChatGPT: How Local Businesses Can Use Automation, Documents, and Data Together
For many business owners, “AI” still means opening ChatGPT or Claude and asking it to write something.
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7 Places Local Businesses Should Look Before Saying “We Need AI”
Artificial intelligence is everywhere right now.
New here? Start with these four.
Free tools.
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AI Readiness Checkup
Three minutes. Practical places to save time.
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Business Memory Builder
A one-page profile your AI tools can read first.
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