Business Tech News: ChatGPT Search Could Destroy Online Businesses

(This column originally appeared in Forbes)

Here are five things in tech news that happened this week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?

1 – Tech News: ChatGPT Search could destroy online businesses – how you can stay ahead.

ChatGPT, and other competing AI chatbots, are giving Google a run for the money in the search business. Lester Mapp of ZDNet offers three strategies to protect your online business from falling victim to ChatGPT’s new search feature. (Source: ZDNet)

Why this is important for your business:

Many people using ChatGPT or other AI chatbots regularly are finding themselves gravitating away from using Google for search. That’s because these chatbots do a great job at search and provide a better, more contextual response. This is important for your business – particularly if it’s an online business - as it can help you get noticed more…or less.

So it’s worth paying attention to Mapp’s tips, which include: owning your audience by building direct connections through email marketing that conveys a personal tone, doubling down on content and post on “as many channels as possible” to engage your audience and establish your brand and leveraging social media by using “platform-specific features” to stay competitive and relevant. “If you implement these strategies ASAP, they can change the game and put you ahead,” Mapp says.

2 – Tech News: How a digital ‘you’ can sit through your agonizing web conference calls.

Tech platform Pickle– a service that will create your digital clone – offers a unique solution for those who want to avoid attending web conference calls in real-time. Users can create a digital avatar of themselves by submitting a five-minute training video. Once the avatar is ready, users can appear as if they are in their office – even if they are outdoors at a park or in their car. Avatars synch to users’ voices in different languages. The service works with popular conferencing apps like Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. Pickle offers different subscription plans ranging from $300 to $1,150 per year. (Source: TechCrunch)

Why this is important for your business:

If you’re an employer you should keep a lookout for such tools and know that they’re likely to become more popular. When you find an employee using – or more importantly abusing – apps like this then you have my permission to fire them. It’s misleading, under-handed and unethical. My opinion.

3 – Tech News: BNPL really does make shoppers spend more – report.

A recent report by London’s Imperial College Business School examined the impact of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) schemes on consumer spending. The report found that BNPL options lead to a ten percent increase in the amount customers spend. It also highlighted consumer behavior insights with data from 275,000 consumers – BNPL offers are particularly appealing to those who historically made smaller purchases while giving consumers a greater sense of control over their budgets. The report also underscored the potential risks for financially vulnerable customers taking on unsustainable levels of debt. (Source: Fashion Network)

Why this is important for your business:

BNPL is not a fad and platforms offering this service have grown significantly over the past few years. Research like this only affirms that merchants and retailers offering this form of financing can benefit through higher sales. My only plea is that you educate your customers about this. Sure, paying off their debt on time makes the service useful. But even though BNPL can be a useful way to afford (and offer) financing for those buyers that may not have credit cards, the penalties for missing payments or being late are steep. You should make sure your customers are aware of these potential issues.

4 – Tech News: This obscure Windows tool securely and utterly deletes hard drive data.

Arne Arnold of PCWorld reviewed the Windows tool known as Diskpart that can securely and completely delete data from hard drives. Diskpart overwrites all data on the hard drive with zeros, which is considered a secure deletion method for traditional hard drives (HDDs). To use Diskpart, open the command prompt with administrator rights and enter the command diskpart. From there, the user can list connected disks, select the disk to erase, and delete its contents. Arnold notes the method is not suitable for solid-state drives (SSDs). (Source: PCWorld)

Why this is important for your business:

I haven’t tried this out, but I’m about to. I’m replacing my business laptop soon and trading in my older device. I’ve been told by security experts that the best way to guarantee that the information stored on my laptop can’t be accessed by third-parties is to literally destroy the hardrive by hammering nails into it. But that limits my ability to trade in the device. This is why I’m hoping this software can allay my concerns about the security of the data on my device. Is this something you’ll try?

5 – Tech News: Most companies will increase IT spending in 2025.

Joe McKendrick of ZDNet reports on a recent survey by Spiceworks and Aberdeen Strategy and Research, which found that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of companies plan to boost their IT budgets next year. The biggest increases are expected in generative AI software (54 percent), security solutions (52 percent), and laptops (47 percent). Forty-three percent of executives said they plan to increase IT staff size. Though the data confirms a clear plan for increased IT spending, 92 percent of companies “intend to implement some form of cost savings relating to people, processes or technology,” McKendrick reports. (Source: ZDNet)

Why this is important for your business:

Are you reading behind the lines here? When companies say they’ll “implement some form of cost savings related to people” what does that tell you? Clearly, those companies increasing their tech spend, particularly those investing more in AI, are expecting to achieve some return on investment through lower overhead and payroll costs.