I was watching Noah Kahan, the SNL musical guest over the weekend, when I came to a realization about why I’ve had a pretty big resurgence in my interest in the show lately.

Yes — part of it is the 50th anniversary last year and the increased media coverage around the show. Part of it is the sketches are available on YouTube and Peacock+, and easier to watch.

Doing It Live

But it’s more than that. And it wasn’t until I watched the last few musical guests (something I usually skip) that I realized why. On SNL, you’re really doing it. It’s live. You need the talent. You need the skill. And you need the confidence to excel, and be willing to mess up.

I know I’ve been talking about AI a lot lately. Seems like everyone in our space has. But it’s against this backdrop that I was thinking about SNL. Noah Kahan sang live and it was impressive. So did Olivia Rodrigo. It’s a requirement for the show, and the one time someone didn’t, they were universally panned for it.

The sheer force of effort needed to do a single show is amazing too. You basically have a week to write and rehearse the entire thing, with some changes coming during the final dress. You need to be prepared.

AI Cannot Replace This

Then there are people who are too scared, or lazy, to make any decision without the help of AI. “Well I’m not good at this — Claude is better,” or “I’ve trained it in my voice so it’s OK.” This is how one gets worse, not better. By not practicing something, you’ll never get good at it. By not continuing to do something, you’ll get worse.

Couple this with a fantastic article I read called The task is not the job, and you’ll see why I’m finding even more inspiration in what SNL is doing. People still want human interaction. They want human relationships, and they want human experiences.

As solopreneurs, we’re better positioned than many to offer these. We can tell people, “when you hire my company, you get me.” But I also understand that many turn to AI because they don’t feel they have the time to do everything.

Automate The Process Tasks

So what can you do? You use AI and automations for process stuff — your planned, repeatable tasks that can run in the background as automated systems. You don’t have to do them, freeing up your time to do the work that truly matters.

An example from SNL could be the structure of the show: cold open, monologue, usually a pre-taped sketch, etc. They don’t need to start from scratch every week, so they can focus on writing that fits the format. It’s also the dozens (or maybe hundreds) of processes they have for costumes, makeup, set design, and everything behind the scenes that we don’t see.

I feel like we’ve lost the thread on this. And much like we’re better positioned for deeply connective work, we’re more susceptible to losing our businesses to AI. Not because people replace us with Claude, but because we let what makes us truly valuable atrophy.

I’ve been thinking of a way to combat this. Just a few years ago, the main problem was, “I don’t know what I can automate.” Today, it’s “everything seems automateable, from emailing clients to creating video.” In other words, the problem is distinguishing what in our process should be automated.

A Possible Solution

So I’m working on a new cohort called Automation Foundations. It’s designed to help you automate the planned, repeatable stuff so you can focus on connecting with your customers, and solving their problems in a way a glorified word calculator can’t.

If you’re interested, join the mailing list below to learn more…