Yes, businesses need to use AI. What was once optional has become a necessity. The release of Google’s Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro represents the biggest leap forward in AI since ChatGPT launched, and it immediately changes how businesses work, compete, and find customers. Companies that ignore AI are now operating at a serious disadvantage.
This isn’t about what AI might do in a year. The change has already happened. We’re just realizing the implications. If your business does any kind of computer-based work, competitors using AI are going to have a massive advantage over you. And if you do blue-collar work, AI is increasingly influencing whether customers choose you or your competitor.
What Makes Gemini 3 Such a Big Deal?
Google’s Gemini 3 is now widely regarded as the smartest language model available. It topped industry benchmarks immediately upon release, outperforming previous models in reasoning, coding, and multimodal understanding. Within days, it reached the #1 spot on LMArena’s AI model rankings.
What’s significant is that Google added Gemini 3 to all their products on day one, including Google AI mode inside of search. This is the first time Google has immediately deployed a new model into search results, which signals their confidence in its capabilities.
Even competitors have acknowledged the leap. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff described the difference after two hours of testing: the improvements in reasoning, speed, and overall quality felt like a fundamental shift. OpenAI reportedly accelerated its GPT-5.2 release as a direct response to close the gap Google created.
At this point, Google’s lead seems too big for anyone to catch. By the time we understand all the implications of Gemini 3, there will probably be another release, and it will probably be from Google.
What About Image Generation?
Google’s Nano Banana Pro is now the best image generation model available. Built on the Gemini 3 platform, it solves problems that have plagued AI image generators for years.
The most notable improvement is text rendering. Previous AI image generators produced gibberish or mangled letters when you needed text in an image. Nano Banana Pro can create marketing graphics, mockups, and infographics with correctly rendered, legible text directly in the image. It generates visuals up to 4K resolution and handles multilingual text accurately.
Early testing from Wired confirmed that Nano Banana Pro is vastly better at generating text in images than previous models. It’s already integrated into tools like Google Slides and Google Ads for business use. In tests, it produced detailed marketing materials with full sentences in multiple fonts from a single prompt.
This matters for businesses because professional-quality visual content is now accessible without expensive design tools or specialized skills.
How Does AI Affect Blue-Collar Businesses Like Plumbing or Trades?
Even if you do blue-collar work, AI is changing how your customers find you. People are increasingly asking AI assistants questions like “Who’s the best plumber near me?” and getting direct answers. The AI pulls from online reviews, ratings, and business listings to recommend specific contractors.
If your business has a weak digital presence or poor reviews, the AI might recommend your competitor instead. This effectively makes AI the new word-of-mouth, but on a global, algorithmic scale.
Tradespeople are also adopting AI tools directly. A recent survey found that over 70% of tradespeople have tried AI tools, and about 40% use them actively in their work. Plumbers are using ChatGPT on tablets during house calls to create invoices, write proposals, and troubleshoot complicated problems. One Florida air conditioning company automated its entire booking process with AI and saw a $370,000 increase in revenue in 30 days.
A business that ignores these trends may find itself overlooked by the next generation of customers.
Can a Business Still Compete Without Using AI?
Attempting to compete without AI is increasingly a recipe for failure. In a recent survey, 69% of senior executives said that refusing to use AI poses a greater threat to a worker’s job than AI itself. Over half admitted they would replace employees who resist adopting AI tools.
Here’s a useful comparison: not using AI in 2025 is like trying to do white-collar work without a computer. If you hired someone and they said they prefer paper and pencil for everything, it wouldn’t work out. We’re quickly heading into a future where AI operates the same way.
One analysis put it directly: companies that fail to invest in AI capability will struggle to exist. The marketplace will reward companies that intelligently integrate AI to enhance their offerings. Those that don’t will increasingly find themselves too slow, too expensive, or too outdated.
How Do You Identify Which Tasks AI Can Handle?
There are almost certainly things being done in your organization right now by humans that could be done better, faster, and cheaper by AI. Even if that wasn’t true last week, it’s almost certainly true this week.
Start by examining your team’s day-to-day activities. Flag tasks that are repetitive, high-volume, data-driven, or time-consuming. These are prime candidates for AI automation.
Look for the “3 D’s”: tasks that are dull (repetitive and boring), digital (moving information between systems), or data-heavy (involving large amounts of processing or analysis). If a task makes you think, “There must be a faster way to do this,” AI is probably that way.
Common examples include generating reports, analyzing data, writing first drafts of content, scheduling, managing emails, and processing invoices. One Chicago plumbing company used AI to rewrite their website content and auto-post weekly updates to their Google Business profile. The result was a 43% increase in calls within three months with no additional ad spend.
The key is to start small but smart. Pick a task that drains time and energy, automate it with current AI tools, and iterate from there.
Has AI Moved Past Producing Low-Quality “Slop”?
The people who have been saying since ChatGPT launched that AI will never be as good as humans, or that AI can only produce slop, just can’t say that with a straight face anymore. Anyone claiming AI is just a fun toy that’s hit a plateau just got proven wrong.
Yes, early AI often produced output that lacked depth or accuracy. Researchers have documented “workslop,” where AI work appears complete on the surface but requires significant cleanup. A recent study found that about 40% of U.S. workers have encountered such AI slop, each instance taking nearly two hours to fix.
But that was the old reality. Gemini 3 demonstrates what researchers call “PhD-level reasoning” on challenging exams and significantly better factual accuracy. On one complex reasoning benchmark, Gemini 3 scored almost twice as high as GPT-5 Pro while running at one-tenth the cost. On answering niche questions, it scored more than two times higher than GPT-5.1.
The technology has advanced at a blistering pace. AI is no longer a toy that produces sketchy results. It’s a serious tool capable of high-quality work when used correctly.
Is the Time Investment to Learn AI Worth It?
Yes. Understanding what AI can do and how to implement it into your workflows is a superpower. It will become less and less optional as AI becomes more powerful.
Will it take time? Yes. Sometimes a task will take longer at first because you’re using AI. Sometimes you’ll spend hours trying to get AI to do something before realizing it’s not quite there yet. That’s part of the learning curve.
History shows a pattern here. When personal computers first entered offices, there was a period where productivity didn’t improve because people were still learning the tools. The real boost came later, once workers became proficient and processes were redesigned. Researchers have observed the same “productivity J-curve” with AI.
An MIT study of firms adopting AI found an initial dip in productivity, but after companies invested in training and process changes, those same firms outperformed their peers in both productivity and market share growth.
The temporary slowdown is an investment in knowledge. Once you gain proficiency, you’ll not only recoup that lost time but far exceed it. The companies that persevere and integrate AI deeply will have a lasting advantage.
What Should You Do Next?
If you’re doing any work on a computer or paying anyone to do work on a computer, you should be putting in significant effort to figure out how much of that work can be handled or assisted by AI. It’s just not optional anymore.
The businesses that embrace AI now, whether by using it directly or by ensuring they show up when AI recommends providers in their industry, will have concrete advantages in growth and customer acquisition.
If you’re not sure where to start, TJ Digital offers a free digital marketing audit that includes an analysis of how AI is affecting your industry and where you have opportunities to get ahead.
TJ Robertson is the founder of TJ Digital, an AI optimization agency that helps small to medium businesses show up in AI-powered search results and large language models like ChatGPT.