TalkSTRIVE ForumMay 2026
Choose the right AI tool.Use it right.
Part 2 of the STRIVE Forum AI miniseries. A 90-minute hands-on workshop for small business owners choosing between the dozen AI tools landing in their inbox every week. Two short concept blocks, two embedded labs, and a four-question rubric to grade any AI output before sending it.
- Presented by
- Rex Black Inc.
- Event
- STRIVE Forum, May 2026
- Format
- Hands-on workshop, 90 min
Abstract
Two short concepts. Two hands-on labs. One take-home checklist.
Part 1 of this miniseries (April) covered the six flaws of AI tools that never go away, and the Green / Yellow / Red rule for deciding which tasks are even worth turning on. Part 2 picks up the next question every founder is now facing: of the dozen AI tools you're being pitched, which one do you actually pick for which task, and how do you know the output is good enough to send?
This is a workshop, not a lecture. Two short concept blocks bracket two hands-on labs. The first lab compares up to three AI models side by side on a prompt from your own business. The second walks through the six layers of an AI agent so you can tell when a vendor is selling you an agent for a task that only needs a workflow.
You'll leave with a three-tier framework for matching tool to task, a four-question rubric for grading any AI output, and a seven-step decision checklist you can tape to your monitor and run against every task you're tempted to automate.
Outline
What the talk covers, in order.
Sixty-second recap of Part 1
Green / Yellow / Red, the six flaws, and the question Part 2 picks up: of the AI tools out there, which one do I actually use for this task?
The four questions every tool has to answer
Capability, speed, cost, trust. Every AI tool is a tradeoff across these four. Nothing is best on all of them at once, and pretending otherwise is the most expensive mistake in small-business AI adoption.
Three tiers, in plain English
Quick & cheap for drafts, summaries, FAQs, and routine email. Stronger thinker for strategy, analysis, and proposal writing. Top-tier or verified for anything customer-facing, revenue-impacting, or compliance-sensitive. Pick the cheapest tier that does the job.
Lab 1 · Compare three models on a task from your business
Fifteen-minute hands-on lab using rexblack.com/labs/compare-models. Drop in a real prompt, pick three models, see cost / time / output side by side, then come back and share what surprised you.
The four-question grading rubric
Useful, fast enough, worth it, trustworthy. Four yes/no questions to run against every output before sending. The fourth is the most important and the most ignored, and it's the difference between a useful tool and an expensive embarrassment.
The rubric applied · Three worked examples
Weekly newsletter draft, a $50K proposal, an auto-reply to a customer complaint. Same rubric, three different recommendations, each one tells you something specific to do.
Lab 2 · What is an AI agent?
Eight-minute hands-on lab using rexblack.com/labs/agent-anatomy. The six layers behind every production agent in plain English, so you can tell when a vendor is pitching you an agent for a task that only needs a workflow.
The take-home decision checklist
Seven steps to run against every task you're tempted to automate. Color it. Pick the tier. Grade the output. Pick the review step. Set a spend cap. Two-week tally. Reassess monthly. If you can do the first four in under sixty seconds, you've internalized the framework.
Share-out · One task this week
Two minutes a person. Pick one task, decide the tier, decide the review step, name what success looks like at two weeks. Saying it out loud is how the framework gets sticky.
Key takeaways
Four things to remember.
Every AI tool trades four things
Capability, speed, cost, trust. Nothing wins on all four. Pick the cheapest tier that does the job, move up only when the cheap tier visibly fails on your task.
Three tiers, named
Quick & cheap for drafts and routine work. Stronger thinker for strategy and proposals. Top-tier or verified for customer-facing or compliance-sensitive output. The cost gap from tier 1 to tier 3 is roughly 30x on the same task.
Four questions, every output
Is it useful for my specific task? Fast enough for how I'll use it? Worth what it costs? Trustworthy enough to send, or does it need human review? The fourth one is what most people skip.
Most agents should be workflows
When a vendor pitches you an agent for a task with a clear five-step structure, ask why a workflow with one good prompt isn't enough. Workflows are cheaper, more predictable, and easier to operate.
Closing
The point of tonight is not that you leave knowing every AI tool. It's that you leave with a way to decide. The market is going to keep launching new tools every week. The framework, four questions, three tiers, one checklist, doesn't change when the tools do.
Run the checklist on one task this week. Run it on a second next week. By the time we meet again, you'll have a feel for which tasks in your business pay back the AI investment and which ones don't. That's the asset, not any particular tool.
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