I thought AI was a glorified Google. I was so wrong.
Wisdom Business Retreat 2026
I’m going to be honest.
Six months ago, I thought AI was a glorified Google. You type something in, it spits something out, and most of its probably wrong anyway. That was my entire understanding. I co-own a concrete pool company. I’m not in tech. It just wasn’t something I’d thought would revolutionise my business.
Oooft. I was so wrong.
Matt and I went on a retreat with our business coach. We sat in a room with people who are genuinely pioneering this space - not tech bros in hoodies (it’s bali mate, it was boiling), just smart, curious humans who’d figured out how to use these tools to run their businesses better. And something clicked.
Not in a “the future is here” kind of way. More like a quiet realisation: this could actually help us do what we already care about but do it better.
So, we started.
What we’re building behind the scenes
I’m not going to dress this up in jargon. Here’s what we’re actively developing inside Cronulla Pools right now.
Getting better at how we show up for you
We’re developing tools that help our team reflect on how we communicate. Not to monitor conversations - to learn from them. To look at how we show up in those early chats and ask ourselves: are we listening well enough? Are we picking up on what actually matters to this person? Are we making them feel heard?
It’s professional development, powered by AI. The goal is simple - by the time we sit down with you, we’ve already done the work on ourselves to make sure that conversation is as good as it can be.
Understanding your site before we call
We’re building automation that will evaluate every new site enquiry before we even pick up the phone. Not just the basics - a proper look at your block, your access, your setbacks, any overlays or constraints that could affect what’s possible.
Why does that matter? Because the earlier we understand what we’re working with, the earlier we can flag anything that might affect compliance, buildability, or your budget. That’s the stuff that catches people off guard three months into a project if nobody’s looked properly upfront. We want to know before you do - so by the time we’re sitting down together, we’re already thinking about solutions, not surprises.
Seeing every job at a glance
At any given time, we’ve got multiple pool builds running across Sydney. Different stages, different trades, different timelines. Keeping track of where every single job sits has always taken hours of manual checking, chasing, and cross-referencing.
We’re integrating AI into our project management systems so Matt and I can see a complete overview of every active build in minutes. Not hours. Minutes. Less time buried in admin. More time making decisions that actually move your build forward.
Smarter systems, fewer things slipping through
We’re also developing automation to sort and categorise our emails - no more manual rule-setting, no more important messages sitting in the wrong place. It sounds small, but when you’re running a business where communication is everything - and ours is - it matters more than you’d think.
Here’s what AI will never replace
I want to be really clear about this, because I think there’s a lot of fear around AI and what it means for service businesses.
We are a service-led company. We love meeting our clients. We love sitting at your kitchen table and hearing about the pool you’ve been thinking about for years. We love the chaos of construction and the moment we hand over and you see it finished for the first time.
AI will never replace that. And we will never want it to.
What it will do is make everything around those moments sharper. The admin gets tighter. The communication gets faster. The gaps get smaller. And that means your experience with us - the human, face-to-face, real-life experience - gets better. Because we’re spending less time on the stuff that bogs us down and more time on the stuff that matters.
Why I’m telling you this
Because I think transparency is one of the most important things a business can offer. We talk openly about our pricing. We talk openly about our build process. So it felt right to talk openly about this too.
We’re not pretending to be a tech company. We’re a medium size family-run pool business in Cronulla that’s choosing to invest in being better. Not bigger. Better.
I’m still learning. Some of this is up and running, some of it we’re still building. Some days it’s exciting and some days my brain genuinely hurts. But I believe the businesses that will thrive - in our industry and every other - are the ones willing to be uncomfortable and keep upskilling. Not because it’s trendy. Because their clients deserve it.
We’re building pools. But we’re also building a better business behind them. And I’m not going to pretend I’ve got it all figured out.
I just know we’re not standing still. And I’m glad I stopped treating AI like a glorified Google - because what we’re building for our clients is something I’m genuinely proud of.
— Kate
