AI Business Flywheel
AI Business Flywheel

What Happens When AI Goes Down? How to Keep Your Business Running Without AI

20 August 2026 26:00 Duncan Isaksen-Loxton & Joe Bonington

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About this episode

What happens to your business when the AI tools you rely on suddenly stop working?

In this episode of the AI Business Flywheel Podcast, Duncan and Joe explore the growing risk of AI dependency and why small businesses need systems that can continue operating even when tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Copilot become unavailable.

They discuss the difference between using AI as leverage and allowing AI to become a single point of failure inside your business. From maintaining human-readable SOPs to creating backup workflows, switching between AI models, and protecting critical business information, this episode breaks down how to build AI-supported systems without losing the ability to work without them.

The conversation also covers:

  • The difference between AI leverage and AI dependency
  • Why AI outages should be part of your business continuity planning
  • The hidden risk of AI producing confidently incorrect information
  • Why employees should still understand how to complete important tasks without AI
  • How to switch between ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other AI platforms
  • Why SOPs and business processes should remain human-readable
  • How to structure files and workflows outside individual AI platforms
  • Why AI should improve an existing process rather than become the process
  • How deterministic workflows can make AI systems more reliable
  • Why human judgment is still necessary in AI automation
  • How context windows can affect AI performance
  • Why important AI-generated information should be exported and stored
  • The risks of relying entirely on cloud storage
  • Why businesses need backup copies of critical files
  • How to create a practical AI downtime and fallback plan

The goal is not to stop using AI.

The goal is to make sure AI gives your business leverage without becoming a single point of failure.


Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to the AI Business Flywheel Podcast
00:41 - 1:19 What Happens When AI Goes Down?
1:22 - 1:59 AI Going Down Isn't the Biggest Risk
2:01 - 3:01 AI Dependency vs. AI Leverage
4:54 - 5:20 Keep Your SOPs Outside the LLM
5:23 - 5:43 Markdown and JSON Explained
6:45 - 7:23 Building an AI-Supported Content Workflow
7:33 - 7:44 AI Should Sit on Top of a Working Business
7:57 - 8:36 Case Study: AI-Supported Client Reporting
11:15 - 12:18 Deterministic vs. Non-Deterministic Work
13:54 - 14:17 Prove the Process With Humans First
15:03 - 15:43 Download and Centralize Your AI Outputs
16:04 - 17:03 Google Drive Can Also Be a Single Point of Failure
18:37 - 18:52 Cloud Backup Should Include More Than Google Drive
19:40 - 20:02 Employee Offboarding Can Accidentally Delete Business Files
20:57 - 21:16 Audit How Much Your Business Depends on AI
22:34 - 23:06 Final AI Business Continuity Checklist
23:06 - 23:24 Final Takeaway: AI Should Be Leverage, Not a Single Point of Failure

Watch More Episodes

Watch more episodes of the AI Business Flywheel Podcast and discover practical ways to use technology and AI in your small business:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AIBusinessFlywheel
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033YpGz5XxhMLPLTx5H1pw
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-business-flywheel/id6791598888

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