J.B. Herrera, founder and CEO of Synergi AI, joins Josh Elledge on The Thoughtful Entrepreneur to talk about aI guided by your values and budget. J.B. Herrera of Synergi AI says most people don't know what AI costs to run, and that a team's values, not the frontier labs, should guide its AI.

• Your values should guide your AI. J.B. says Synergi AI lets a business owner set the guardrails and bright lines instead of leaving them to the frontier labs.
• Share one context across the team. If every employee runs their own ChatGPT or Claude, J.B. says, everybody's context is different.
• Know what AI costs to run. J.B. says the labs underwrite their monthly fees, and the real cost shows up when many people use a tool every day.
• Align, then strategize, then act. Most companies go right to tactics, J.B. says, before they've done the work of aligning and setting strategy.

What does Synergi AI do? J.B. says Synergi AI turns about 35 years of work with small and medium-sized businesses into agents that support different roles in a company.

How is this different from loading a project with knowledge files? J.B. says it's much more than that.

Why does AI get expensive for small businesses? J.B. says the frontier labs underwrite their monthly fees, so the true cost is hidden.

“It's your human brilliance augmented by AI, amplified by AI, not the other way around.” J.B. Herrera

J.B. leads Synergi AI, a Sacramento firm that designs values-driven AI for small and mid-sized organizations, and is the designer of the Insight 360 process. His site lists 35+ years of experience at companies like Apple and Arbitron, and he is the author of Collaborative Capitalism.

• Synergi AI website
• J.B. Herrera on LinkedIn
• Full article and transcript on podverified.com

The Thoughtful Entrepreneur is a daily podcast where Josh Elledge talks with founders and business leaders about what is working right now. Want to be a guest? Apply at podverified.com/podcast. Curious how podcast hosts see you as a guest? Get your free PodVerified Score.