Tri-Cities AI Lab

Plain-spoken AI consulting and web work for small and mid-size businesses across Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Run by Dustin Lifford in Kingsport.

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Nearly half of local owners have never checked what AI tells customers about them. Meanwhile AI keeps closing open businesses and inventing $4 pizza deals.

Here's a free check of what AI can tell customers from your homepage.
https://t.co/UTRnk6ouHh

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Thank you to every veteran, and to the families who served alongside them. #VeteransDay

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

One hacker's AI agents reportedly got into 100+ companies. The common thread was sites nobody was maintaining. Can you name who updates yours, and when they last did? https://t.co/4oYoiDd0Jx

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

A customer sent Boll & Branch photos of torn sheets. One still had an AI watermark on it.

A photo is a claim now, not proof. Check what it's supposed to prove instead.

https://t.co/7yZ5ErM6jC

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

If finding your own logo takes a group text, you need a one-page brand kit. Ours is public. Borrow the format. https://t.co/ifxcc0qXiJ

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

A photo used to settle a refund or an expense report. Now a fake takes seconds. Don't argue with the picture. Check what it's supposed to prove, like the order, the card statement or the item itself. https://t.co/alCnVxAjmd

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Automation demos always run the easy job. Ours lets you run the weird one too, and watch where the contractor stays in charge. Real workflow, sample jobs. https://t.co/yrLdhg0FPz

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Holiday shoppers will ask AI if you're open Saturday. It'll answer either way. This free check shows what your homepage is telling it, plus one fix to make this week. https://t.co/yEJsoXu3XQ

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

A holiday program came to me with a prototype that only ran in one browser. Here's how it became the registration system Jonesborough families started using this week.
https://t.co/vTJQZsMJx7

Need help, or want to sponsor or volunteer? https://t.co/zVnaIUk9Qz

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Halloween seems like the right time to talk about ghosts. Specifically, the ones AI cites.

Made-up sources, fake links, policies nobody wrote, all said with total confidence.

Open the links. Check the source. That part is still a person’s job.

https://t.co/aFbns1zJU9

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

Before anyone in Kingsport sold internet access, the Tri-Cities was on bulletin boards. 24 of them by June 1994. Seven left in one week that November, the month Preferred Internet opened.

Part 2 of my Tri-Cities tech history series. The full six-minute version is in the reply.

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Scan_0042.pdf tells you one thing. There were 41 before it. At two minutes a file, 100 files a week is about 167 hours a year. Let AI suggest the name and keep a person approving. https://t.co/E5zq0wxwoY

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Scan_0042.pdf tells you one thing, which is that there were 41 before it.

AI can suggest the real name and the right folder now. A person should still approve it. Here's what's out there and what goes wrong.

https://t.co/E5zq0wxwoY

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

One hacker's AI agents broke into 100+ company websites for about $50 each. Then PHP announced two critical flaws. We patched our servers the day the fix shipped.

Who updates your website? https://t.co/4oYoiDd0Jx

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

AI told customers a bakery was closing. It wasn’t. It sent Bristol plumber searches to Bristol, England.

What AI says about local businesses, and the 15-minute fix.

https://t.co/UTRnk6ouHh

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Run the free homepage check and read the full breakdown at https://t.co/7PrD5UZh1V

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Don't test ChatGPT by typing your own company name. A real buyer doesn't know it yet.

Open an incognito chat and type the actual problem a local customer has at 5:30 p.m., then ask which specific sites it read to pick those businesses.

Free homepage check in the reply.

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

An AI told customers a bakery in Ontario was closing. It was a bakery in Illinois.

Check what AI can tell people about you before they ask. Free homepage check in the post.

https://t.co/UTRnk6p2wP

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Some calls to local businesses now come from AI assistants asking on someone else’s behalf. Hours, prices, openings.

Same questions customers always ask. Just faster, and checked against your website.

The fix is boring. Make your info match everywhere.

https://t.co/hxzt7ERX3A

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

My own site scored a 25 on Cloudflare's free AI agent-readiness scan, which was awkward for a guy who sells AI consulting. One evening of fixes got it to 83. It's a technical check, not proof of more customers. The plain-English version is here. https://t.co/ki1Yk55hY9