Driving Innovation and Workforce Development Through Artificial Intelligence with Jabaree Allen

This episode of Economic Vitality Unplugged features Jabaree Allen, founder of Phusion AI, discussing how artificial intelligence is transforming local business and workforce development in Tallahassee-Leon County.

Allen shares his journey from growing up in Perry, Florida, and studying entrepreneurship at Florida State University to becoming an early tester of ChatGPT and launching his own AI companies. He explains how Phusion AI began by building chatbots to help small businesses handle customer inquiries and has evolved to deploying voice agents that can make and receive calls, freeing up valuable time for business owners.

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Economic Vitality Unplugged takes a deep dive into people, policies, and projects, shaping Tallahassee-Leon County’s economy.

[Keith] Well, welcome to Economic Vitality Unplugged,

the podcast where we explore the people, businesses, and ideas that are shaping, Tallahassee

Leon County's economic future. I'm your host Keith Bowers, and today we're diving into a topic,

transforming industries around the world. We're gonna be talking about artificial intelligence, and how it's being

built and applied right here in our backyard in Tallahassee Leon County. My guest is

at the forefront of that movement. His name is Jabaree Allen. He's the founder of Phusion AI.

He's an entrepreneur, an innovator, a community connector, and he's basically leading

the conversation in the AI space. He's deeply engaged with local businesses, educational institutions,

and a number of community stakeholders. Jabari, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here. [Jabaree] Hey, Keith,

thanks for having me. [Keith] Yeah, thank you for coming. So let's start with your journey. You

built a company tackling big challenges using AI. But before we get into the

tech part of it, take us back. What inspired you in your entrepreneurial path? And how did

you come up with the idea for the Phusion AI? How did that come to life for you?

[Jabaree] That is a very interesting topic. Always good to get that question. And I'm a career nerd. All

my life. I was an Inspector Gadget kid. And I watched MacGyver. I have always been into gadgets

and gidgets, technology, that type of stuff all of my life. I'm from a small town, right outside of Tallahassee,

Perry, Florida. And the find out that entrepreneurialism runs in my bloodline. So

my great-great-grandfather was the first African-American to own a gas station in my hometown.

And he owned a barbershop, a pahrmacy. And so I think that's kind of where it started. Went

to Florida State, graduated. I got a few degrees from Florida State Business Management Administration, and

then the JMI Institute of Entrepreneurship. So my educational background is in Entrepreneurship,

and I graduated, worked in corporate America, kind of figured some things out. And I was really

actually into AI before it got the popular term AI. We were using software to do process

automation, and that intrigued me. And once I left the company that I was working

with, great company, I decided to take that application and put it into a more consumer-based

role. So we were focused on government and municipalities, things like that. And so I decided to take

that technology and put it into small businesses and that's where my first company, where you and I met,

Business Automation Pros was born. And that's kind of where my entrepreneur

journey started in the tech world. And then I was actually invited while being the owner of Business

Automation Pros via a technology newsletter to be a part of the beta team for Chat GPT.

So being one of the early testers of the technology and as you could probably imagine when you first

saw it work, this was 2017-18, I was very just mind blown

by the technology and wanted to know how could I get into this and not just for myself but I knew the

impact that it would have on our community, my family and counterparts. And I started

trying to figure it out and it was quite a few years later that I was able to figure it

out and kind of got the vision for Phusion AI. [Keith] Yeah, that's an interesting pathway

and the fact that entrepreneurialism is in your blood. I think it speaks volume because like I said,

the opening of the show, you're leading this conversation in our community and coming up with different technical

applications for AI specifically as to how small businesses can utilize

this resource. So for some listeners, AI is still like a buzzword but you're making

it real for the businesses that you have as clients. Can you give us a sense of how Phusion

AI solutions work and where they make the biggest difference.

[Jabaree] We actually started off in an application that has been around quite some time, it is just advanced

and that's the chatbot industry. So having these chatbots that live on your website, people can go to, we've

all interacted with them and building those chatbots and pretty much deploying them to small businesses,

which allows them to free up time, right? As you imagine, a lot of small businesses don't have the resources

to answer the phone, schedule meetings, try to provide a service, try to provide a product and have a ton

of resources to even have a payroll for people to do all these things. And so we started off as a chatbot company

where we were building these chatbots, deploying them to businesses websites, so that a prospect

or customer could come to their website and engage with a chatbot, ask whatever questions that

they may need to ask. They have that initial interaction in a real thinking

model or bot that would be trained on your business, right? Most of the time, where people call in to a business,

they're asking what we refer to as FAQs or frequently asked questions. And so what we were

doing is training these bots on the frequently asked questions and then just providing some additional links and

things. And this was early on that a customer would save that phone call. Having

them save that phone call takes away 15-20 minutes for you as a business owner. And you can still provide

the level of service that would be helpful to a customer or a prospect and really capture that information. And

that's where the big part of the chatbot was where everybody that visited your website and engaged, it captured

a name and an email at bare minimum. Sometimes, more information than that, you could figure out what they were interested

in, what made them come to the website. Their phone number, right? And once we capture that information now,

that's a warm or hot lead, right? Somebody came to my website, they engaged. We know what service or

product they're looking for. And now we can follow up. And so that's kind of where we started. And we have far, far,

far evolved from that. Now we are deploying voice agents that actually make those

outbound and take those inbound phone calls to customers. And as you could probably imagine, that is

a big game changer for small businesses. Because that allows you a lot of time, right? We have agents that literally

have full conversations with customers and prospects and not just inbound calls. But if you've got

a list of leads that you want to call on and verify that lead, or qualify that lead, we now have agents

that can be deployed, that need no break, that really have integrated into those small businesses.

And we are seeing some phenomenal results as a part of it. [Keith] Wow. Yeah, and you're right, I think it

kind of goes back to where I look at AI. And I think for me, my first exposure

to AI was something as simple as Grammarly, where you're typing and then ask

you, did you mean this? Or did you want this to be clearer? All these other things. But that is just scratching

the surface of the capacity and capabilities of AI. So what is one of the

biggest misconceptions that you hear about AI from clients or the public?

[Jabaree] Back to what you just referred to, keep one of the things that people don't even understand is that they have been engaging or

using artificial

intelligence. We all have way before that If you've ever paid a game of Tetris.

You know, Tetris was one of the very early forms of artificial intelligence. If you've ever been using your text

messaging somebody and the text finishes the sentences or finishes the word that you start typing,

right? If you type "t-o" and then it says tomorrow, and it can tell that tomorrow would go in the context of

the sentence that you're typing. That's artificial intelligence. And so a lot of people are saying that they're

afraid of the technology, but we've been using it for so long. It's been around, and that's

one of the very common things that a lot of people are worried about, or misconceived about, is that this

technology is going to take over the world, right? One thing that we must do is we must

embrace this. AI itself will not replace people. What will replace

people is people using artificial intelligence. And I'm sure you've all heard that, right?

Bloomberg wrote a report a few weeks ago saying that one person using artificial intelligence

can replace 50 to 100 people not using AI in the workspace, right?

So we have to grab this bull by the horns and it's not something that we can avoid. It is in every

aspect of our lives from school to business and work. And even churches

now are using artificial intelligence. I've had a few churches reach out to me saying how can we use AI?

Can you put a chatbot on our website to let people know where we're located when we offer services and

what it's like to join our church, share some of these experiences. And so this is not something we can run from and

a myth that people has is they can avoid it. It's unavoidable. [Keith] Yeah.

Yeah, that is so true. Now, one thing that you touched upon in your previous comment is that

the fear that AI is going to replace individuals. And a lot

of people don't view it just as a new tool. But some people, like you said, the people that are trying

to stay ahead of the curve, they view it as a new opportunity for people. So, let's

talk workforce development. And I know that you have participated in some of our community summits as it pertains

to the implications of AI and workforce development. How is Phusion AI helping to

prepare local talent for the jobs and careers of the future? [Jabaree] This is my favorite

question to answer, Keith, and you are absolutely right. A quick story about how I get here because people

ask me all the time. How did you get into AI? Where do I start? Over the course of about 12 months.

I've done about 11 and a half, 12 years worth of course work getting certifications in

AI from big organizations like Google and IBM, Stanford University, Vanderbilt

University and most recently I'm proud to say that I've certified in Videa, the most valuable

company in the world. I have an AI certification from. And typically when I get the question of where do I

get started? I always answer with you can take these certifications, start where I started in the prompt engineering.

It's not that technical. And what I found is that I was speaking from a biased place when I say something's not that technical because

I'm a technical person. And so out of the probably 50 to 100 people that I've recommended this to, maybe two or

three have come back and said hey look I got that certification or I've seen them on LinkedIn and they give me a shout-out saying thanks

to Mr. Allen for this. And that's a problem, right? We need to understand.

And so you heard it here first is we are launching the Phusion AI Academy. It is

a place where every day people, even people who have a little bit of technical background,

or non-technical background, I am taking 13 years worth of course work and not be, I mean

I don't know how many applications I built out and implemented and I'm putting it into what

we're calling a Phusion AI Mastery Certification, where people can take

pride in knowing that they are able to come to a place where I fit both sides of the wheel, I can speak very

technical and then I can speak in layman's terms where the everyday person who has no idea about artificial

intelligence can come. And so we're looking at the launch of Phusion AI Academy, where you can come and get

certifications in artificial intelligence and starting off with the intro to artificial

intelligence and then we go to prompt engineering and then we go to building out

custom GPTs and chatbots and then we go to creating these voice agents and then

the final certification, if you decide to take all five of these, is building a fully integrated

artificial intelligence agent and that will combine all of the technologies, the voice capabilities,

the email, the scheduling and if you take all five of them you will get five individual certifications but you will

then get a Phusion AI Mastery cert. Some people are only going to want to come and get the introduction

of AI which is perfectly fine. You will understand the foundations, what you need to know and then you can again

take these certifications individually as well as take them all and get that mastery certification and that

is our way of letting everyday people who are non-technical get some certifications

in artificial intelligence and something that they can hold a tangible certificate that they can hold

in their hand, add to their resume, add to their LinkedIn, and add value to themselves and then I'm

obviously sitting on different boards and working with the OEV, Lively Technical, a lot

of the high schools or a K-12 educational system to talk about the skills that we'll

need in the future. And I'm proud to say working along with Dr. Murdaugh at TSC and

Dr. Angela Long, working alongside the Tallahassee Chamber. Working with you

at the OEV to make sure that we are equipping our community with the skills and things that

we need to be able to drive forward and not be behind because, unfortunately, as a country, we are quite

behind, but at least we're starting somewhere, right? We've got to start somewhere. [Keith] Yeah, actually, I think that's

perfect because the more and more people, that was going to be my next comment. I mean, you have been preaching this to the

community as a whole and you just rattled off a list of the folks that, you know,

you have basically partnered with in getting this message out there. Why is that so important

for you? Why is it important for you to make sure that the entire community is having this conversation

and looking at using AI for various solutions? [Jabaree] I've always been told, and

our dear friend, Darryl Jones, he never lets me forget that I'm compassionate. I care about our people. To be honest

with you, Keith, Phusion AI was not something I started for me. It was because I knew the impact that it would

have. I was already in a pretty solid spot with this Automation Pros automated processes and that's something

that I would love to do, but I realized the impact, right, that my children are going

to be really impacted. Everybody that you and I know will have some type

of implication from artificial intelligence, just because the technology that is behind it is something

that we have not seen before, right? I don't know about you, but Keith, for a good solid email, it takes

me every bit of 30-45 minutes to type it up. [Keith] Yeah, same here. [Jabaree] Now having

Co-pilot or Gemini or some of these other tools, I can say, hey, look, take this PDF

or this resume or whatever document I want to reference. And write Keith a quick summary, introduction,

letting him know that this is what I want to talk about. Or, you know, whatever, and it does it. And I only have to go back and do some

tweaks,

right? It takes me maybe three or four minutes to write a really complicated email. And so I just knew the

impact that it would have on our community. And I also knew the opportunity that could lie ahead if we

were to grab this bull by the horns and decide to be leaders in this space. And I can't

mention the way that I've seen literally TSC. I mean Dr. Murdaugh and Dr.

Long have traveled to Geneva and traveled around the world and so you can now

get an associates degree at TSC in artificial intelligence, right? They have

really dove deep. And I think the community as a whole has really decided that

we're not gonna wait behind. And I think we have a very unique place in the world, not just in the state

or in the country, because of something that you have been, you've done a lot, the Magnet

program. [Keith] The MagLab. [Jabaree] The MagLab, right? The MagLab, there's a technology,

it's not Phusion like we spell Phusion here, but it's "f", with an "f", fusion energy, which

is a combination of electrical and a magnetic energy back. And I don't want to get too

deep, but that is going to play pivotal role in the world, and

in particular the United States, and how do we supply energy for this ever-consuming

space of AI? And so me understanding all of these different components, I said, "You know what? We

have a very unique opportunity in front of us." Not only do I not want us to get behind, but what if we were able

to be the leaders, right? What if Tallahassee could be that place that people are looking at saying,

"Wow, they are doing to something different in Tallahassee, let's model, our look at

AI, the way that Tallahassee is." And so I just decided, I'm a do-er. So I prayed about it and

here we are, over a year later, talking about what's going on.

[Keith] Excellent. AI is moving fast. So let's look ahead. Where do you see AI headed over the next five

to 10 years? And where do you see Phusion AI within that future?

[Jabaree] Man, five to years, it used to seem like a long time. But with

the way this technology is advancing, I mean literally Keith, we had a conversation. Our team had a call

last Monday about a tool that we're using that we build our AI agents with.

And here come over the weekend, Google releases Google Opal and Chat GPT releases

five, ChatGPT 5, right? And those are two technological advancements

that are unlike anything. So I was actually a part of the beta team for 5 all the way to 6.2.

So a lot of unreleased stuff that we're going to see that I cannot talk about, but the technology itself,

right? Remember, a few months ago, we were talking about chat GPT 3.5. Everybody

was mind blown. They just couldn't believe it. And now here we are 1.5 models away

at 5. And it is just crazy, crazy amount of better, right? The images,

the imagery, the research, and we are talking about PhD

level integrations into this technology, crazy. So five years is a long time. I think in five years what we will be looking

at is real AGI. And that is augmented technology where it leads very limited

integrations with human interaction. I think we'll still have a lot of, you know, humans have to do it, but

a lot of those very mundane tasks, right scheduling meetings, typing up things, those things

will be of the past for us. We will see real self-driving cars that are really

trained. We will have washing machines and dryers in 1, too. There won't be a difference

between the two because you're imagine washing and drying your clothes in the same system. The delivery

and logistics world will literally be turned around. And so there's a lot of things that

are changing, and fast. So it's hard to captivate what that'll look like. But I do imagine

that we will see millions of new jobs created. And that's where you guys come into play.

Is that, and again, I like reporting about the Bloomberg, I think they put a report out that said

60% of the jobs that kids that are in middle school or primary school have

not been created yet. 60% of those jobs. [Keith] Yeah [Jabaree] have not been created yet, right?

So that's a lot. [Keith] That is. That is. [Jabaree] And so what I believe that'll look like is

America, itself will have a lot more data centers power the AI revolution. [Keith] Yep, we're starting

to see that. [Jabaree] Yep, the trades of the future are going to change around. We'll see a lot more people working

on these AI data centers. And where Phusion AI fits into that is I believe that we will still

be growing and building out AI tools. But what I foresee is us being just

as much on the education side of AI and workforce development side of AI as

we are on the solution side. And I take a lot of pride in that because I wear this Phusion

AI badge with pride. And when people see it on me, I mean, my son is like hey, he has his own badge.

But I think that where we will be is the Phusion AI Academy will be an institution of learning. People

will come here just like they go to college or they go to a technical school. They will come to the Phusion AI

Academy to receive certifications and working and building AI solutions, but also

those hands-on things that go into the data centers, right? And then Phusion AI will continue,

we will have a few flagship models out where we are releasing our own models into the world, but very

specified, like they perform specific tasks. But we're excited about both being

a solution provider, but being on the workforce development and education side of things. And so that's

where I think things are going and we may be there in two years. Who knows.

[Keith] Yeah. The future is very bright and we're so fortunate to have you

here in our community and being able to help steer us and navigate us in the

right direction. And I mean with your training, your expertise, I mean

the connections that you've made with those companies that are on the forefront

of advancing AI just think that the value for us to have that is immeasurable right

here in our community. So we've got to wrap it up here but I got a few quick questions.

They should be fun. So this is a rapid fire section here. So I got four questions for you.

What is your favorite app that you can't live without right now? [Jabaree] Chat GPT. [Keith] I was going to

say, that was a soft ball. Okay, all right. So in terms of your work

schedule, are you an early bird or night owl? [Jabaree] I'm very much early bird. [Keith] Early bird.

So you can get up at what? Like four o'clock in the morning? [Jabaree] I usually get up at five, in the gym at five thirty

and the balls rolling after that. [Keith] Yeah, awesome. Awesome.

Okay, tell us about a book or a podcast or a person who's inspired you lately.

[Jabareee] John Hope Bryant is an American entrepreneur and alongside

of John Hope Bryant, he has Operation Hope and I hope that he gets a chance to see this. John Hope

Bryant and Mr. Robert Smith is a technologist who I aim and I take a lot of pride

in being those guys. Robert Smith, he owns this venture capital company. He's one of the

most of wealthiest men in America, but John Hope Bryant is also one of my inspirations and those

guys have both poured into me from a far, right? They have books and they have businesses

that have really helped me a lot on my journey. So, I'm actually connected to both of them on social media. So, if

you get a chance, look up who John Hope Bryant is, and then Mr. Robert Smith as well.

All of their work is really amazing. [Keith] Awesome. All right, are you a coffee drinker?

[Jabaree] Not so much. So, I'm more of a tea guy. [Keith] Tea guy, okay. How do you do your tea?

[Jabaree] I am an agave drinker. So, I stop using sugar. My favorite tea is a peppermint

tea. I use a peppermint ginger mix and then I put agave in it and that's pretty much

it. Somebody's tried to get me on the matcha tea train. [Keith] Yeah, somebody's been talking to me about the matcha tea.

I need to, I need to try it. [Jabaree] Yeah, I mean, I've tried it. It's very earthy. Let me say that

to you. So be prepared going into it with an earthy mindstate

but, I mean, I'm definitely a tea guy. That peppermint tea in the morning definitely opens me up and

it's very helpful. And again, I switched trying to get away from being so much sugar, so I'm on the agave train

now and it's been awesome. [Keith] All right, well, that's amazing. Jabaree, thank you for joining

me today and sharing your story. It's inspiring to see how Phusion AI is driving innovation and making a real

impact on small businesses, workforce development, and our community as a whole. Where's

the best place online for our listeners to find you if they want to learn more about you or connect? [Jabaree] Again,

thank you, Keith. I think the work that you guys are doing at the OEV, you, Darryl, LaTanya, and the rest of the

team is just amazing. You guys have been supportive of me since I came into this entrepreneurship

role in Tallahassee. I remember meeting you when you were at the SBDC and you literally just have

been a huge support ever since then. We've grown a friendship, not just a business connection now, and so I appreciate

that. And still the SBDC is still supportive, I think you laid a really good foundation there, Tangela Lofton

and the team are still really involved in everything that we're doing here. And so I'm super excited to be able to continue

partnering with you guys. I appreciate you. If people are looking for us, they can find us everywhere online. If you just

Google Phusion AI, you will find plenty of stuff. But PhusionAI.com is where you can go,

you'll find updates, and then starting on September 1st, the PhusionAIAcademy.com. will

be launched and off the ground. [Keith] Amazing. [Jabree] Yeah, we are launching the Phusion AI

Academy. Courses will go live the first week of September and starting with those certifications in being

ready to rock and roll. And they can find us in the community, right? We are boots on the ground. I have

an amazing team. My chief product officer, RaCaria Burgess, has beem really supportive. She's doing

a lot of work and we are actually preparing to speak at the Chamber Conference this weekend

at Amelia Island. [Keith] I'm looking forward to sitting in on that session. I wouldn't miss it for anything.

[Jabaree] Yep. Yeah. Super exciting. We will be there. And yeah, we are looking forward to growing this and

continuing to grow our partnership. So yeah Keith, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

And I'm looking forward to us continuing to grow and Tallahassee's growth, right? We have some exciting

things going on and looking forward to all the bright things that are coming our way.

[Keith] Well, thank you. And again, I can't stress how proud we are of you and the work that you're doing is just phenomenal.

And to our audience, thank you for tuning in to Economic Vitality Unplugged. If you've enjoyed this episode,

subscribe and share it with someone who cares about the future of Tallahassee, Leon County. Until next time,

I'm Keith Bowers and I'll see you on the next episode.