Yuba City resident Aaron Watkins dressed as Santa for his application to Zapier’s “AI Innovator of the Year Award.” Watkins is receiving this award on Sept. 26, after press time. Courtesy photo

YUBA CITY, CA (MPG) - In 2011, the computing world entered the “era of AI” or so it has been coined.

This AI, short for Artificial Intelligence, has worked to automate and streamline many clerical functions bringing in a revolutionary wave of efficiency to the workforce. More recently, consumers have seen AI used in the rise of ChatGBT, logo generators, photography and video animations. Now it can be seen in Google searches, Facebook comments and Amazon reviews summarizing the pros and cons of user data.

For the everyday worker, AI can do more than write an essay or narrow down their next best TV purchase.

“My goal is always what can we do to get you as a business owner out of the weeds and actually doing the bigger things that are gonna make your business grow,” said Aaron Watkins, owner and president at Can It Be Automated.

Through AI generative tools and automation, Watkins is targeting small businesses and contractors to help them with their everyday workflows. The goal is to consolidate their various apps and systems into one program that works together to help eliminate time consuming and repetitive tasks like recording customer data or qualifying new leads.

“I see it over and over, business owners who say they never have the time to do things that I need to do, that's what we can help them with,” said Watkins.

Watkins, a Yuba City resident of seven years, graduated with a degree in physiology and neuroscience and a minor in psychology from the University of California, San Diego. After realizing lab-life wasn’t going to be suited to him, Watkins accidentally found himself thrust into the world of marketing in San Francisco.

“I ended up couch surfing with a friend who happened to work for this little marketing agency; it was actually one of the first SMS marketing agencies,” said Watkins. “I came on and within three years, we had been acquired by Omnicom, one of the largest advertising hulk companies in the world.”

Watkins’ experience with this set him on an entrepreneurial journey and the start of a company called Appency in Sacramento. Appency , similar to his previous job, again focused on phones and promoting people who made mobile apps. Around 2008, as the economy and business interests began to shift, Watkins headed north to Sutter County where he and his wife, Shannon, purchased her grandparents' old home. Here, Watkins rooted himself as director of marketing for Valley Truck & Tractor and then senior manager of service operations for Upland Software, yet his creative mind still had time to toil. Can It Be Automated launched just a few years ago as Watkins “side hustle” and has already caught the eye of Zapier, one of the world’s largest automation companies.

“Zapier basically is a tool that helps connect different digital tools together online,” Watkins said.

In light of the upcoming holiday season, Can It Be Automated recently developed an AI tool for Visitrealsanta.com that works to generate letters from Santa to children. Parents who use it are asked to fill out a form with a series of questions about their children, this information is then forwarded to ChatGBT which automates a letter that gets sent to an actual robotic arm. Even the handwriting style can be customized.

“Our goal for this was to make personalized letters to Santa in a way that could be done to scale,” said Watkins. “The robotic arm and ChatGBT enable that.” 

This particular solution caught the eye of Zapier which is currently utilized by more than 2.2 million companies worldwide including Canva, Lyft, and Hellofresh. In an effort to build awareness on AI software and automation tools, Zapier started a new series of annual awards via its online conference called ZapConnect. At this conference, Watkins will be awarded the inaugural title of “AI Innovator of the Year,” which he will receive on Sept. 26.

“It’s been really fun and this is the type of stuff people like,” said Watkins.

In addition to his Santa letter program, Watkins has also helped streamline a personalized Santa script writer for Santa videos. He also helped build a platform for singing telegram performers to find work. Watkins hopes to re-utilize his letter writing tool to help people generate letters to Congress on issues that concern them.

In the meantime, individuals can explore the solutions Can It Be Automated has to offer at canitbeautomated.com.