The AI Standard Operating Procedure
Sep 09, 2026
I have been encouraging appraisers to use technology to their advantage for many years. The three-legged stool to success when it comes to small business is technology, human resources, and the systems to put that all together. Recently, I've gone down the rabbit hole deep when it comes to a specific piece of technology: Google NotebookLM.
What is a Small Language Model?
Many people view artificial intelligence tools as a gimmick, but NotebookLM is completely different. I call it a "small language model." Unlike Chat GPT, Grok, or Gemini, which pull data from the entire internet, NotebookLM only riffs off of the specific files you upload. It doesn't search the outside web; it strictly analyzes your stuff.
To test its power, I generated a completely automated, two-person podcast using its audio feature. I uploaded the transcripts of over a thousand of my own podcast episodes, my monthly webinars, every blog and newsletter I’ve written over fifteen years, and my company’s standard operating procedures (SOPs). With a single click, the AI synthesized all that data into a remarkably accurate summary of my entire business philosophy.
The Magic of Zero Organization
Generating a quick audio overview is fun, but the real gold is using this technology to build your company's procedural manuals. Most business owners don't have an SOP manual because it is incredibly hard to build. It takes endless hours of typing, tweaking, and editing. For years, I taught people to use Google Sites for their digital manuals, but the friction was always the organization. It takes a massive amount of work to structure tabs, files, and links so your team can actually find things.
NotebookLM completely solves the organization problem. You don't have to organize a single thing. You simply dump every document, contract, checklist, and standard email into your company notebook. The AI instantly creates a searchable, intelligent database of your operational knowledge.
Empowering Your Team
This completely changes how you interact with your staff. The next time an employee comes to you asking what to do in a specific scenario, you don't have to break your focus. You just say, "Did you look at the notebook?"
Your team can type a natural sentence or ask a question with their voice, and the AI instantly surfaces the exact protocol from your company documents. Furthermore, if you have visual or auditory learners on your team who hate reading text files, you can generate a private company podcast summarizing your workflows. It turns your business operations into an on-demand training library, offloading the routine administrative questions so you can focus on high-value problems that actually drive revenue.
Check out The Appraiser Coach Podcast for more info on this topic:
