When I started working with Stacey Brown, MBA, CAS on this ISA session, I thought we were “just” designing an AI course.

What actually happened was that a 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘀 in the sign industry came into sharp focus.

Not a dramatic, headline-worthy crisis. A practical, everyday one that shows up as:

- One more owner staying late to rewrite a customer email
- One more designer doing 30 minutes of unpaid mockup work “just to win the quote”
- One more new hire drowning in tribal knowledge that lives in 10 different places and 5 different people’s heads

Underneath all of that, Stacey and I kept circling back to the same themes:

1. Tribal knowledge is running the show
Sign businesses are held together by 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 “𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄”:

- The exact way your city interprets that bizarre sign ordinance
- Which materials will still look good in three years instead of failing in one
- How to decode a customer’s vague AI-generated mockup into something you can actually build and price

Very little of that lives in a 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹, 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺.

It lives in:

- A veteran sales rep’s head
- A production lead’s unwritten rules
-A  designer’s half-organized folder of past proofs

That’s terrifying if you’re:

- Onboarding new people
- Trying to scale
- Or just trying not to have your business hinge on one or two humans never getting sick, leaving, or burning out

2. “We can’t find people” isn’t just about hiring
At ISA Congress, Stacey heard a consistent message:

“We can’t find good people.”

Not just:

- Sales
- Or production
- Or design

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.

Add to that:

- The sign industry doesn’t really show up in trade schools
- Most people stumble into it later in their careers
- Pay and benefits pressure is climbing, but margins aren’t magically expanding

So the real question becomes:

“How do we make the people we 𝘥𝘰 have more effective, less exhausted, and easier to onboard?”

That’s not a shiny AI question. That’s an 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 question.

3. Customers 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 have AI. Shops often don’t.
This part really stuck with me.

Stacey’s seeing more and more customers sending 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗔𝗜-𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘂𝗽𝘀:

- Gorgeous lighting
- Perfect staging
- “Here – this is what I want.”

Meanwhile, inside the shop:

- The team is still manually creating 2D proofs for quoting 20–30 minutes of unpaid pre-sale design work, over and over
- Designers are squeezed between quality, speed, and the clock

The asymmetry is striking:

- Customers are casually using AI to 𝘢𝘴𝘬 for more
- Many shops are still doing everything the long way to 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 those requests

And owners feel it. Not as abstract “AI FOMO,” but as:

- Stress
- Time theft
- One more thing on an already full plate

4. AI has been thrown into the “too hard” box

Something Stacey and I both noticed:

It’s not that sign owners 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻’𝘁 heard of AI.

They’ve absolutely heard of:

- ChatGPT
- Copilot
- “Whatever Google’s thing is called now”
- Random tools tacked onto CRMs and production platforms

But:

- There’s a lot of 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺
- Very little 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿, 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱, 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲 shared in the room
- And a strong sense of:

What bigger companies are quietly doing, though, is very different:

They’re using AI first as:

- A 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗄𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗉𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗇𝖾𝗋
- An 𝗂𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗇𝖺𝗅 𝗉𝗋𝗈𝖽𝗎𝖼𝗍𝗂𝗏𝗂𝗍𝗒 𝖾𝗇𝗀𝗂𝗇𝖾
- A 𝗄𝗇𝗈𝗐𝗅𝖾𝖽𝗀𝖾 𝗆𝖺𝗇𝖺𝗀𝖾𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍 𝗅𝖺𝗒𝖾𝗋

Not a magic replacement. A 𝗰𝗼-𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿.

That’s where sign shops can get the fastest, safest ROI. And it’s exactly where most folks haven’t been shown a clear, practical path.

5. What Stacey and I are doing about it at ISA

So instead of building a “wow look at AI” talk, we built something very specific for 𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇 𝗈𝗐𝗇𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝗐𝗁𝗈 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗍𝗂𝗋𝖾𝖽, 𝖼𝗎𝗋𝗂𝗈𝗎𝗌, 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖼𝖺𝗎𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗎𝗌.

On 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 9𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝘁 9:30𝗮𝗺 𝗘𝗦𝗧 at 𝗜𝗦𝗔, Stacey and I are going to walk through how AI can serve your shop in three grounded roles:

1. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴
2. 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿
3. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲

And we’re doing it anchored in 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘆’𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱:

- The way her shop actually runs
- The experiments that 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 work, not just the ones that did
- The ROI and time savings she’s already seeing

This is not a “you should use AI” pep talk. It’s a “here’s how to realistically start, with what you have, in this industry, this year” session.



If you’re coming to ISA this year: 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘄: 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 9𝘁𝗵 – 9:30𝗮𝗺 𝗘𝗦𝗧

We’ll be:

- Naming the real pain points owners are living with
- Showing you specific, concrete plays you can run
- Giving you resources you can bring back to your team the same week

If you’re a sign owner or leader who’s thinking:

- “We’re stretched.”
- “We’re losing time to work that should be easier by now.”
- “I know AI is out there, but I can’t afford to get this wrong.”

…this session is for you.

Make sure you’re registered for ISA, and 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 9:30𝗮𝗺 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘁. I’d love to see you in the room and start moving AI out of the “too hard box” and into the “this actually helps my people” column.