eBook | Source: Google– AI Agents are a major leap from traditional automation or chatbots. Properly deployed, They can help your employees and teams get more done. Use this guide to explore 10 ways to you and your team can use AI Agents today.
Earlier this month, we surveyed our clients about the AI services they use regularly. The results show that a majority of respondents prioritize the AI services included within their existing productivity suites.
Of more than 50 respondents:
While stand-alone service adoption is slightly lower, many companies officially use more than one solution:
As you evaluate your AI needs, consider these strategic factors:
Maintain control and security over your data before you begin your AI journey. You need to ensure that individuals using AI cannot access information beyond their specific responsibilities. Additionally, you also want to confirm that your data is not used to train or populate learning models beyond your internal systems.
This data governance is critical for maintaining compliance with regulatory, industry, and contractual requirements for data protection.
Understanding how each AI tool or service integrates with your identity, access, and security services helps you select solutions that will protect your business.
Before diving into multiple new solutions, explore and take advantage of the AI services embedded in your current IT systems and applications.
Microsoft Copilot and Gemini for Google Workspace each offer a robust suite of services. You may not need to make additional investments in other tools. Additionally, both platforms integrate directly with your email, documents, spreadsheets, and meetings, as well as other applications within your suite.
Leveraging these services lets you avoid the cost and complexity of third party integrations. For example, both Gemini and Copilot provide excellent transcription and note-taking services for Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings, respectively.
Before adding third party AI services and tools, make sure to explore and pilot the capabilities already at your fingertips.
For instance, Gemini AI for Google Workspace includes:
As part of your exploration, identify use cases where AI integration provides tangible benefits.
For each use case, define the opportunity, workflows, process changes, and desired outcomes.
These use cases provide you with a framework to test AI services and solutions, and they will help you identify the individuals and teams that will be impacted by AI adoption. These people will require training and should participate in your AI pilot projects.
If you cannot address use cases with your integrated and embedded AI services, focus your search on AI tools and services appropriate for your use cases.
Before selecting a tool, vet its ability to integrate with your existing applications, systems, and security. Keep in mind that every additional application introduces administrative overhead and security constraints.
Balance the added effort and costs against the potential outcomes to ensure that the tool delivers true value to your business.
Visit our AI Landing Zone for a range of resources to help you plan, manage, and secure your AI services.
Our Cloud Advisors can also provide the guidance and assistance you need to plan and execute your AI strategy. Send us an email or book a brief introductory call. We are here to help.
Bill is a Senior Cloud Advisor responsible for helping small and midsize organizations with productive, security, and secure managed cloud services. Bill works with executives, leaders, and team members to understand workflows, identify strategic goals and tactical requirements, and design solutions and implementation phases. Having helped hundreds of organizations successfully adopt cloud solutions, his expertise and working style ensure a comfortable experience and effective change management.
(03/17/26) – How you initially respond to a cybersecurity incident will affect your ability to recover, your cyber insurance coverage, your customer relationships, your legal and financial liability, and possibly your survival.
No prevention is perfect. No protection is perfect. You are already a target for cyberattacks, and eventually, one will likely succeed. When that happens, you need to know what comes next.
Understanding the distinction between a cybersecurity event and an incident is critical because they carry different operational and legal implications.
A Cybersecurity Event is an observable change in the status of a network, system, application, or data. You should investigate these events to determine if they qualify as an incident. Not all events become incidents.
A Cybersecurity Incident is a confirmed event, or series of events, that jeopardizes the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data or systems. It causes harm or disruption and requires an immediate, formal response. Incidents trigger legal, regulatory, and contractual obligations, such as reporting, that must be managed.
Your Next StepsWith this distinction in mind, follow these steps to manage the situation effectively.
Stay calm.
Quick, smart action serves you better than panic.
Notify your IT team and service providers immediately.
Enlist their assistance to secure every impacted or potentially impacted system:
Take a few moments to document everything you know.
Create a clear timeline of the situation:
Your cyber insurance carrier, legal counsel, or law enforcement may need to preserve your systems for forensics.
Restoring systems or recovering data prematurely could destroy evidence and impede criminal investigations. Furthermore, altering systems might provide a reason for your insurance carrier to deny or limit your claim.
Connect with resources that can help you navigate your next steps.
Advise your insurer that you are responding to a cybersecurity event that may be an incident. They will want to know the nature of the event and any actions you have taken. If they determine the event is an incident, they will initiate a response.
Your insurer may: (1) Require you to report the event to law enforcement (FBI or CISA.GOV); (2) Require you to hold systems for forensic analysis; (3) Hire a specialized firm to manage recovery efforts; and/or (4) Direct you to complete other specific actions.
Your insurer may also ask for validation that you follow your security policies and procedures. Depending on your coverage, they may also provide assistance with: (1) Required legal and/or regulatory reporting; (2) Client communications; (3) Client response services (e.g., credit monitoring); and (4) Other response-related services.
Work with counsel knowledgeable in cybersecurity response.
They will help you with: (1) Compliance with state and federal laws and industry regulations; (2) Stakeholder and customer notifications; (3) Contractual obligations; and (4) Interactions with law enforcement.
We recommend opening a report with law enforcement in coordination with your cyber insurance carrier and legal counsel.
Human action triggered all three of these recent events. While it is easy to claim that the individuals involved should have known better, the reality is that even knowledgeable people succumb to these tricks when they are tired or distracted.
How many times have you replied to or acted on an email that you skimmed or quickly read without focusing on the content? We are all busy, and an email often feels like just another task to check off.
When you combine a false sense of security with a momentary lack of attention, it is very easy to click the wrong link, enter credentials into a fake site, or share private information.
Technology is vital for protection, but your people must also understand the risks. They should be able to identify suspect interactions and know exactly what to do when faced with a suspicious email, text, call, or web page.
In every recent event we have handled, the business and IT leaders were unsure how to proceed. Given the urgency and stress of the moment, none of them referred to an existing Information Security Plan because they did not have an incident response checklist or strategy in place.
We tend to focus on recovery, such as getting systems back online and restoring data. While this is an urgent and tangible response, it is only one part of the equation.
Your cyber insurance carrier may need to verify your security measures, conduct a forensics analysis, or direct your recovery efforts. You likely have legal, industry, or contractual reporting requirements, and you may even need law enforcement to investigate.
Response and recovery from a cyberattack requires having the technology in place to get your systems, apps, and data back in operation as well as having resources in place to get you through the legal, regulatory, contractual, marketing, and customer relationship challenges you will face.
Responding to an attack requires a plan before the attack occurs. Our Security CPR® model provides the framework your business needs:
Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global. Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.
Security fatigue is real. You’ve felt it, and so have we. Cyber criminals know this, and they are waiting to capitalize on it. When we let security fatigue guide our decisions and allow our guard to drop, we become much more likely to fall victim to a cyberattack.
Over the past few weeks, we have assisted multiple companies that fell victim to such attacks. These events reflect a recent surge in cyberattacks, serving as a harsh reminder that we must remain vigilant.
Each of these recent cases shared three common elements:
These elements demonstrate critical failures at every phase of a cybersecurity event.
Even as small businesses, we are more vulnerable to cyberattacks than we may expect. A basic suite of cybersecurity services is no longer optional, it is essential for defending and protecting against attacks.
In each of the cases we recently handled, simple and effective baseline tools were not in place. Decisions made to avoid the incremental cost of added protections left these businesses exposed.
Consequently, each company is now paying a much larger price, ranging from several days of downtime and lost productivity to potential fines and litigation.
Human action triggered all three of these recent events. While it is easy to claim that the individuals involved should have known better, the reality is that even knowledgeable people succumb to these tricks when they are tired or distracted.
How many times have you replied to or acted on an email that you skimmed or quickly read without focusing on the content? We are all busy, and an email often feels like just another task to check off.
When you combine a false sense of security with a momentary lack of attention, it is very easy to click the wrong link, enter credentials into a fake site, or share private information.
Technology is vital for protection, but your people must also understand the risks. They should be able to identify suspect interactions and know exactly what to do when faced with a suspicious email, text, call, or web page.
In every recent event we have handled, the business and IT leaders were unsure how to proceed. Given the urgency and stress of the moment, none of them referred to an existing Information Security Plan because they did not have an incident response checklist or strategy in place.
We tend to focus on recovery, such as getting systems back online and restoring data. While this is an urgent and tangible response, it is only one part of the equation.
Your cyber insurance carrier may need to verify your security measures, conduct a forensics analysis, or direct your recovery efforts. You likely have legal, industry, or contractual reporting requirements, and you may even need law enforcement to investigate.
Response and recovery from a cyberattack requires having the technology in place to get your systems, apps, and data back in operation as well as having resources in place to get you through the legal, regulatory, contractual, marketing, and customer relationship challenges you will face.
Your security profile should match your business. The nature of your company, its size, your industry and markets, and your locations should all dictate your security requirements. Your leadership team should guide your security strategy and spending.
Our Security CPRⓇ model and services provide the framework for creating the right security profile for your business:
Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global. Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.
(02/17/26) – Allowing AI to happen through individual experimentation and unstructured projects creates security risks, leads to unpredictable costs, and increases your chance of failure. If you want AI to be an effective tool for your business, you need to actively lead and manage your AI efforts.
As leaders of small and midsize organizations, we need to operate efficiently and effectively within a range of security constraints. Laws, regulations, industry standards, and contractual obligations set expectations and, in most cases, impose requirements on how we manage and run our business and IT. Now, artificial intelligence (AI) adds a new layer of security challenges.
AI is most effective when it has access to a broad range of relevant information. However, that access must be carefully limited to authorized users, creating a delicate balancing act.
AI data leaks occur when AI tools and systems expose information to unauthorized users or share it inappropriately. These leaks can happen internally or externally, and may be accidental or intentional.
Preventing AI data leaks requires actively governing permissions and access, along with choosing AI tools that align with your security and privacy requirements.
The days of “set and forget” permissions are over. At the macro level, AI data governance requires actively managing access controls and permissions settings.
Begin by reviewing and auditing your current access controls and permissions settings. It is common for users to rely on default sharing settings or to adjust permissions for convenience, often extending access inappropriately. While people may not actively search for and find private information, AI will.
Running an audit tool and resetting permissions can help close these gaps and provide a fresh starting point. Once permissions are properly configured, advanced security tools enable ongoing monitoring to identify new threats as they emerge. These tools can notify users and administrators of potential issues and modify permission changes to reduce risk.
With data access controls and permissions properly secured, the next step is ensuring that the AI tools and systems you use do not put your data at risk.
When selecting AI tools, look for the following attributes:
Include security as a critical criteria when selecting your AI tools and systems. Verify that the AI tools you pick adhere to industry and regulatory security standards.
Never use an AI tool that trains their models without your permission. These tools effectively absorb anything you input and incorporate it into their models, potentially exposing your data to other users.
Avoid AI tools and systems that allow humans outside of your organization to see or use data you have entered into the system. Even if these systems are not using your data to train their models, if others can see it, then it is not secure.
Choose AI tools and systems that do not sell or use your data for purposes beyond providing the service. Outside of training, some AI tools mine data for sale to others for research, marketing, and other purposes.
The general rule of thumb is: If you pay, your data is private. If the tool is free, so is your data.
However, some paid AI tools still include terms and conditions that allow data collection and usage. Before moving forward with any AI tool or system, always check the fine print.
Schedule an intro meeting with one of our Cloud Advisors. Our team can discuss how you can assess your risk, create effective policies, and select tools that deliver productive, secure, and affordable AI solutions. The meeting is free and without obligation.
Bill is a Senior Cloud Advisor responsible for helping small and midsize organizations with productive, security, and secure managed cloud services. Bill works with executives, leaders, and team members to understand workflows, identify strategic goals and tactical requirements, and design solutions and implementation phases. Having helped hundreds of organizations successfully adopt cloud solutions, his expertise and working style ensure a comfortable experience and effective change management.
(12/16/25) – With significant changes to our productivity tools, the Artificial Intelligence explosion, and increasing expectations for security and compliance, how are your IT strategy and planning adapting for the coming year? Let productivity, security, and affordability drive your IT strategy and plans for 2026.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, providing you with powerful tools that can transform how your organization operates. By integrating it into your daily workflows, you can make smarter decisions and streamline tasks that once took significant time to complete. Over time, AI will produce measurable results that are easy to track and analyze.
You get the most value from AI when you apply it to targeted, repeatable processes that address real business needs. For example, regularly analyzing meeting transcripts with AI can uncover actionable insights and identify trends that guide your business strategy.
AI can also assist in creating communications and marketing content that reflect your brand’s voice. Moreover, it can generate structured agendas or talking points for sales conversations, allowing you to emphasize client relationships and highlight your business’s strengths.
By making AI a regular part of your workflows, you can continuously refine outputs and achieve more accurate results over time.
For those just starting out with AI, begin with smaller projects. For example, try using AI to automate follow-ups or analyze customer feedback. These use cases will help your team become familiar with AI while still delivering immediate impact. Over time, incorporate AI into more complex processes.
Give your organization the opportunity to explore its full potential without disrupting daily operations.
You should regularly monitor AI outputs to make sure that the technology and uses align with your goals. Tracking data usage also helps you keep information secure and will help maintain trust.
Once you are familiar with AI, you can unlock its full potential by providing clear context and direction. You and your team should know how to craft a prompt that helps AI fully understand your objectives and your voice.
A strong prompt includes the following elements:
For example, you might ask AI to take on the persona of a knowledgeable and approachable communications expert. Then, provide it with the backstory of your company and set a confident, friendly tone aimed at small business owners. Finally, be clear about the task, such as writing a professional announcement in your brand voice. Be sure to include any formatting preferences, like short paragraphs for easy readability.
In order to adopt AI responsibly, pay careful attention to sensitive business and client information. Selecting AI tools that meet strong standards for privacy, security, and compliance helps you protect this information and maintain trust with your clients and stakeholders. Beyond selecting the right tools, establish clear protocols to guide your team’s use of AI.
Your policies should:
AI is a powerful tool that can enhance business processes and strengthen client relationships. When it is used properly, your organization can achieve meaningful and lasting results.
You can dive deeper into crafting effective prompts by viewing our November 2025 3T@3 Series session, “How To: Better AI Results” and several eBooks and other resources in our Resource Center. Our Cloud Advisors are here to help you plan, execute, and succeed. Book some time and start your journey.
Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global. Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.
(11/18/25) – If what you put into AI is not clear, what you get out will lack clarity. If your use case – your “why” for using AI – is not clear, you will not get the outcomes you want. AI is most effective when you define meaningful use cases and use well-designed prompts.
