Most people still talk about AI like it is coming someday.
At E2E Cleaning, we made a different decision.
We decided AI was not going to be a side project, a buzzword, or something we tested for a week and forgot about. We were going to build it into the way we operate, sell, market, communicate, and serve our clients across Florida.
That is why I went to an AI policy and business workshop in Tampa yesterday.
The conversation was led by people who understand that AI is no longer just a technology issue. It is a business issue. A workforce issue. A policy issue. A small business issue.
The panel included Nathan Lever, Executive Director of Build American AI, along with voices connected to Associated Industries of Florida, the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a statewide political news publisher, a public infrastructure engineering firm, and Tampa small business owners who are already changing the way they work.
Peter Schorsch, publisher of FloridaPolitics.com, moderated the discussion. I want to thank Peter for keeping the conversation sharp, practical, and grounded in what Florida businesses actually need to think about right now.
I was not there as a spectator.
I was there because E2E has been living this.
I am Co-Founder and CMO of a cleaning company. That might not be the first industry people picture when they think about AI.
They usually think about software companies, tech startups, data centers, or big corporations with teams of engineers.
But that is exactly the point.
The next chapter of AI cannot belong only to Big Tech. It has to belong to the businesses that actually keep communities running.
Cleaning companies.
Contractors.
Restaurants.
Logistics teams.
Property managers.
Family businesses.
Hispanic-owned businesses.
Local operators.
The businesses where one missed call can cost a job, one missed follow-up can lose a customer, and one process improvement can change the month.
That is where AI becomes real.
We did not wait for permission
My background is in marketing and development, so when this AI wave started moving fast, I saw two options.
We could wait until the tools became easy enough for everyone else to use.
Or we could start building.
We chose to build.
Not because it was easy. It was not.
Not because every tool worked perfectly. They did not.
Not because we had some giant innovation department. We did not.
We built because we knew the businesses that learn this early are going to have a real advantage. More importantly, we knew our customers would feel the difference if we used AI the right way.
So we built proprietary AI agents in house and connected them into the parts of our company where speed, consistency, follow-up, and visibility matter most.
Marketing.
Sales.
Operations.
Reporting.
Auditing.
Internal systems.
The work most people never see, but every customer eventually feels.
AI in marketing: visibility that turns into revenue
In marketing, AI helps us study search demand, keyword patterns, content opportunities, rankings, and customer intent faster than we ever could manually.
That does not mean the AI writes our strategy for us.
It means we can see the market more clearly.
We can spot what facility managers, property owners, construction teams, restaurant operators, and commercial clients are actually searching for. We can move faster when a service area or keyword starts gaining traction. We can understand what questions people ask before they are ready to request a quote.
That work has helped us rank at the top of our niche, and our internal attribution now shows organic visibility driving close to a quarter of our revenue.
For a cleaning company, that matters.
It means AI is not a toy for us. It is part of how we compete.
But the bigger point is this: better marketing does not just help E2E grow. It helps the right customers find us when they have a real problem.
A construction manager trying to turn over a site.
A restaurant owner dealing with floors, grease, or upholstery.
A property manager tired of complaints.
A facility leader who needs a commercial cleaning partner who actually follows up.
AI helps us meet those people faster.
AI in sales: no customer inquiry should sit forgotten
In sales, AI helps us respond, qualify, and follow up more consistently.
That matters because speed changes trust.
If someone reaches out about a cleaning need, they usually do not want to wait three days for a response. Sometimes they are dealing with a deadline. Sometimes they have a walkthrough coming up. Sometimes a tenant, customer, guest, or project manager is already complaining.
The old way of doing business leaves too much room for dropped balls.
A form comes in.
Someone means to follow up.
A call gets missed.
A note gets buried.
A lead gets cold.
Then the customer goes somewhere else.
We use AI to reduce that gap.
It helps us organize inquiries, support follow-up, and keep momentum moving so our team can have better conversations with customers.
That is the right role for AI.
It should not replace judgment.
It should not pretend to build trust on its own.
It should make sure our people are stepping into the conversation prepared, faster, and with the right context.
AI in operations: the client feels what the back office gets right
Operations is where AI gets really interesting for a service business.
A customer may never see our internal systems.
They do not see the audits.
They do not see the crawlers.
They do not see the reporting loops.
They do not see the agents that check pages, flag issues, track tasks, and report back.
But they feel the result.
They feel it when communication is tighter.
They feel it when follow-up is cleaner.
They feel it when the team has better information.
They feel it when our systems catch problems before they turn into bigger issues.
At E2E, we use AI agents to audit our own work and our own digital systems. They crawl, check, catch issues, and bring problems back to the team.
That frees up time.
And time is everything in a service business.
Every hour AI takes off repetitive back-office work is an hour we can put toward the work that actually matters to clients: cleaner job sites, better turnarounds, tighter quality control, faster communication, and more attention to the details people notice inside a building.
That is the point I think gets missed in a lot of AI conversations.
AI is not valuable because it sounds impressive.
AI is valuable when the customer can feel the business getting better.
AI does not replace the human standard. It protects it.
E2E Cleaning was built on service work.
Our story comes from our families, from immigrant roots, and from watching our mothers work hard in cleaning. We know this work is physical. We know it is personal. We know it is often underappreciated.
That is why I am careful about the way I talk about AI.
We are not using it to erase the human side of our company.
We are using it to protect the standard our people are responsible for delivering.
AI can help with scheduling.
AI can help with reporting.
AI can help with research.
AI can help with follow-up.
AI can help with internal checks.
But AI does not walk a job site and feel whether the space is actually ready.
It does not replace the pride of a crew that knows the work was done right.
It does not replace accountability.
It does not replace the human judgment that comes from being in the field, seeing the details, and understanding what a client is really asking for.
What AI can do is take pressure off the repetitive work around the service.
That gives our team more room to focus on the craft.
That is what AI-forward means to us.
Not hype.
Better service.
Why Build American AI matters
That is why the work of Build American AI matters to me.
Build American AI describes its mission as advancing pro-innovation policies that build trust in technology, strengthen American competitiveness, and support U.S. leadership in the technologies shaping the future.
That sounds big. And it is.
But for me, the local version is simple.
Can a Florida small business use AI to compete?
Can a company like ours build smarter systems without getting buried under confusion?
Can Hispanic-owned businesses, family businesses, service companies, and local operators access the same opportunities as larger companies?
Can we create a policy environment that protects people from bad actors without punishing the businesses actually trying to build responsibly?
Those are not abstract questions.
Those questions affect payroll.
They affect hiring.
They affect customer service.
They affect whether a three-person team can compete with a fifty-person firm.
They affect whether Florida becomes a state where AI is something small businesses use, or something they watch from the sidelines.
Nathan Lever and the Build American AI team are pushing an argument that needs to be heard: the AI economy should be built with American businesses in mind, including the small businesses that do not always have a seat at the policy table.
I agree with that.
Florida needs clear rules, not moving goalposts
The panel touched on something every business owner understands.
Business owners do not fear rules.
We fear confusion.
We fear inconsistent rules.
We fear a patchwork where one state says one thing, another state says something else, and small businesses are left trying to figure out what is safe, what is legal, what is allowed, and what might change next month.
That kind of uncertainty hurts the exact businesses that should be adopting new technology.
A large corporation can hire legal teams, compliance teams, and consultants.
A small business cannot always do that.
A local company needs clear standards. It needs stable rules. It needs room to test, learn, and build without wondering if the ground is going to shift under it.
The panel also raised concerns that matter to small businesses:
- Protection from bad actors who might use AI to target companies with mass legal demand campaigns.
- Broadband and infrastructure access so rural and underserved communities are not shut out.
- A regulatory approach that keeps up with the technology without crushing responsible adoption.
- Policy that protects people without making innovation impossible.
That balance matters.
If Florida gets this right, small businesses will not just use AI. They will build with it.
The small business story is the AI story
The more I listened, the more I kept coming back to one thought.
The AI story is being told too narrowly.
It is not only about engineers in Silicon Valley.
It is not only about the largest models.
It is not only about billion-dollar companies.
The real story is also happening inside normal businesses that decided to stop waiting.
A cleaning company using AI to respond faster.
A contractor using AI to tighten estimating.
A restaurant group using AI to improve operations.
A Hispanic-owned business using AI to reach customers it could not afford to reach before.
A local service company using AI to compete with larger players.
That is the version of AI that excites me.
Not the fantasy version.
The practical version.
The version that helps a business owner get time back.
The version that helps a team make fewer mistakes.
The version that helps a customer get a faster answer.
The version that gives small businesses a fighting chance.
We are still a cleaning company. We are also becoming something bigger.
E2E started as a cleaning company.
We still clean.
We still serve commercial clients.
We still care about job sites, floors, restrooms, lobbies, facilities, turnovers, post-construction work, residential specialty work, and all the details that make a property feel cared for.
But we are also building toward something bigger.
We want E2E to become a smarter, faster, more accountable facilities partner for our clients.
That does not happen by accident.
It happens by building better systems around the work.
It happens by using AI to remove friction.
It happens by giving our team better information.
It happens by making the customer experience cleaner from the first inquiry to the final walkthrough.
That is why AI matters to us.
It helps us expand.
It helps us optimize.
It helps us serve clients better.
And if a cleaning company in Tampa can build this way, then a lot more Florida businesses can too.
Florida should lead this
Florida has the entrepreneurs.
Florida has the small businesses.
Florida has the builders.
Florida has the Hispanic-owned businesses and family-owned companies that already know how to do more with less.
Now we need the environment that lets them build.
That means clear policy.
Real infrastructure.
Protection from abuse.
Access to tools.
And a mindset that sees AI as something small businesses can use, not something reserved for the largest companies in the country.
E2E Cleaning proudly supports Build American AI because our story is proof of what this can look like from the ground up.
We are not waiting for the future to arrive.
We are building it into the work our customers already trust us to do.
Florida should not just participate in the AI economy.
Florida should lead it.
And small businesses should be at the center.
Jonathan Alonso
Co-Founder & CMO, E2E Cleaning
References
- Build American AI
- FloridaPolitics.com
- Peter Schorsch author page at Florida Politics
- Associated Industries of Florida
- Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- E2E Cleaning
Bring smarter facility service to your building
If your facility, project, restaurant, office, or commercial property needs a cleaning partner that combines field accountability with smarter operations, E2E Cleaning can help. Call (813) 819-0221 or request a free quote through E2E Cleaning.
