AI Flywheel Image
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Is AI Really Transforming Customer Service? Or Just Handling the Mess?

ByPaul Dobinson

Every week brings another headline about AI reinventing customer service. “AI agents now handle thousands of support requests.”“Chatbots are deflecting 40% of inbound interactions.”“Digital assistants are reshaping contact centres.” All true — and yet, here’s the uncomfortable question: If AI is transforming customer service, why are customers still reaching out so much? We’re Still Fixing…

Robots standing around a barrel with a fish in it. Caption, Sometimes, Simple Works
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🐟 Pacific Blue-Eyes, AI, and the Over-Engineering Trap

ByPaul Dobinson

I stumbled across a beautifully simple idea the other day: placing native fish like Pacific Blue-eyes into rain barrels that collect overflow from water tanks to stop mosquitoes breeding. It’s a classic Aussie summer dilemma: you want to store rainwater for your garden, but standing water becomes a mozzie nursery. And with climate change and…

Be More Ronaldinho. Be Less Carlton Palmer. Sales Is a Beautiful Game, Too.
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Be More Ronaldinho. Be Less Carlton Palmer. Sales Is a Beautiful Game, Too.

ByPaul Dobinson

In today’s world of AI-driven sales coaching, are we nurturing creativity or stifling it? Inspired by the mercurial brilliance of Ronaldinho versus the rigid reliability of Carlton Palmer, this post explores how coaching sales teams should focus on building instinct, adaptability, and human connection — not just compliance.

🧭 You Are More Than Your Job Title
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🧭 You Are More Than Your Job Title

ByPaul Dobinson

The first thing to go in a job search isn’t your skills. It’s your certainty. Here’s what I learned from a few months of unexpected reflection, rejection, and re-alignment. 🧠 Introduction A few months ago, I found myself unexpectedly job hunting.I took some time to visit family in South Africa — and while it gave…

AI in Consulting: Asking the Right Questions Before Deploying Agentforce
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AI in Consulting: Asking the Right Questions Before Deploying Agentforce

ByPaul Dobinson

Experiencing the Salesforce Agentforce World Tour firsthand this week in Sydney was inspiring. Seeing cutting-edge AI in action and how Salesforce is shaping the future of customer engagement reinforced what I already knew—AI is a game-changer. Having been directly involved in the pilot program, I’ve witnessed Agentforce evolve, unlocking new possibilities for businesses. Now, as…

There Must Be a Better Way: Moving Beyond Labels in a Data-Rich World
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There Must Be a Better Way: Moving Beyond Labels in a Data-Rich World

ByPaul Dobinson

Most of what I write on pauldobinson.com is grounded in the safe terrain of technology, sport, and business. But sometimes, something personal lingers long enough to demand reflection. This post is one of those. It’s different. And I hesitated to write it. Because it’s about fairness. About identity. About systems built with good intent, which—over…

The World Happiness Report 2025: Building a Connected Team (And Why It Matters to Your Bottom Line) 🚀
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The World Happiness Report 2025: Building a Connected Team (And Why It Matters to Your Bottom Line) 🚀

ByPaul Dobinson

From Team Lunches to Trust: Simple Ways to Boost Wellbeing & Drive Growth in 2025 📈 As an expat living in Australia with a background in the tech and Salesforce ecosystem—and a keen interest in sports psychology and team dynamics—the World Happiness Report 2025 immediately resonated with me. It offers a data-driven perspective on how…

The Improbable Genesis of Netflix: A Review of ‘That Will Never Work’ by Marc Randolph
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The Improbable Genesis of Netflix: A Review of ‘That Will Never Work’ by Marc Randolph

ByPaul Dobinson

🗣️ “Everyone had an opinion. And every opinion was the same: That will never work.” ~ Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work Marc Randolph’s That Will Never Work isn’t just a nostalgic trip down memory lane—it’s a raw, unfiltered chronicle of the chaotic and exhilarating birth of Netflix. For those of us immersed in the…

15 Years with Salesforce: From Bermuda to Agentforce
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15 Years with Salesforce: From Bermuda to Agentforce

ByPaul Dobinson

I still remember the day I first encountered Salesforce, about 15 years ago. I was at Yabsta Digital in Bermuda, juggling multiple roles – admin, sales, marketing – you name it. Logging into Salesforce for the first time was a real eye-opener. Here was a tool that could actually organise client interactions and automate some…

Sausage Gate
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“Sausage Gate” And Other Gaffes: When Technology Trips Us Up”

ByPaul Dobinson

We’ve all been there—relying on tech to guide us through a task, only to have it lead us down an unexpected (and sometimes embarrassing) path. But when you’re the Prime Minister of Britain and the autocue turns “hostages” into “sausages,” well, that’s one for the history books. Keir Starmer’s now infamous “Sausage Gate” incident may…