As AI spending and hype accelerate, Thryv is taking a more disciplined path – a path that’s less about transformation for its own sake and more about tangible outcomes for SMBs. In a conversation with CEO Joe Walsh, he outlines how the SMB SaaS and local marketing leader prioritizes automation, balance, and time savings over sweeping AI promises. It’s all about reducing operational friction while preserving the control and personal touch that SMBs depend on.
To that end, Walsh tells Localogy that a guiding principle in devising AI integrations is what’s best for SMBs. That overarching principle then branches into more strategic nuance, such as applying AI to save SMBs the most valuable and scarce resource of all: time. “We started there,” says Walsh.
This traces back to something we often say: when selling software to SMBs, you’re not selling them software… often you’re selling more time with their kids. Or you’re selling more time to be the chefs, dentists, and nail artists they’ve always intended to be… not the marketing exec they don’t want to be.
Moving Target
This all boils down to automation – the other “A” word that often resonates more with SMBs than AI… and has less baggage. To that end, Thryv has integrated productivity-boosting features that all trace back to the principle of time-saving automation. We’re talking everything from invoicing to marketing copy.
Among other things, this can be seen in Thryv’s recent AI integrations for Home Services SMBs. To counteract their supply-chain challenges and other macro-economic headwinds, Thryv helps them achieve greater margins and operational efficiency by automating functions such as SEO and scheduling.
But an important caveat to all the above is the need for balance. AI isn’t a silver bullet, so it’s about providing the right levels of automation that save time, yet preserve SMBs’ control and personal touch. Thryv is putting lots of thought into achieving that optimal balance across products – a moving target.
For example, responding to reviews is an increasingly powerful SEO ranking factor in not just coverage but speed of response. Thryv programmatically stays on top of new incoming reviews and prompts SMBs with a few options for pre-written responses that they can quickly select, edit, approve, and deploy.
Democratization Effect
When working towards the above endpoints, another key factor is democratizing advanced AI capability. Most SMBs don’t have advanced IT resources to launch AI programs, Walsh reminds us, nor the “pristine data lakes” to train AI systems. But working with a company like Thryv, they can gain those capabilities.
For example, Thryv’s platform inherently ingests company data through functions like marketing, CRM, and scheduling. This primes it to train itself as an effective co-pilot for functions like fielding incoming customer requests and booking appointments. It can even learn to speak in the “voice” of the business.
Beyond doing more with less with any one SMB’s data, Thryv’s platform scales across several SMBs where it’s embedded. It can train itself on a much greater corpus of data – which is anonymized and aggregated – to ensure that automation functions are trained on industry standards and best practices.
Altogether, this presents a compelling democratization opportunity to AI-enable SMBs who would never be able to achieve these things on their own. And an existing/trusted tech provider that already handles an SMB’s marketing and operations is the most likely candidate to hold their hand into the AI era.
Walking the Walk
Lastly, beyond integrating AI into its customer-facing products, Thryv continues to evaluate and incorporate AI into its own corporate functions to gain the same operational efficiencies it espouses for its customers. Because it offers high-touch agency-like services, AI can help it scale its own resources.
Whether it’s generative AI for marketing assets or simply the growing list of AI features in the SaaS products that it uses internally for operations, Thryv is walking the walk with AI as a consumer of the technology. That will pay dividends in gaining better first-hand perspective about how it works.
In terms of what’s next, AI represents opportunities to grow Thryv’s addressable market. For example, there are smaller-scale SMBs out there with limited budgets. Historically, it’s challenging to maintain margins in serving that segment, but AI could unlock powerful self-serve models that open things up.
“That isn’t where we started,” said Walsh. “We started with all-touch, all the time. But that will be a big part of 2026 for us – a whole group of customers who live and benefit from Thryv without necessarily talking to us on Zoom or on the phone.”
