A Quiet Divide: The Gap Between Those Who "Use" AI and Those Who "Operate" It

A quiet, invisible divide is widening in the field of international sales. I recently spoke with a mid-sized manufacturing company professional online, and they shared this experience:

"I use ChatGPT every day—for translations, email drafts, and so on. But I don't feel I'm getting ahead of my colleagues. In fact, now that everyone uses it, I feel like I’m actually blending into the background."

This sentiment is becoming increasingly common.

The debate over whether one "can use" AI was settled around 2023. What is quietly widening now is a different gap: the subtle divide between those who "use" AI and those who "operate" it.

"Using" and "Operating" Are Entirely Different Skills

Entering a prompt into ChatGPT or Copilot to get a response is the act of "using" AI.

"Operating," on the other hand, is something else entirely. It means, for example, designing a system that connects your company’s customer data via API to automatically send personalized emails to specific overseas buyers. Or, building a workflow that automatically generates sales reports and sends them to your team's Slack every week—all without needing to ask the IT department to build it for you.

"Using" is the consumption of a tool. "Operating" is the design of business workflows by combining tools.

This difference is starting to manifest clearly in the quality and output of professional work.

Why the So-Called "Prompt Engineers" Are Becoming Less Relevant

In 2023, those who could effectively use ChatGPT within their companies were dubbed "prompt engineers" and held in high regard. Many of you likely remember how popular prompt engineering workshops were.

However, models from 2024 onwards no longer require such precise, granular prompting. Models like GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 can grasp intent with significant accuracy even from rough instructions.

Consequently, a chasm has opened up between those who only polished their prompt-writing skills and those who have been thinking about "what to combine AI with to automate specific business tasks."

The True Nature of the Gap: Can You Decipher and Design?

So, what are the "operators" actually doing?

Based on our observations at the Rinda platform, what "AI operators" share isn't just a high level of AI proficiency—it’s the ability to break down and visualize business processes.

Take one international sales professional as an example.

She wasn’t fluent in English or Chinese, but she spent three weeks building a system that matched trade show visitor lists with LinkedIn data to trigger follow-up emails using n8n (a no-code automation tool). The cost was nearly zero.

What she did wasn't "demanding smart answers from AI," but rather creating a blueprint for "which data to send to whom, when, and how." The AI was merely one component within her design.

"Honestly, learning how to use Zapier changed my work more than learning ChatGPT."

This is what a 30-something professional working alone in international expansion at a Tokyo trading firm told me last month.

The Intersection of No-Code and AI Automation

The technical barrier is not as high as you might imagine.

No-code automation tools like Make (formerly Integromat), Zapier, and n8n allow you to connect APIs without writing code. You can treat AI models as individual "nodes" within these tools.

You can start building these AI automations today:

When an email with specific keywords arrives → summarize it with AI → notify Slack.
Business card data from trade shows (stored as CSV) → analyze industry and interests with AI → send categorized follow-up emails.
Weekly sales data → generate comments with AI → create an automated report for your manager.

You can prototype any of these in half a day.

The Actual Divide in International Sales

The gap between the "users" and the "operators" is particularly visible in global sales.

A yawning, almost comical gap is forming between companies that rely on traditional trade shows or trading company routes, and those that proactively find overseas buyers digitally and wield automated sales flows.

According to JETRO’s "2023 Survey on the Overseas Business Operations of Japanese Companies," the adoption rate of digital marketing for international expansion among SMEs remains low, with a continued heavy reliance on trade shows and exhibitions. Conversely, the same survey notes an upward trend in companies using "SNS and Web presence" to develop new overseas partners, illustrating a growing polarization among smaller firms.

While I avoid over-citing statistics, among the export firms we encounter daily, we frequently see the same industry split: one company spends millions of yen on annual trade shows but can't keep up with the manual follow-up, while another uses tools costing only a few ten thousand yen a month to connect with ten wholesalers in Southeast Asia, turning two of them into active business opportunities.

Business Automation: The Secret Weapon for SMEs

For firms with limited international sales resources, "lack of manpower" has long been a go-to excuse.

But now that so many stages of the business can be automated, it's getting harder to claim that "lacking resources" is the problem.

I don’t want to be misunderstood; this isn't a call to "work harder." It is a fact that "if you design it properly, you can build a system that functions well even with a small team."

Business automation is not a substitute for effort—it is a way to redirect your effort where it matters most.

What Should You Do Now?

To move to the "operator" side, you don’t need a perfect system from day one. Without exception, the people we observe succeeding always start by "trying out something small within one week."

Step 1: List 3 "Repetitive Tasks" in Your Current Workflow

Find tasks you do every week that require "zero judgment, just following steps."

For example, "sending product specification PDFs to inquiries from overseas buyers" can be almost entirely automated if the conditions are right.

Humans should focus on tasks that require judgment. Let tools handle the step-by-step tasks. Just segregating these will create your first blueprint.

Step 2: Use One Tool Until It "Breaks"

Zapier allows for 5 free Zaps (automation rules). Max out all of them.

The moment things get stuck is the point of learning. The act of troubleshooting "why this isn't working" by yourself transforms into design capability.

You will learn much faster by making one thing work than by watching ten tutorials.

Step 3: Learn to Articulate "What You Are Making the AI Do"

Many people use AI but cannot explain what the AI is actually doing.

Instead of "I'm having it summarize," can you say, "I'm having it extract X information and output it in Y format with Z granularity?"

Being able to articulate this means you can teach it to others. When you can teach it, the system scales across your team. Whether you can "articulate the workflow" is the real turning point between being a user and being an operator.

The Gap is a Signal, Not a Cause for Pessimism

The feeling mentioned earlier—that you aren't getting ahead of your colleagues—is half-right and half-wrong.

If you are doing the same thing as everyone else—using ChatGPT the same way—you won't get ahead. But people who think about "what to combine AI with to automate a business process" are still in the minority.

Even among the export businesses we interact with via Rinda, those who say "I use AI every day" are increasing, but those who "have automated parts of their business flow" are still rare.

This isn't a pessimistic realization; it means there is still room to take the lead.

Moving while the gap is still "quietly" widening is the best time to act. Once it becomes common knowledge, the cost of catching up will skyrocket.

"I thought I had no technical skills, but now I realize that designing a process is something entirely different from writing code."

This came from a professional in international sales at an export firm, who just six months ago claimed they were "bad at AI"—only to find themselves automating three core tasks via Zapier.

Prioritizing the "habit of breaking down and designing workflows" over simple technical acquisition is the highest ROI investment you can make right now.

In international sales, the gap between the "designers" and the "tool consumers" will only widen further.

From the phase of "making the AI do things one by one" to the phase of "automating a continuous workflow." SMEs in the export sector that take this step are the ones seeing actual results.

If you share these challenges, feel free to leave a comment. Let's think together about which tasks you should tackle first.

FAQ

Q1. Can I build AI automation even if I have little international sales experience?

A. Yes, absolutely. What matters isn't programming skill, but the design ability to decide "which task, when, and how to process it." Using no-code tools like Zapier or Make, you can build things like automated follow-ups for overseas buyers without writing a single line of code. Start by listing one repetitive task.

Q2. How much does it cost to introduce AI automation for SME exports?

A. You can start for practically free. Zapier’s free plan allows for 5 automation rules, and the self-hosted version of n8n is free to use. There are already SMEs using tools costing just a few ten thousand yen a month to connect with multiple buyers in Southeast Asia and successfully move to negotiations.

Q3. What is the difference between "using" and "operating" AI in international sales?

A. "Using" refers to individual tool tasks, such as having ChatGPT translate or draft an email. "Operating" refers to being able to design and build an end-to-end workflow—buyer data management, inquiry responses, and follow-up emails—using AI and automation tools. The latter relies more on the mindset of decomposing and designing business processes than on pure technical power.

Once you're comfortable with individual cross-border sales, the next step is B2B. Why not scale your business further through automated corporate sales?

Let's get started with Rinda today! Rinda | B2B Global Sales AI Agent for International Expansion If you have any questions, feel free to contact us via LINE anytime. Add LINE friend

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