RiverTrail Technology Blog

What if you decided to turn to an AI program for assistance with something—let’s say a client proposal—only to discover, in the middle of signing the contract, that the AI had made up and included a half-off discount on the very thing that brought you most of your profit?

While hopefully hypothetical, this scenario can easily happen. So, while AI can be and often is a serious asset to business productivity, this is only the case when you are also paying attention. Let’s consider a few shortcomings that you avoid with the help of your human employees running interference. 

It is easy to treat AI like a magic black box: you put a prompt in, and a miracle comes out. But behind the scenes, there is a massive difference in how that box handles your data.

If you aren't distinguishing between Public and Private AI, you might accidentally be broadcasting your company’s trade secrets to the entire world. Here is what you need to know to keep your data under lock and key while still reaping the benefits of automation.

Does your business look at its Point of Sale (POS) system as a simple digital cash register? In reality, it’s the centralized system that keeps your business running. When it works, it works, but when it doesn’t, your entire business could grind to a halt. These systems are much more complex than they used to be, so we want to help you adjust by addressing the five greatest challenges that your business will face with its modern POS system.

For technology professionals, supporting small businesses is a constant balance between high-stakes problem-solving and strategic frustration. While tools are more accessible than ever, the gap between owning technology and utilizing it correctly remains a primary point of contention. As we move through 2026, IT experts are focusing on four critical areas where businesses must evolve.

In the IT world, hoping your backups work is a recipe for disaster. From a pro perspective, a backup that hasn't been tested is just a pile of useless data. We’ve moved past the days of just saving files to a thumb drive; today, it's about business continuity, making sure a company doesn't go bankrupt because a server died or a hacker got in.

If you want to keep a business alive, you need to know these three points.

Bad habits can have detrimental effects on your overall life. For example, if every night at four in the morning, you snuck into the kitchen to eat a few spoonfuls of uncooked Pillsbury Cookie Dough right out of the tube from the back of the refrigerator, you’d probably be doing more harm than good to your health without really getting that much enjoyment out of the act. Cybersecurity bad habits might save you a few seconds of time each day, but they can come back to bite you.

Ignoring cybersecurity best practices is about as useful as getting good at hiding that Pillsbury Cookie Dough wrapper in the bottom of the trash so nobody realizes it’s gone.

All joking aside, you are personally responsible for your own cybersecurity, and keeping yourself safe online, whether that be at home with your personal accounts, or at work, is extremely important. It doesn’t take a lot of effort either, it just takes good habits.

Let’s go over a few things you can do to save yourself from a lot of headaches down the road.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when it comes to cybersecurity threats it’s kind of hard not to be. I used to look at it from two sides; one side is fascinated at the innovation and intensely brutal ways that high-end cyberattacks work, and the other side of me loses sleep at night worrying about these risks affecting our clients, prospects, and even my own business. This one particular classification of cyberattack, however, takes the cake for being especially frightening.

As the year winds down, it’s time to start looking at the next 12 months and what the year could mean for local organizations. It’s likely that most businesses are putting together their operational plans and marketing budgets, and all of that is certainly important, but there are some major situations at play that could cause your business to suffer from major losses and rack up huge expenses if decision-makers aren’t prepared for it.

I was talking to some colleagues the other day about cybersecurity and its relationship with modern everyday scams, like phone scams and similar things. In my opinion, it’s worth bundling these two topics together, and we found some interesting statistics that we’d like to share.