It seems you can’t turn around without seeing evidence of Artificial intelligence these days. Depending on whom you listen to, AI is either going to revolutionize civilization, eliminate half our jobs, or finally figure out why the office printer stops working five minutes before an important presentation.
And let’s not forget its newfound ability to hack into a competitor’s website. Anyone up for a triple-feature of Terminator movies?
But in the words of Douglas Adams, “Don’t Panic!” Because for small-business owners, the reality is considerably less dramatic—and much more useful.
Here’s what it all comes down to: AI is a tool. As noted in this article, you can use it to improve your writing, do your research, and organize your thinking.
And like a calculator, computer, smartphone, or Google search, its value depends on how you use it. After all, you don’t have to understand how artificial intelligence works any more than you need to understand an internal-combustion engine to drive to work.
With all that said, and as a public service, we offer these 12 practical ways almost any small business can profit by putting AI to work for them.
1. Write Better Marketing Materials.
Need an email, brochure, advertisement, social-media post, press release, or newsletter article? AI can produce a first draft in seconds. You still provide the personality and judgment, but you don’t have to begin with a blank page.
2. Improve Customer Service.
AI can help answer routine questions, create FAQ pages, draft responses to complaints, and power chatbots that handle basic inquiries when you’re closed.
3. Research Your Competition.
AI can help organize information about competitors, compare their products and services, identify differences in positioning, and uncover opportunities you may have overlooked.
4. Brainstorm New Ideas.
Ask AI for 25 promotional ideas, 20 possible product names, 15 ways to attract customers on a rainy Tuesday, or 10 things your competitors probably aren’t doing. Not every suggestion will be brilliant, but hey…you only need one good one.
5. Save Time on Routine Writing.
Proposals, job descriptions, meeting agendas, policies, customer letters, employee announcements, meeting minutes and other everyday documents can often be drafted much faster with AI assistance.
6. Analyze Your Numbers.
Give AI appropriate sales, expense, inventory, or customer data and it can help spot patterns, summarize results, and identify questions worth investigating. Just remember that important financial conclusions should still be verified.
7. Improve Hiring.
AI can help write clearer job descriptions, develop interview questions, create onboarding checklists, and organize the qualities you’re seeking in a candidate.
8. Create Training Materials.
Turn your knowledge into employee manuals, checklists, quizzes, scripts, step-by-step instructions, and troubleshooting guides.
9. Generate Social-Media Content.
Instead of wondering what to post tomorrow, ask AI to create a month’s worth of ideas based on your business, customers, and objectives.
10. Prepare for Meetings.
AI can summarize background information, suggest questions, organize talking points, and turn meeting notes into action items.
11. Learn Faster.
Don’t understand SEO, cash flow, TikTok, workers’ compensation, or a new industry term? AI can explain complicated subjects in plain English—and patiently answer your follow-up questions.
12. Give Yourself a Second Brain.
Perhaps AI’s greatest small-business advantage is simply having something available 24/7 to bounce ideas off of. Ask it to challenge your assumptions, find weaknesses in a plan, suggest alternatives, or play devil’s advocate.
Because the most important word in the phrase artificial intelligence isn’t artificial. It’s intelligence.
And the most important thing you need to remember is to not confuse artificial intelligence with human judgment.
AI makes mistakes. It can misunderstand instructions, invent facts, and occasionally deliver an answer with enormous confidence that is also enormously wrong.
Confidential or sensitive business information also deserves careful handling…so don’t hand AI the keys to your business. Just hand it a seat at the table.
Use it to research, organize, brainstorm, draft, analyze, and question. Then apply the experience, intuition, creativity, and common sense that made you a business owner in the first place.
And remember: the businesses most likely to benefit from AI won’t necessarily be those using the most sophisticated technology.
They’ll be the ones that learn how to ask better questions—and know what to do with the answers.