6 ways AI can support your small business
Artificial intelligence can simplify your to-do list for your small business, whether you use strong or weak AI. On the most basic level, AI is a great tool for language translation and answering simple questions.
AI can act as your pseudo-content or HR team for more extensive usage until you have the funding to hire a specialist. And later, AI can continue freeing you and your employees for other tasks, such as long-range planning.
However, AI is only helpful if you know exactly what you are looking for. Remember, you have to give it a prompt and vet the information it returns.
1. Writing content and social media posts
One of the most time-consuming tasks for small-business owners is writing content. Well-written and intentional content can secure a higher ranking on Google and burn the brand into the memory of potential customers. But if you are not a writer, an empty Google doc and the gymnastics of SEO can be intimidating. AI can save you here.
ChatGPT
Designed by Open AI, ChatGPT is the current AI golden child. ChatGPT is easy to use and spits out great content, depending on the prompt and your fact-checking skills.
ChatGPT can explain scientific concepts, answer questions, draft emails, translate languages and write copy. Your query's quality and specificity solely determine the output's quality. A word to the wise: You need to fact-check anything you have AI write. ChatGPT can be rather inventive with “facts,” like this lawyer found out.
Grammarly
Grammarly is another free tool that uses AI to improve your writing. (It offers priced plans too, though.) For the free plan, you get vocabulary enhancement and checks on spelling, grammar, style, and plagiarism.
Notion AI
Notion AI is a mixture of ChatGPT and Grammarly with the power of both in one place. You simply start a new page, type a sentence and then scan over it with your mouse. An option to “ask AI” becomes available and clicking it will enhance your copy or respond to your requests.
2. Interactive customer service
Chatbots have been around since 1966 and are getting smarter every day. Customers can ask complicated questions about their own accounts and chatbots can respond with specifics. This ability to answer questions is possible because AI can pull data from previous conversations, making it a one-stop shop for any conversation you may have with a customer.
Now you don’t have to keep your business phone lines open at all hours of the day. Instead, you can rely on a chatbot to answer specific questions, point customers to resources, and document interactions.
3. Banking
AI and banking are not a new combination. You may not know this, but chatbots are common for customer service with banks.
Now, more than ever, you will see chatbots used to answer account inquiries, money transfers, loan applications, credit score monitoring, fraud prevention, password resets, and insurance claims at any time of the day.
Also, business banks like Novo, Bluevine, and Found all use AI to serve customers by pulling data from third-party sources. This data makes it possible for banks to make more nuanced financial decisions for small businesses applying for loans and better explain their findings to clients.
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4. Generating invoices
Suppose you don't have any employees yet and you are a solopreneur or just starting out. In that case, your biggest stress might be ensuring clients pay correctly and on time. These programs make it easy to automate repetitive tasks so you can check one more thing off your list every day.
Quickbooks uses AI to fill in and autocorrect invoices while also notifying you and your client about upcoming payments. Additionally, QuickBooks uses AI to enable faster payments, offers cash flow insights, and automates/categorizes mileage and receipt tracking.
Xero uses AI to autofill and read every document you upload, saving you time in your bookkeeping. It also learns from your mistakes. When you fix a comment or a name on an invoice, Xero will remember it and automatically autofill with that corrected name.
5. Human resource management
Small-business owners are on budgets. You can’t hire someone for everything you don’t know how to do. If you have employees, one of the obvious needs is HR management software. With brands like Zoho and Gusto, you can use AI to prep payroll, schedule shifts, track time off, create smart HR workflows, identify performance gaps, or prepare basic legal paperwork.
6. Website builders
Website builders use AI to build unique website templates in moments. Based on your prompt, a website builder like Wix and Hostinger can also apply a theme to your website and include features like live chat, security, and content writing.