Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just for the big guys, it’s an essential tool for small businesses success as well.
Simple AI tools already exist that are easy to use and built for those without high-level technical skill.
Every business currently has gaps where AI can increase efficiency, reduce costs, and boost profitability. Here are some practical ways small businesses can leverage AI to their advantage:
Enhance Your Customer Service
AI-powered chatbots can handle customer inquiries 24/7 and route requests to the correct department or employee, reducing the need for human interaction on most requests.
If you have SOPs, FAQs, pricing sheets or any other documentation, you can tell your chatbots to pull information from these sources and then only invoke a human when they can’t source an answer.
There are also Ai tools that can answer phones, make calls, or act as your answering service.
Examples: ChatGPT, Drift, Intercom, Zendesk AI
Handle Your Marketing
AI can analyze your business and competition to design a unique message, calculating your fit in competitive markets.
As an example, I had it analyze local IT companies to find a value proposition that no one was speaking to (trust and SMB value).
With that information Ai was able to create website headlines, content for blogs, social media, and email campaigns which ensured consistent and optimized messaging.
AI-powered social media tools can even schedule posts, analyze engagement, and suggest content trends to improve reach and audience interaction.
Examples: HubSpot, Mailchimp AI, Persado, Phrasee, AiSDR
Analyze Logistics & Optimize Your Spending
With enough legacy data, AI can predict inventory needs by analyzing past sales data, spot seasonal trends, and analyze supplier lead times.
If you have a warehouse, it can optimize your space and find ways to reduce waste.
It can optimize drivers routes, technician schedules and fix any pricing problems.
Examples: NetSuite, Inventory Planner, Blue Yonder, Relex Solutions
Get Rid of Tedious Tasks
Hate writing proposals? Dread drafting emails? Tired of poor responses from Google? Need someone to analyze financials or contracts?
Just ask ChatGPT and you would be amazed how complex your answers will be and how easily it can put together professional documents that normally take CPAs and Lawyers hours.
You will of course, need to review everything but doing a quick review of a document rather than having to draft it from scratch is a major time saver.
Protect Your Money
Hackers use AI.
They can use it spot gaps, look for unpatched systems, spot companies with lax email security and automate tasks that normally would take them days.
You need to fight fire with fire and get AI monitoring that no human can do.
You can use AI to ingest millions of logs and look for the signs of malicious activity such as strange e-mail behavior irregular data access for connectivity from strange Ips.
While your sleeping, AI can spot, lockdown and resolve threats that would normally cripple a business
Example: Threatlocker, CrowdStrike, Todyl
Handle Your Financials
AI can handle many basic accounting tasks. You simply asks the information and without needing to even know Quickbooks or Xero you can ask it to analyze expenses, generate reports, detect anomalies and review transactions.
AI has made it very simple for non-financial people to analyze complex data and generate reports. This allows you to pull in accountnats for more complex tasks.
Very soon AI will be handling tax returns, forecasting businesses and creating valuations based a millions of data points.
Examples: QuickBooks AI, Xero, Botkeeper, Vic.ai
Make Better Decisions
Ask AI anything, and most of the time it will have a more informed answer than you will.
It can source millions of articles, access large data sets, review market trends on pricing and leverage predictive analytics that results in WAY better answers than a google search can provide you.
Pro Tip: Don’t google search anything, use ChatGPT for your searches. Skip sourcing through reddit articles, Microsoft whitepages, or Top Ten lists that were written by paid off sources and let ChatGPT go through all that crap and find you a succicent answer.
Examples: ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini
Conclusion: No matter your skill level, there are AI tools that will boost your business
AI is no longer a futuristic concept, it’s here and now.
By strategically implementing AI solutions in key business areas like customer support, marketing, pricing, and cybersecurity, small businesses can ensure that they don’t lag behind when it comes to preparing for the future.
Are you ready to implement AI in your business? Reach out to LME Services and we can guide your business through the AI age.