AI Made Simple: How to Choose the Right Tools to Optimize Your Small Business

You don’t have to turn far to find blog posts, podcast episodes, videos, and social media posts telling you to “adopt AI now before it’s too late”.

As a small business owner, with limited tech experience, this might be a bit confusing for you.

Where do you start? How do you integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) with your business?

Do you even need to?

If you’re struggling to figure out artificial intelligence, why it’s so important, and how to incorporate it into your small business – this blog post is for you.

You’ll learn about:

Let’s dive in.

What is AI?

AI (or Artificial Intelligence) is a field of computer science dedicated to training computer systems to perform tasks that are typically performed by humans.

Some of these tasks include visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation.

AI works by using algorithms — sets of rules — to analyze data and find patterns. Based on those patterns, AI makes predictions, recognizes speech or images, writes text or code, and even plays games. The more data the AI is trained on, the better it becomes at recognizing patterns and making decisions.

In a business context, you can use AI to:

AI isn’t just a buzzword, it's a game-changer for businesses looking to gain a competitive edge.

By leveraging AI tools, you can streamline certain business processes, improve efficiency, and make data-driven decisions that can ultimately result in increased profitability.

How Does AI Work?

It’s important to understand that AI is not a single technology or tool, but a field that encompasses a wide range of techniques and approaches.

Some of the most commonly used AI techniques include machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.

The more you learn about AI, the more these terms will pop up. To help you understand them better, we’ve provided simple definitions for each one:

Examples of AI in Everyday Life

If you’re new to the AI scene, you might feel like this technology is super complicated and far beyond your reach.

But AI has been around for years – and you’re probably using it right now to make your life easier.

Here are a few examples of AI in popular tools that have been around for the last couple of years:

AI has become an integral part of our daily lives, from the smart assistants on our phones and in our homes, to the personalized recommendations we receive from our favorite apps.

With its ability to analyze vast amounts of data – in rapid time – and learn from it, AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we work and live.

In the next section, we’ll explore how AI can benefit your business and help you stay competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.

AI + Your Business

If you’re still on the fence about integrating AI with your business … take this as your sign to hop off the fence and start researching.

AI could be the missing key to revving up your business’ efficiency and saving you hours of time – and money.

In this section, we'll explore how AI can benefit your business, and what factors you need to consider when choosing AI tools to implement. Whether you're a small start-up or a large corporation, AI can help drive growth and improve your bottom line.

There are many business processes that can be improved with AI. Here are some common examples:

Marketing

If you’re a bootstrapped solopreneur with limited time and resources, a content-generating AI tool could be a game changer for your content marketing strategy.

Tools like ChatGPT, Copy.ai, and Jasper are designed to generate basic marketing copy for you to edit and use in your emails, social media posts, video captions, and even landing pages.

Check out this email we asked ChatGPT to write, promoting a new:

Pretty cool, right?

But - and this is a BIG but - the work is far from perfect.

What you receive from ChatGPT and other copywriting AI tools often lacks the tone, emotion and accuracy you find in human-generated content.

So we definitely don’t recommend copying, pasting, and publishing content straight from the generator.

Use this tool - and other AI tools - as a content creation aid.

And if podcasting, webinars, or video marketing are a core part of your marketing strategy, then you should consider using transcription tools like Otter, Trint, or Fireflies to save your hours of time.

Operations

Small business owners often neglect the operations aspect of their businesses because they just don’t have the time.

AI can give that time back to you, by automating these repetitive, time-consuming tasks. From streamlining your email inbox, to managing detailed spreadsheets, and even automating your invoicing – you can use AI to save you tons of time while you focus on higher-level, margin-moving tasks in your business.

If you run an online store selling physical products, AI can help monitor and manage your inventory, supply chain, and logistics more efficiently by analyzing data on customer demand and forecasting future needs.

For example, you can use an AI tool to determine the best time to reorder inventory, and optimize shipping routes to prevent delays and save costs.

Finance

Key areas that AI can assist with in finance include financial forecasting, fraud detection, and risk management.

AI can use your prior financial data, as well as current market trends, to predict future revenue and expenses in your business. With this information, you can make better financial decisions for business and prevent problems like overspending from happening.

AI can also identify suspicious transactions and flag fraudulent activity, saving you from major financial losses.

In terms of risk management, AI can analyze historical data and market trends to predict future scenarios that could affect your business – e.g. changes in consumer behavior or shifts in market demand.

It can also use its findings from this data to pinpoint potential financial risks to your business — e.g. cash flow shortages or even bankruptcy.

Customer Service

Picture this:

A potential customer lands on your conversion-focused landing page, reads through what you have to offer, and gets this close to buying …

But they have a couple of questions to ask and your FAQ page doesn’t have the answers. If this customer is in a different timezone to you, or happens to be on your website after business hours … 

This is the perfect opportunity for a chatbot to pop up and help answer your prospects’ questions.

AI-powered chatbots can offer round-the-clock support, answering frequently asked questions and resolving simple customer issues.

If you do have a customer service rep, chatbots can help free up their time to focus on more complex inquiries; also boosting customer satisfaction as a result of faster response times.

Chatbots aside, AI can also analyze customer feedback to identify areas where your business can improve its products, services, or even the quality of customer service. This will help you identify customer pain points and take proactive measures to address them. 

How to Identify Areas in Your Business that Would Benefit Most from AI

Identifying key areas in your business that would benefit most from AI isn’t always straightforward. 

Here are several simple steps to pinpoint the areas that would benefit most from implementing some kind of AI assistance:

How to Find and Implement AI Tools in Your Business

Now that you’ve identified the areas in your business to optimize with AI, it’s time to find the right tools to get the job done.

Start by researching the latest AI solutions and tools that are available on the market. Look for solutions that align with your business goals and address your specific pain points.

Pay attention to customer reviews, to see how these tools have actually helped other businesses.

Once you have a list of potential AI tools, evaluate each one carefully to determine which is the best fit for your business. Consider the following factors, before choosing one:

After you’ve identified the right AI tool(s) for your business needs, test it out on a pilot project.

Implementing AI tools can be a big change for your business, so it's a good idea to start with a pilot project before rolling out the tool more broadly. This gives you the opportunity to test the tool and make sure it works as expected before expanding its implementation company-wide.

Remember: AI tools are only effective if you or your employees know how to use them properly. Make sure to provide adequate training and support to ensure that you and your team can implement the tool effectively.

Tips for Monitoring Your AI Tools

Implementing AI tools in your business is just one step. The next — and more important — step is to monitor your tools’ performance to see if it’s helping your business or not.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to evaluating the performance of your tools, but these tips can help you get started:

Conclusion: Ready to Introduce Your Business to AI?

And that’s it!

Now that you have a better idea of what AI is and how you can integrate it into your business, it’s time to turn your learning into action.

Start with the basics – like your website.

If you don’t have a website – or feel like your current one is in desperate need of an update – we recommend using Thrive Suite, our all-in-one toolbox for building a thriving online business.