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Key Takeaways
- AI is becoming one of the most accessible ways for small businesses to move faster and regain capacity – not by replacing the human parts of entrepreneurship, but by taking low-value work off your plate.
- The real power for a small business is using AI to think better and as a decision-making partner.
- It can help you automate tasks that don’t require your intelligence, turn your ideas into content faster, personalize at scale, and analyze your marketing data.
So many people are talking about AI these days, and it’s hard to know what’s fantasy and what’s within reach. The truth is, AI is becoming one of the most accessible tools that small business owners can use to make progress faster, especially when it comes to low-value work. So the ROI potential is enormous if used properly. Still alone 1 in 4 small businesses have adopted AI at all so far.
Most founders don’t need to become “AI experts”; they just need tactical insight on how to integrate AI into the business they already run, without losing their voice or losing the personal touch that makes small businesses special.
Here’s how to do exactly that.
Related: 3 Ways Small Businesses Can Compete With Big Companies Using the Power of AI
Why AI is more important to small businesses than anyone else
Small businesses often run on razor-thin capacity. Owners are busy juggling client work, marketing, sales, administration, finance, hiring, operations and trying to log out in time to live a little of their lives. AI certainly won’t replace the best parts of you, like critical thinking and common sense, but it can absolutely replace the hours you spend in the weeds. Think of it as adding a part-time analyst to your team for the cost of a software subscription.
And unlike large teams, you don’t have to deal with bureaucracy slowing you down, so you can quickly adopt, test, and iterate, meaning you actually get the benefit that most big companies squander.
Related: Why smart entrepreneurs let AI do the hard work
The real benefit of AI: scaling your decision-making
Many founders treat AI as a content generator. They plug in a prompt, get a caption, post it and move on, but thus we have entered the age of AI “slop,” where AI-generated content is becoming more common and more simplified by the week.
The real power of a small business is to use AI to think better and see it as a decision-making partner.
This is the kind of support that big companies have entire teams for, and you can use AI instead to save a lot of wasted time. Let’s look at some examples of how to do this in practice.
Example 1: Automate low-value tasks
Most founders waste hours every week on tasks that don’t require their intelligence at all. AI is built for these tasks.
For example, you can use it to summarize customer feedback surveys and turn the raw data into actionable insights without having to sort through thousands of responses manually or with Ctrl + F.
AI is also great for writing first drafts of email responses, product descriptions, instructions, or FAQs. Bonus points if you dictate to the AI so you don’t even have to type. Please be sure to read and edit the output to ensure it is clear and accurate.
Example 2: Turn your ideas into actionable marketing faster
You already know your business better than anyone, and AI can help you leverage that innate knowledge and create content ideas on the fly.
Try using AI to brain dump, and ask it to provide a blog post overview. Or use an AI-powered tool like Castmagic to turn a podcast episode into hundreds of social media post ideas.
An important thing to remember is that the quality of the AI output is almost entirely dependent on the quality of your input. This is why the voice note or dictation tool is great: you can use it to dictate for minutes, and it will synthesize all those nuances into a tactical starting point for any type of content.
Example 3: Personalize at scale without losing the human touch
Small businesses win because of the boutique, personal atmosphere. With AI you can scale that without the huge amount of overhead.
An easy way to do this is to create multiple versions of the same message, tailored to different audiences. You can also personalize sales follow-ups using the sales call notes.
AI is perfect as a tool to eliminate repetition so you can be more human where it matters.
Example 4: Analyze your marketing like a data team would
Using AI to actually analyze your marketing data can make your marketing efforts much more profitable.
For example, if you download your analytics from different marketing channels, your AI tool can tell you what’s driving conversions and suggest why, recommending what to focus on and what types of content to produce. It can also help you crunch numbers for things that might otherwise seem intimidating, like ad metrics analysis.
AI becomes a real multiplier when it comes to data, allowing you to make decisions like a company with far more resources would.
Related: AI for the Underdog – Here’s How Small Businesses Can Thrive with Artificial Intelligence
The biggest mistake small businesses make with AI
Too many small businesses are trying to shorten the process of creating content and brand messages with AI. AI is a great tool, but not yet good enough to effectively capture your full vision, your values, or your judgment.
You and your team are still the best resource, at least right now, for things like storytelling, brand voice development, creative direction, and any kind of final wrap-up.
AI should help you spend more time in CEO mode and make better decisions. It should enable you to take repetitive work off your hands so that you can get out of trouble.
And the best part about this is that it allows you to stay human. With AI, you can spend your time where your judgment and creativity are best used, and stop doing repetitive tasks.