How your small business can take advantage of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is proving to be one of the most disruptive new technologies we’ve seen in recent years. The launch of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools proved to be quite the leveller, especially for small and medium-sized businesses.

Free or inexpensive AI tools are being developed for every task and entrepreneurs are already taking advantage to automate a portion of customer communications, analyse market research, create marketing strategies or even provide legal or financial advice.

So, if you're considering using this technology to scale your business, here are some ways AI can benefit you.

1. Improving customer communications (AI-chatbots)

Chatbots are proving to be an affordable way to boost customer engagement for many small businesses that don’t have dedicated sales or customer service teams.

AI-powered chatbots can help you deliver exceptional customer service, while saving you valuable time and resources. By automating customer interactions, they increase efficiency, reduce response times, and ensure round-the-clock availability.

Based on your business’s needs, chatbots can perform a variety of tasks, ranging from fixing difficulties to initiating interactions with potential clients. And, when a customer's requirements are too complicated, the chatbot can always pass them on to a human to resolve the matter.

2. Building better marketing campaigns (AI-infused CRM)

When it comes to any software that deals with gathering or analysing data, an AI infusion is a no-brainer.

AI-infused customer relationship management (CRM) systems that analyse data from a number of different channels, such as newsletters, emails, phones and social media.

That not only lets you generate more leads for the same marketing budget, but also helps automate your sales and marketing processes.

In an interview with CNBC, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff pointed out an example case with one of its larger clients Gucci. The luxury retailer used Salesforce’s AI features to strengthen its call centre employees’ performance, rather than replacing them.   

Marc explains:

“We thought it’s just going to make them much more productive in handling cases. It actually transformed the call centre agents into sales agents, into marketing agents. It gave them capabilities they didn't have. It augmented them.”

3. HR and recruitment

Another area in which AI has unexpectedly come in handy is screening CVs. This allows you to focus on candidates who best match the job qualifications, provided that the algorithm used has been safeguarded against its designer’s own bias and the training data used.

As it can automatically look through hundreds of applicants, the chances of you finding the right candidate greatly increases, saving you resources and time.  

However, remember that, as with any other tool used in the recruitment process, AI performs best when you give it more feedback on its outcomes.

But it can’t all be left to the machines as nuances need to be considered, such as organisational culture as well as laws, regulations and ethics. Consequently, it’s important to have a real person at the centre.

AI’s assistance doesn’t just stop at hiring. It can also analyse feedback from new employees about the onboarding process to better streamline it. As recruitment requires a big investment, this can majorly impact a company’s bottom line.

4. Business intelligence

We’ve established that AI is a powerful tool for small businesses – but where it really shines is when combined with the power of information.

Emer Carr, a Galway-based UX business and tech consultant, explains:

"Information alone will not tell the story, context is key. Business intelligence (BI) and AI are transforming how Irish small businesses make strategic decisions.

"AI-driven BI tools like Zoho Analytics can analyse data from multiple sources – think spreadsheets, cloud drives, databases and business apps – to identify trends and patterns and help you to understand the full picture.

"This can reveal valuable insights into customer behaviour, marketing effectiveness, and operational bottlenecks.

"AI can take your BI insights a step further. They enable you to forecast future trends, predict customer needs, and optimise your business strategy based on real-time data analysis."

Final thoughts

While the surge of AI-driven tools and generative AI creates great opportunities for small businesses, it also poses some threats and challenges to cyber security.

Emer says:

"The biggest challenges lie in ensuring compliance and ethical issues with data protection, protecting IP (intellectual property rights) and upholding ethical standards.

"All businesses, regardless of size, must comply with regulations and take proactive measures to reduce risk.

"Education and proactive security measures are key. Establish policies and procedures early on to avoid future problems and harness the full potential of AI for your small business."

Users must also remember that AI is just a tool and is not a substitute for human expertise and input. Transformational life coach Vicki Bahra puts it best:

"In the world of AI becoming more prominent, it will become even more essential to keep the authentic, human aspect of businesses as people will value this more and more.

"AI will help small businesses stand out, save time and make it easier to drive people to their businesses, but once they become clients, the focus needs to be balanced with authenticity, care and real connection.

"Too much use of AI can lose customers in the long run as this becomes the new norm."

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