5 Ways Small Businesses Can Use AI to Punch Above Their Weight
Small businesses may not have large teams and huge offices, but that shouldn’t stop them from dreaming big. We live in a world where technology-driven work has been proven to be more efficient. The good news is that while back-end technology may sound complex, using these tools isn’t as hard as you may think.
Artificial intelligence is already a big part of your life without you knowing it. From face recognition for unlocking phones to movies suggested by streaming platforms, you likely use AI every single day. AI customizes options according to what it has “learned” about you. In turn, it saves you time and effort.
AI tools are becoming both accessible and economical as technology advances further. This is benefiting a variety of businesses in interesting and unique ways. Here are five tips on how you can use this incredible tool to give your small business a boost.
1. Competitive Content
Your website and social media pages are the face of your business. The content on your pages should be powerful enough to attract customers and simple enough for them to understand. AI can help improve content by predicting how it will rank for Google or by providing semantic analysis. Providing technology-based insights on both content quality and topic authority, AI can help put your business ahead. It can help make your content more appealing to potential customers and ensure increased traffic to your website.
Some tools not only analyze your content, but also assess where you stand compared to your competitors. Which links are clicked the most? Which products are frequently added to a wish list? Which blogs get the most comments? Equipped with such a comprehensive analysis, you can focus on strengthening your content for a bigger impact on your audience. It’s like getting secret access into how your target audience thinks and makes decisions.
2. Artistic Intelligence
Unless you’re a graphic designer yourself, finding appropriate art for your marketing isn’t easy. How many times have you found good animation but wished you could change the characters or the color palette? Well, with AI-generated art, it is possible to produce digital images from written text. Designing platforms such as Canva have incorporated the AI text-to-image generators and are being used by several small businesses.
The artwork produced can be used in the company’s website, newsletter, or advertisements to synchronize its media platforms. This is a bonus for companies with logos that they want to include in different forms across their marketing campaigns. Once you have such a branding kit, the fonts and exact shades of colors used will be cohesive and make your brand look professional.
3. Sustainable Support
Small businesses are often known for great customer service. However, answering customer queries 24/7 is next to impossible for businesses who can not afford additional staff. AI has helped numerous companies by replacing human customer service agents with chatbots. These bots answer common queries, reduce response time, and increase sales by suggesting alternate products.
Although helpful, chatbots still need human supervision, as they may not be able to handle complex or emotional questions. Make sure you monitor the bots regularly and follow up with customers whenever needed. Clients often don’t like speaking to robots or machines. So give your chatbot a human feel by giving it a name or programming it to use the local dialect.
4. Accelerated Accounting
In some cases, small business owners are known for their creativity, not their calculations. While innovation is the backbone of the business, jobs such as finance or supply chain also need attention. Instead of hiring an elaborate finance team, think about utilizing AI to analyze the data and provide recommendations. AI-generated forecasts related to logistics, prices, supply-demand projections, etc. have proven to be more accurate than human-generated reports.
AI can calculate optimal costs for your products or services. Using statistics to back your financial decisions can increase your confidence and reduce the what-if factor drastically. Apart from increasing profit, AI also reduces losses by identifying financial irregularities through detection of card-based payment fraud and loan risks. This super-power is based on the ability to sift through thousands of data points and identify potential problems.
5. Solid Cyber Security
Information security is a matter of concern for both the customer and the business owner. Programmed to pick up risky patterns of behavior, AI can identify suspicious activity and react proactively. When it comes to security, time is of utmost importance. Historically, it was humanly impossible to perform data analysis and provide recommendations in limited time. However, thankfully AI has changed that.
AI can protect sensitive information from breaches and protect software from malware and phishing attacks. The best part is that AI keeps learning, so while hackers change their strategies, AI does too. Even your customers will feel at ease knowing their personal data is protected by a double layer of authentication. With AI by your side, it’s easier to build a stronger and more trustworthy rapport with your clients.
It’s time to debunk the myths surrounding AI and accept it as a business tool. You don’t have to be a computer programmer to use AI. It is a tool just like one of the dozens of apps people use daily. You must have experienced AI as a customer several times. Now it’s time to use it for your business. Chalk out the needs of your company, and you can select from a range of economical and accessible AI tools available online.
Small businesses need all the help they can get. AI technology can support the administrative aspects, giving you time to focus on the creative side. Once your schedule is free from tedious and monotonous tasks, your mind will be free to explore new avenues. With technology leading the way, you can enjoy a safer and smoother journey toward personal and professional success.
