How AI can benefit your small business

Cutting-edge technologies can help businesses stay ahead of the curve. New tools can open up new growth opportunities and the rise of AI, specifically Generative AI (GenAI), is the latest and arguably the biggest revolution in IT for decades. It affords SMBs an affordable way to get a competitive edge.

This is a technology that goes beyond automation and the AI we used to know. It can write and edit content, propose solutions, and analyse data. It’s also evolving and developing on an almost daily basis, such is the pace of this new technology.

Let’s see how small businesses are using the potential of Generative AI to improve their marketing strategies, simplify operations, and encourage innovation.

How Generative AI is Transforming Small Business Marketing

Let’s explore marketing first.

60% of SMBs say getting new customers is their biggest challenge. While 30% say it’s marketing to potential clients. Not surprisingly, 74% showed interest in using AI to help.

Marketing can be time-consuming and expensive for small businesses. Manually writing blogs and social media posts is not the work of but a moment, and then there is the time and cost involved in trawling image repositories to try to find a suitable picture to accompany your text.

By enlisting the help of GenAI these jobs can be cut to a fraction of the time. A simple text-based prompt can generate deep, insightful articles on topics that combine both internal documentation and wider internet wisdom to produce compelling copy. A further prompt to an image generator can then draw you the perfect accompanying image to boost your blog and grab social media clicks.

Reducing time spent on marketing, and reaping the benefit of original SEO-friendly content allows businesses to see marked improvements in both productivity and visibility in the all-important search rankings.

91% of surveyed SMBs say AI has made their business more successful.

Effective Social Media Management

Social media has become a key part of small business marketing. Generative AI simplifies social media management. AI tools can analyse social media trends and schedule posts for optimal engagement.

It can even scan content and suggest relevant hashtags and captions to increase visibility and boost engagement further.

This automation allows small businesses to maintain a consistent social media presence.

Improved Customer Experience

Small businesses try to stand out through exceptional customer experiences. Generative AI can play an important role here too. Everyone hates a chatbot. We all know it and we all hate that companies use them. We just want to speak to a real person who responds in the way a real person would.

AI-powered chatbots offer a surprisingly acceptable halfway house. They provide quick and human responses to specific queries instead of the pre-canned responses from chatbots of old.

This small language change improves customer satisfaction, even if the eventual outcome is the same.

Data Analysis and Decision-Making

Generative AI is great at analysing huge datasets. Using Microsoft Copilot, you can ask it to find trends in Excel data or to pull out specific metrics for you without ever needing to write a single formula. This democratisation of Excel and data allows even the most technophobic to perform deep analysis using everyday language prompts.

Using these tools, small businesses that previously may not have had the skills necessary to make data-driven decisions can unlock the potential of their data.

 They can understand market trends, gain insights into customer behaviours, and identify areas for growth or cost savings.

This data-driven approach enables more informed marketing strategies. It helps business owners optimize resource allocation. And ultimately it leads to more efficient, more productive, and more profitable businesses.

Creative Product Development

The creative abilities of GenAI also apply to product development. New tools can generate innovative ideas and concepts. Even free tools like ChatGPT can be asked to provide a variety of ideas for a new product in a particular market segment which could be the spark for your next innovation.

AI-driven tools provide a unique perspective. One that can inspire creativity. As well as set small businesses on a path of continuous innovation.

Enabling Small Businesses for Future Growth

Generative AI opens a multitude of time-saving options for small companies, allowing them to be more productive and achieve new levels of success. More importantly, it allows them to do so affordably.

Whether using a commercial licence for ChatGPT, or Microsoft’s Copilot implementation of the same engine, the are opportunities for efficiency everywhere. No matter where you look on the internet, you’ll find AI assistance popping up to help write your content and now is the time to embrace it.

If you’d like advice or assistance with making the most of Generative AI opportunities in your business, then get in touch today.