How Your Small Business Can Easily Leverage AI

It’s been less than a year since ChatGPT was launched, and already it’s changed the business landscape in ways we can only begin to imagine.

But even a few years ago, if you’d told me I’d soon be publishing an article on how to use AI for small business, I would have thought you were out of your mind.

Up until recently, the idea of artificial intelligence seemed like something straight out of a science fiction flick, and the thought of it being readily available to anyone with an internet connection had never even seemed like a possibility.

But lo and behold, AI is now the hottest thing in business, and quickly becoming something that business owners across the board can no longer afford to ignore.

The applications of AI are truly staggering, and like it or not, businesses are going to have to learn to leverage these tools if they want to continue to compete.

And even with all the negativity, hesitation, and suspicion surrounding this software, it seems like most businesses have already started using it, or are at least planning to do so.

According to a survey from Intuit QuickBooks, which targeted small businesses, more than eight out of ten respondents are already using AI at work, more than a third of them use it every day, and 65 per cent of them said they want to make more use of AI than they already are.

What’s more, the survey found that more than two-thirds of respondents agree that AI could contribute to the success of their businesses and 70 per cent agree that AI could help them to compete with larger businesses.

Aside from exploring the reasons why people are choosing to use AI for small business, the survey also exposed why some businesses are still hesitant to use these tools.

Despite the overwhelming enthusiasm that these small business owners seem to have for AI, more than 90 per cent of respondents have at least one concern about it, with the top three concerns being issues related to privacy, lack of regulation, and how this technology may end up taking people’s jobs.

All things considered, it’s obvious that small business owners are excited about using AI, and the benefits it can offer their businesses, but they’re also quite worried about the potential implications of using this technology, and rightfully so.

That being said, a lot of ridiculous claims have been made about AI in terms of what it’s capable of doing and the effects it might have on society, not least when it comes to business.

But as I mentioned earlier, this technology is something that can no longer be ignored if companies want to continue to be able to compete in their industries.

With that in mind, I wrote this article to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about this technology and provide greater context on how you can use AI for your small business, so you can get ahead of the curve now before it’s too late in the game.

So, if you’re interested in learning more about AI applications for small business or somewhat skeptical of this technology and still on the fence about using it, then you’re going to want to keep reading.

My Take on AI for Small Business
I think it’s safe to say that I and my team would be considered early adopters of AI tools like ChatGPT, both for eVision Media, and my own personal brand.

Truth be told, we all had our own worries about AI, and we even held a couple of meetings to discuss our concerns and explore how we could use this technology to benefit eVision Media and our clients.

But before the dust settled on all the myths and misconceptions surrounding AI, I already knew that this was something we were going to have to get used to using, otherwise we’d be left in the dust.

The controversy around AI always reminds me of what happened when WordPress came out, and we were having meetings to decide whether or not we were going to use that tool.

Fast forward 20 years, and WordPress is now used to build the majority of websites, and no web developer in their right mind would debate whether or not we should be using it.

So, as I became aware of the seemingly endless applications of AI, and the speed with which it grew in popularity, the writing was already on the wall – this was something we were going to have to use, and we needed to figure it out fast.

Less than 12 months later, both I and my team have fully embraced the use of AI in our work, and have been incredibly excited to see how this technology has made our work easier and allowed us to provide better services and more value for our clients.

However, right from the get-go, people were making a bunch of claims about AI that always seemed pretty far-fetched, and luckily, for the most part, they’ve proven to be untrue.

Unfortunately, a lot of this ridiculous rhetoric continues to persist, even almost a year after ChatGPT’s release, so before I get into talking about how to leverage AI for small business, I want to address some of this stuff.

First off, as I’m sure you already know, even though these AI tools have been publicly available for nearly a year, we still haven’t been made obsolete.

Clients continue to come to us to handle their marketing, and if anything, they’re happier with our services than they ever have been, as these tools have just made us better at everything we do.

Moreover, as far as I know, entire industries have not been wiped out as a result of AI, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen – at least not any time soon.

As for whether or not AI will inevitably surpass humanity in every conceivable way and end up enslaving us all, that’s a subject for another article.

But if you want to use AI for small business marketing, you still need to have a deep understanding of marketing and know how to properly use AI to get it to do what you want.

What’s more, after almost a year of pumping out blog articles, social media posts, and email campaigns, many people can tell when content has been created by AI, and this is something that also has to be accounted for.

So, despite what you may have been told, AI won’t allow you to fire your entire marketing team and do everything yourself.

But just like it has for us, AI tools like ChatGPT can make your marketing team more productive, and improve the quality of the content they’re creating.

On that note, let’s explore what you need to know to leverage AI for your small business.

Read: Why Is Everyone so Afraid of ChatGPT?

If you want to understand how best to benefit your business using tools like ChatGPT, you’re going to need a deep understanding of what they’re capable of doing, and what they’re not able to do.

It’s also not a bad idea to gain a better grasp of all the apprehension surrounding these tools, so you’re not being misled or thinking they’re something they’re not.

So, if you want to learn more about ChatGPT, and why everyone seems to be so scared of it, then this is an article you’re not going to want to miss.