How AI Can Boost SMB
Powering up your business with AI prompts and algoritms
Imagine all the people in your company didn’t have to do repetitive tasks anymore
Imagine there’s no need to go through dozens of reports to gather analytics
We hope someday you will join us in the magical world of AI
This funny introduction was meant to show you that any business can use the power of AI however big or small. However today we are targeting small ones.
AI as a business asset
If you own a business and you are wondering whether AI can be an asset for you, here are a few examples of the ways it can speed up your processes and reduce costs:
If you can outsource a task - AI can do it for you
There are dozens of routine processes in every organization (inserting customer emails in the CRM system, filling out daily reports, etc) that can be performed by a person who does not know every aspect of your business but has a general idea of the niche.
If you have a FAQ page and still getting basic questions - AI can take care of those
Customer relations usually fall into two categories - 100 basic questions (like how to order this or where is that) and 1 or 2 meaningful interactions that require human contact. You can make those even more fulfilling if you let AI take care of the basics. After all, it can reply to 100 customers and not get tired of talking.
AI is not an oracle, but it can predict your future
AI can analyze gigabytes of data in a few minutes and make assumptions based on that. Sometimes the foresight that is offered by them excels human calculations by far because of that. Also, you can experiment with prompts by uploading typical questions or situations from your industry and asking for a prognosis.
AI for employees and customers
We covered how AI can help your clients and simplify relations between your business and the outer world, but it can also be helpful to your employees. For example, if you have an onboarding program for new recruits and no time to check how they are doing, AI can be their mentor, quiz them, answer questions, and much more (for example, Zavvy).
Fun fact: you can use the same service to train your employees on AI solutions for different departments!
Still have doubts?
It is difficult to implement
Introducing AI to your business can be complex and scary, but it sure is going to be worth it. Recent reports show that 85% of small business owners say technology helps them succeed, even if at first they were difficult to implement.
My employees fear they might lose their jobs
Let them see AI not as a rival but as a helpful junior who is here to take the heavy load off them. As we explained in previous parts of the article, you will be able to automate almost all the routines and free up more time for exciting tasks. Even if AI is doing your analytics and giving foresight no one knows your industry better than you and your employees and the final say is always yours.
We will have to rebuild our entire system to implement it
The key to successful AI implementation is taking small steps with it. You can start off by delegating simple tasks that you have been doing manually for ages and then see where it takes you in terms of business statistics (cost reduction and profit rise).
Share this with your friends and colleagues, especially if they are AI-savvy!
How actual businesses are harnessing this power
Here are a few examples of small business owners who already leveraged AI to their benefit:
Sandwich Video ($5.3 Million annual revenue according to ZoomInfo) is a creative agency specializing in video commercials. The company is known for translating complex product features into engaging, understandable video content. It was founded in 2009 and is based in Los Angeles.
Adam Lisagor, Founder & CEO shared many of his interactions with AI on Twitter: once he started discussing a video idea with ChatGPT and had his AHA moment:
And in 2012 he tried his hand at AI personification with no other than Stephen Fry!
He admitted to TechCrunch that he had outsourced most of his cognitive process to LLMs and also uses generative AI tools on the process of making videos, but pointed out that those are just assets that do not perform the work for you.
Have you ever had a meaningful conversation with ChatGPT?
Share with us in the comments section:
Since they sell their videos for approximately $250,000 to $400,000 and Adam is doing most of the shooting and creative work we can say he is really freeing up time to earn more by outsourcing some of the thinking to AI. And he is also looking for a software developer to launch his own AI tool! We don’t know anything specific but we are as excited as you are.
Fillout (less than $5 Million annual revenue according to ZoomInfo), a powerful form builder (think Google Forms, but with more styling options, better integrations, and advanced features). Leveraged AI to showcase their product to users without spending money on demos.
Dominic Whyte, CEO and Founder shared on the company blog that their first attempt to use prompts as a tool to help customers failed. From that try they learned that AI cannot make a product for them or for the customer but it can help in the thinking process, much like it happened with Adam from Sandwich.
They implemented an AI helper tool inside the form-building software and found that people who use the in-app AI are 2.1 times more likely to build an active form vs those who don’t. Using OpenAI's GPT-3 API to convert the form description into a set of questions. First, they give a description of the form and tailor questions the AI will ask according to the industry the form is for. And then all of this is combined with the user input. Simple yet effective!
As a bonus, while developing a new solution they created a few smaller AI for quizzes and graphs which later became products on the website.
See how you can improve customer service, simplify content creation, and introduce new services to your business using AI
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