How Small Businesses Are Starting to Use AI in Everyday Work

AI in the Workflow

The use of AI by businesses is transforming.

Artificial intelligence is no longer a tech tool that businesses lightly experiment with. Businesses across the United States have integrated AI into the flow of their businesses to create and edit content, research and retrieve information, assist customers, and analyze data. Recent research shows the adoption of AI by businesses is increasing, however, many are still working out the optimal and ethical way to implement AI in their businesses.

For small businesses, this is an interesting development. Practical AI tools are available, and can be integrated into a business's workflow to improve business operations and processes.

The important question is how, not if, to add AI into a business. The main challenge is integrating AI in a way that it improves the flow of a business, and does not complicate it.

Small businesses may find it more practical to begin with specific, defined tasks.

What Everyday Business Activities Can Be Aided by AI?

AI can help with researching, collecting information, writing and editing content, summarizing information, organizing information, generating marketing campaign ideas and techniques, analyzing simple/basic business data, communicating with customers, writing emails, creating first drafts, and other office tasks.

It doesn't always need to be about replacing a particular employee or department.

Very often, AI can serve to help people with a specific task. Employees can review and edit the work done by AI to refine it to better meet the goals of the business.

AI and Marketing

AI can help with brainstorming marketing ideas and initiatives, content creation, editing, and analyzing customer feedback.

Human input and oversight are critical.

AI can provide a starting point for drafting and research, but in the case of marketing, the AI drafts and research may not fully reflect and align with the goals and audience of the business.

AI can brainstorm and analyze marketing initiatives, but a human touch is still critical.

Using AI for Customer Service

AI is also useful in helping to organize and summarize customer service and support activities and requests, as well as help answer customer service questions.

This can really help with high volumes of repetitive questions. For example, a telecommunications company has individual call centers for each business line (consumer, enterprise, etc.) and often receives the same questions. They can use automation to provide answers to FAQs.

This solution probably shouldn't be used to resolve all types of customer issues. For instance, with more complicated issues like complaints or requests involving situations that need to be assessed with good judgment, resolution may still require the involvement of a human.

A better approach may be to find the right balance of both automation and human involvement.

AI and Business Research

Conducting business research can require a significant amount of time for small teams. There are many things that a business may need to research such as competitors, markets, products, customer questions, or business opportunities, to name a few.

There are AI tools that help users summarize or organize information and provide suggestion for further research.

While some progress has been made, much of the information generated by AI is only as good as the information it's trained on and isn't necessarily correct.

As such, there are a number of ways AI can be used to assist with research; however, to get the final answer, people are still needed to verify.

Automation and People

Just because business automation is trending, it doesn't mean that business tasks should be automated.

Some businesses are still working to integrate AI into the business processes where human judgment is still needed for tasks like business strategy, relationships, creativity and quality control.

AI can assist with work; however, people still need to determine what needs to be accomplished.

How Small Businesses Can Start Using AI

Not every small business needs to integrate AI in all departments at the same time.

A more practical and realistic approach is to begin by identifying a particular problem.

1. For example, identify a repetitive or time consuming task.
2. Analyze if there is an opportunity to employ AI in solving the problem.
3. Give the AI tool a test run.
4. Evaluate the output quality.
5. Develop a process for its recurring use.
6. Determine if it improved the workflow.

Identifying these opportunities can help evaluate where AI brings the most value.

It also reduces the risk of adopting technology just because it is a trending or hot topic.

AI Also Brings Change to Workflow Processes

Of course, purchasing or accessing the AI tool is just the first step. How employees will use the technology is just as important.

Depending on the nature of the AI tool, the company may also need to develop procedures to cover what kind of information can be entered into the AI, how AI generated content is reviewed, when approval should be obtained from a human, etc.

Processes can be developed to help the employees using the AI to reduce the risk of inconsistent and incorrect use of the AI.

Integrating AI in the workflow is becoming a necessity and employees need to be ‘fluent’ in AI, that is, understand the appropriate use of AI in their workflow.

An AI agent can be designed to complete multiple steps toward an end goal. For instance, an agent can gather information, organize it, perform a task in another system, and report the result.

Since the capability of agentic AI is in the research stage, organizations are exploring how to integrate agents in their business; however, there are very few instances of agents being deployed at the business-function level.

Thus, it may be reasonable for a small business to have a human review workflow to understand it better before automating it using an AI agent.

Although using AI for more business functions leads to greater dependence on AI, it can help catch errors in business processes. Conducting a review of AI output can help ensure that AI is interpreting business processes and regulations correctly. The level of human review would depend on the task at hand.

A brainstorming exercise may need very little review. On the other hand, information used to make decisions concerning finances, the law, medicine, and important customers, for example, may require considerable review.

Final Thoughts

As AI continues to develop and be more broadly applied in the business world, researching, marketing, selling, supporting, creating, managing, and optimizing various business operations will continue to rely more heavily on AI.

For small to medium-sized businesses, the opportunity is less about being first to market with the latest and most advanced AI.

It is about understanding the problems AI can uniquely solve.

Identifying specific workflows and processes that can be automated will help small businesses understand how AI can help and integrate it into the business.

As companies integrate AI into various aspects of their operations, they will be better able to anticipate and adapt to potential shifts in the U.S. business environment.