Artificial intelligence tools encompass everything from chatbots to image and video generators, and they can be used by individuals and businesses alike. For business owners looking to leverage\u00a0AI technology, one of the biggest hurdles is likely dipping their toes into the water. From there, the learning curve isn\u2019t as steep as it seems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very confident that something that you do right now is easily automated by AI if you\u2019re running a small business, whether that\u2019s writing marketing copy or building something in Excel or writing an email you don\u2019t know how to word,\u201d says Derek Pando, founder of Beeloo, an online business that creates printable activities for kids.<\/p>\n
And the return on investment can be substantial in terms of both the time and\u00a0money your small business can save.<\/p>\n
Integrating AI tools into her team\u2019s daily workflow has helped keep the workload manageable, says Lakesha Cole, founder of She PR, a public relations agency based in Tampa, Florida. Cole says she feels like she\u2019s \u201cadded three new team members without the overhead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are four tips for incorporating AI tools into your small business\u2019s operations \u2014 no prior experience required.<\/p>\n
Plus<\/strong>: Microsoft\u2019s AI payday will take time, and investors need to be patient<\/p>\n AI tools can do a lot of things, but they can\u2019t read your mind. And if your requests aren\u2019t precise and direct, you might get responses that miss the mark.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s only as smart as you are,\u201d Cole says. \u201cYou still have to know what you want it to do.\u201d<\/p>\n For AI-powered chatbots, she stresses the importance of learning prompts that are specific to your industry. If you\u2019re not sure where to start, try searching online for prompt guides, suggests Joe Karasin, founder of digital marketing company Karasin PPC.<\/p>\n \u201cMaking sure that you\u2019re not spending as much time trying to tell the AI what to do is also another pitfall that you could avoid by just doing a little bit of front-end work,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Cole says it took her team about three months of consistently using AI platforms to become adept at them. They logged the prompts that worked best so that they would be able to quickly reference them in the future.<\/p>\n Also on MarketWatch: <\/strong>Netflix attacked for posting AI jobs that pay $900K while writers, actors strike<\/p>\n Consider the tasks that eat up the most time and whether AI can help streamline them. If you create content, for instance, you know that research sometimes takes longer than the writing itself does. Karasin estimates that he saves 15 to 20 hours per week using ChatGPT to find citations and resources for topics he writes about for clients. However, he stresses the importance of verifying the information for accuracy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll do my research there, but my writing is still original,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Cole uses an AI image generator to accelerate the graphic design process for her business.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives us the freedom to design the graphics that we need when we need it, and we\u2019re not having to work around someone else\u2019s deadlines,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n AI chatbots can help you plan tasks, too. Cole tells them her goals and deadlines for a particular project, like a product launch, and asks them to map out a realistic timeline.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss:<\/strong> 5 tips to help your small business become a TikTok sensation<\/p>\n Among other use cases, Pando treats AI chatbots as a\u00a0marketing tool. They can take his business\u2019s blog posts, which are written by a human, and help condense them into social media posts tailored to specific platforms, like Instagram and LinkedIn. They also suggest headlines that Pando can work with and tweak, which can be helpful in the midst of a creative rut.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll say, \u2018Give me five different short posts that I can use for social media,\u2019 or \u2018Summarize this into one paragraph,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAnd so all of the labor that\u2019s downstream from creating a core piece of content, we usually have the AI tools do the heavy lifting and give us lots of options and cut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n Pando also gives AI chatbots tone prompts if he wants a certain post to come across as funny or exciting, for instance. Otherwise, they won\u2019t necessarily know which voice to adopt.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very picky and choosy as to when I use AI or when I need to show up myself,\u201d Cole says.<\/p>\n She makes the decision on a case-by-case basis, depending on the type of project or client, and views AI tools as a \u201cstarting point\u201d instead of a stand-alone solution.<\/p>\n For Pando, it\u2019s also about transparency. \u201cI think small-business owners put themselves at risk of losing some of the magic of what makes a small business connect with people, which is the personal connection and the trust,\u201d he says. To solve for this, Beeloo\u2019s website includes an AI policy that discloses how the business does and does not use the technology.<\/p>\nLook up AI prompts for your industry<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Use AI to ramp up productivity<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Think of AI as your marketing assistant<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\nUse AI judiciously and be transparent<\/strong><\/h2>\n