How AI Can Help Your Small Business

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool with many real-life applications. As a business owner, you can use AI to your advantage to help you grow and manage your business. Read on to learn more about AI and how it can help you strengthen your small business as a solopreneur.

A Brief Introduction to AI

Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, can carry out tasks that typically require human intelligence. While it has gotten more attention in recent years, AI has existed since the mid-1950s. In 1956, a group of scientists came together for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, which helped spawn the field.

You can use AI in many different applications, especially to run your business. You can turn to AI-powered tools, such as marketing chatbots and smart assistants, to simplify processes and save time. As a matter of fact, small businesses have already started to turn to AI, and it’s paying off. Unsupervised, an AI company, surveyed small and medium business owners and found that 20% of respondents had seen their revenue grow.

How AI Can Help Your Small Business

AI can transform the way you do business. It can be a helping hand when you’re taking on entrepreneurship on your own. Here are a few ways AI can work for you:

• It can enhance the customer experience. You can use AI to respond to customers automatically and instantly. This can cut down on long response times, leading to better customer service.
• It can improve workflow with automations. Instead of handling every single aspect of your business, you can turn to AI to automate your workflow. This can make you more efficient by saving you from having to complete time-consuming administrative tasks.
• It can facilitate the content-creation process. If writing or content ideas is not your forte, you can use AI. Not only can AI give you ideas and write the content for you — just look at the Noodle AI Assistant, which can write search engine optimized–content — including blog posts and social media content.

What to Look for in Small Business AI Tools

Not all small business AI tools are built the same. To get the most out of AI, consider looking into:

• What kind of support is available: There’s often a learning curve when trying new products. If you cannot get the support you need (or there’s a lack of training documentation), then that tool might not be for you. To get the most out of an AI tool, you’ll want to know as much as possible about how to use it.
• Whether it can help you scale your business: Look for an AI tool that can fit your needs now and in the future. You don’t want to scale your business and then find out that a tool is now obsolete; you want something that will grow with you.
• If you can integrate it with other tools: You can make AI tools work even harder for you if they are compatible with your other systems, such as your email campaign platform or those that you use for business marketing.

5 AI Tools to Consider For Your Small Business

If you’re ready to delve into the world of AI, here are a few good tools to get you started:

1. Chatbot: An AI chatbot is a way to respond to instantly respond to customers, leading to reduced response times. Chatbots are also available 24/7 — something a one-person team cannot possibly do — and are capable of answering common questions or personalizing messages using customer data. Together, all of this can lead to increased customer engagement and help you forge stronger connections with potential customers. With Noodle, you can automatically message your customers with your AI Assistant and never leave anyone waiting.
2. Scheduler: AI can handle both simple and complex tasks. If your business hinges on your customers making appointments with you, then you should consider a scheduler. Instead of going back and fort with customers, you can send them a link to your calendar, which adds dates based on your availability, and have them pick something that works with their schedule. Noodle has a booking and scheduling feature that can help you schedule and sell your services automatically.
3. Grammar tool: This is one of the most invaluable tools. You can certainly opt for an AI-powered writing assistant that can write content for you from scratch, but at the very least, you should invest in a grammar tool. Writing well — that is, avoiding passive voice, run-on sentences, unclear wording and more — is essential when you communicate with your customers. A grammar tool can help you clean up your words and make you look more professional.
4. Accounting tool: Getting your finances right can take plenty of time. An accounting tool can significantly help you get organized. It can handle invoicing, calculate sales tax, track inventory and more.
5. Marketing platform: This artificial intelligence tool can make informed decisions based off of your audience and help create marketing campaigns. Marketing is an important way to grow your business and reach new customers.