The release of ChatGPT in the fall of 2022 sparked a surge of interest in AI, or artificial intelligence. Since then, AI models have sneaked into the daily operations of many businesses.
To say that AI is valuable for businesses would be an understatement. Despite their flaws, AI tools are helping businesses enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and drive innovation.
Data suggests that 34% of businesses use AI, and an additional 42% are exploring the technology. Even small businesses are adopting AI. About 1 in 4 small businesses has embraced AI, and these companies have observed improvements in their marketing performance and communications.
What’s stopping you from adopting AI, then? In this article, we’ll discuss a few ways AI can help boost your business’ growth.
#1 Build a Website
Maintaining a robust online presence is important for every business. But it’s more so for small businesses since it helps them establish credibility and reach a wider audience.
A recent study found that about 73% of small businesses have a website. That’s great, but this means 27% of small businesses are yet to build one. Recent research has revealed that 99% of consumers use the Internet to find local businesses. Will they be able to find yours if you don’t have a website yet? Certainly not!
With the introduction of AI, the process of building a website from scratch has been simplified. Where the traditional website creation process requires a lot of time and money, AI-powered website builders create a website within minutes.
AI site builders, Hocoos explains, have easy-to-use interfaces and features. It further elaborates that these tools understand user preferences through machine language, allowing for personalized web designs. Since AI-powered website builders require no coding or design skills, even non-technical users can create a website with ease.
These websites, though created by AI, feature high-quality images, and the content is also SEO-optimized. You can, however, edit everything you want, from fonts to the color palette—all thanks to their user-friendly editors.
#2 Generate Content
Generative AI has reshaped content creation. Gone are the days when business owners and marketers used to brainstorm ideas for hours for their websites. The introduction of AI has made it easy for businesses to generate content.
Tools like Bard and ChatGPT have made it easy for marketers and business owners to produce high-quality content within minutes. These tools analyze vast amounts of data to generate high-quality, relevant content tailored to target audiences of businesses. These AI algorithms do so by analyzing data, understanding trends, and even mimicking human creativity.
AI can also help optimize content for search engines by improving readability and suggesting keywords. Repetitive tasks like generating social media posts and SEO descriptions can also be automated with AI.
Moreover, AI can help improve content quality by checking grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. Grammarly is a great example of AI-powered spelling and grammar checking tools.
#3 Transcribe Video Meetings in Real Time
After spending an hour with your team brainstorming ideas for your next marketing campaign, you wouldn’t want to spend time reviewing the session just to make note of key points. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone else did it on behalf of you? We aren’t talking about your team members but AI tools.
These days, AI-powered note-takers capture voice conversations and transcribe them, boosting post-meeting efficiency. Tools like Fireflies AI transcribe spoken words into text accurately. Participants can review the recordings and follow everything that has been discussed. This feature is invaluable for remote teams or individuals with hearing impairments, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility in meetings.
Moreover, these tools generate searchable transcripts, making it easy to pinpoint specific information or action items discussed during the meeting.
#4 Enhance Customer Service
If you want to build loyalty and improve your company’s reputation, you must provide exceptional customer service. Hiring an in-house team that is available 24/7 could cost your small business a lot. Instead, why not leverage AI to provide support around the clock?
AI-powered chatbots can handle customer inquiries and resolve issues, which can improve the overall customer experience. You can deploy them on your website or other messaging platforms and offer assistance to your customers 24/7.
These chatbots can handle routine queries, such as FAQs, order status updates, or troubleshooting, freeing up human agents for more complex issues. They can also analyze customer interactions to improve responses over time, ensuring accuracy and efficiency.
Leveraging AI-powered chatbots can help increase customer satisfaction and build long-lasting relationships, ultimately driving loyalty.
To sum things up, adopting AI can help your small business move faster and smoother, propelling growth. It will also help you save money as well as time, which is great if you’re running on a shoestring budget.
Whether building a website or transcribing audio conversations, AI is a powerful ally in streamlining operations and driving innovation. So, embrace AI-powered solutions today to unlock new possibilities, drive efficiencies, and fuel sustainable growth for your small business in the competitive world.