Contributed by SBOC Member:
Enji
After 30 years in software and 7 years building AI tools and technology at companies like Amazon and Intuit, I have seen what works and what doesn’t and I am going to show you where to focus your efforts. You can ignore the enterprise hype, AI datacenter investments, and AGI predictions and embrace what will benefit your small business.
There are many headlines that come out daily that seem shocking: ‘Revolutionary breakthrough!’ ‘Game-changing technology!’ ‘You’re falling behind!’ ‘Jobs that will be replaced’ ‘AGI will be here before you know it’. I have learned to take everything I read in the headlines with some scrutiny. I read about 4-5 AI Newsletters a day to stay on top of what is happening both personally as an AI professional and as the CEO of Enji making sure we are focused on the right things.
To start, things in AI are happening at a much more rapid pace than they were, but that being said, I chalk most of the items I read up to hype. CEOs at all of the major AI companies thrive on getting press for their companies and making bold statements–most of which are future looking and not factual today. If a bold claim gets your company attention from users and investors, is the hype worth it–definitely in their eyes! Will some of these claims occur? Probably, but who knows on the timeline and things change much faster than they stay the same in AI. I am not a naysayer on AI as I have worked in the domain for quite a while, but I am a realist and, looking at things from the inside, I know what I see as fact from fiction or future looking statements (for some unknown time in the future such as AGI).
Remember, not all headlines matter to you and not everything is important to you as a small business owner. It does not matter if billions or trillions of dollars are being invested into building AI datacenters (other than the energy consumption might not be great for the planet). It also doesn’t matter what is happening at large enterprises (for the most part). It also doesn’t matter if a new model is being released that beat benchmarks and where it came from or if someone claims they are going to reach AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) next year. By being a smart business owner that is agile and can use AI tools and technology in smart ways, much of what is happening can level the playing field and allow for larger companies to be disrupted by smaller entrepreneurs such as yourself (and trust me, big companies worry about this).
A lot of hype is built around enterprise companies doing automation, replacing jobs, etc. Companies are working hard at incorporating AI to save money and revolutionize their businesses and that gets lots of press. But remember, most of it isn’t applicable and below are some reasons why.
When you’re the CEO, marketing department, and customer service team, you need AI that works for all three roles–not AI that requires three specialists to implement it.
There are trends that do matter to you and you should be on the lookout for. Here are a few that affect small business owners:
While there are many ways to use AI to enhance your business or get more done in your busy schedule, I wanted to highlight some of the most common use cases.
In marketing, there are two problems–knowing what to do and then being consistent with it. Solving only one of these does not help. You really need to solve both of these problems to be effective in getting your brand out there and in front of the right people. Knowing what to do and not just trying things is important–having a plan is key. Once you have that marketing plan, being consistent and staying on task to get your goals and objectives accomplished is key.
When it comes to knowing what to do and having a marketing plan and tactics for your small business, there are multiple ways to address this:
Staying consistent is key and it helps you avoid the feast or famine cycle many small business go through. There are a variety of AI tools available to help you stay consistent with your marketing and we will break them down here.
First, content and campaign generation is probably the largest use case for AI and one where the most success is found. Here are some approaches you can take:
Oftentimes a key to staying consistent is having the ideas you need to proceed. Idea generation for content and campaigns is one of those things that, when done well, makes staying consistent much easier (rather than having writers block). Here are some helpful ways to use idea generation:
Content repurposing is a way to scale your business without needing to burnout. There are two categories here – the first is just reuse. Depending on your business, anywhere from quarterly to yearly reuse might work. Content repurposing allows you to take older content and create fresh new content from it. AI does excel at doing this for you. Here are some examples of ways to do this:
There are a few areas that come to mind when it comes to knowing your customer and using AI to help you in this space. Doing customer or market research is the first area to discuss. This is a great use of the general tools like ChatGPT and Claude.
Let ChatGPT or Claude know your goal and have it ask you questions to get there.
When it comes to marketing, it is important to know your customer or customers. Developing customer personas for each customer you want to target is key to solidifying your marketing strategy. Here are some ways to accomplish creating your customer personas:
AI can be used to enhance your sales, customer onboarding, and retention. Using AI tools here can be a valuable time saver and can also provide valuable insights into what is working and what is not for your customers.
I am just going to add a few notes here as the opportunities are endless and it really just depends on where you need help.
Look for tools that integrate with what you already use (social media platforms, email providers, Google Workspace, etc.). After 30 years of building systems and processes, I’ve learned that good change happens gradually–not overnight. Start small, measure results, then scale what works.
Ask yourself before bringing in some new and after 30 days: will this AI tool save me more than 2 hours per week? If not, your time is better spent on building your business.
Ignore the hype and focus on AI that solves your actual business problems and saves you time and money. Start small with one tool at a time and make sure it adds value to your business. Make sure to maintain your authenticity – AI should enhance your voice, not replace it. Lastly, and maybe most important, measure the impact of adding AI tools to your business–the time saved should translate to growing your business.
AI won’t save your business, but adding the right AI tools can give you back the time to focus on what actually will–serving your customers and growing your revenue. As someone who’s built AI systems and talked to many small business owners, I can tell you the magic isn’t in the technology – it’s in using technology to elevate and do more of what makes your business uniquely you.
This is a guest post from our friends at Enji—software that helps small business owners plan, do, and review their marketing when they have to do it themselves.
Pat spent two decades in broadcasting management and hosting. After leaving the radio industry, he spent time consulting small businesses and realized the support system for entrepreneurs was broken. Where could you find help for improving small businesses and building real connections with other like-minded people. In June of 2020, the Idea Collective Small Business Community was born.