There is still a huge misconception around AI. Many business owners either think it’s too complicated or something only tech-savvy businesses can take advantage of. Meanwhile, real-world application is revealing that SMBs are finding AI opportunities in the most obscure places and getting incredible results.

While many people still think that AI means building an algorithm from scratch or hiring a small army of data scientists, that’s not the case. There are tools accessible right now that are providing solutions. If your business is like most, you probably have three or four areas where AI can make a meaningful impact starting next week.

Is Customer Service Taking Up Time From Your Team?

Wherever someone in your organization is taking time out of their day to answer the same questions multiple times per day, you have an opportunity. We’re not talking about the useless chatbots that people hate, either. Contemporary AI customer service solutions have capabilities to discern context and engage in genuinely helpful conversations.

These chat options can run 24/7 and book appointments into calendars while answering specific queries about a product or service with enough detail. The benefit is beyond saving time, however, because customers who reach out at 9 p.m. actually receive responses instead of waiting until the next business day – or, worse, reaching out to a competitor.

These solutions are smart enough to know when to transfer a frustrated customer to a human. They’re not trying to take away jobs; they’re looking to minimize redundancy so that humans can engage in conversation when it’s required.

Your Data Can Help You Make Decisions

Did you know that most businesses have insights from data that they aren’t applying because no one has time to analyze it? From sales data to customer feedback, foot traffic and even web traffic – numbers abound without anyone taking the time to glean useful insights from them.

Analytics tools can report back findings in minutes that take a person days to figure out. For example, what products sell best next to each other? What services return the most profit? What time of year sees a spike in interest? These determinations can help assess everything from layout decisions and staffing nuances to pricing strategies.

But AI tools go a step beyond by predicting trends before they’re obvious. They can correlate small changes in customer behavior that indicate what should be in stock, the appropriate level of customer service, and what promotions may work best for seasonal shifts.

Email and Other Communication Done

Studies have shown that email takes up way too much time in the workday. On average, professionals spend 2-3 hours per day managing their inboxes, with much of that time spent writing the same messages over and over again or searching for previous conversations buried down an endless scroll.

AI tools have come a long way with writing support, so much so that drafting an email from top to bottom is no longer unrealistic. Email threads and overall correspondence (for example, responding to someone from last year asking when you’re available next week) become a waste of time.

AI now can write practically any correspondence and do so sounding natural and conversational, learning one’s voice along the way. Replying with appreciation to someone who was asking about a homeowner’s association meeting from June can be managed quickly through AI and then vetted by the human recipient who just adds their own additional touches.

Gone are the days where an update for a client on how much work got done on their proposal took 30-40 minutes – now it can take about five after approving an AI-generated draft.

AI can also pull reports together, summarizing what was said in meeting notes or even an email thread of 47 replies; anyone who’s ever scrolled through one of those searches knows how annoying it is to not remember what was ultimately decided.

Content Creation Made Easy

When generating content day-in-and-day-out for social media, blogs, newsletters, or other marketing collateral, huge amounts of time add up quickly. Instead, working with AI solutions allows for ideation from prompt-like strategies to drafts and even graphic design that doesn’t come out like something slapped together by Canva’s free option.

The best way to approach AI content creation – AI generated property descriptions, social media posts, blog posts, outlines for blog posts or email campaign bodies – is as a first draft. While one still needs to review every line and personalize along the way, they don’t have to spend their time creating everything from scratch at the outset.

When someone has direction without worrying about getting a single word right from empty space, content creation times decrease significantly – half as much – allowing for more frequent and reliable posting, typically leading to increased inquiries and higher engagement.

When businesses want to extend their online footprint but lack the time or budget for dedicated content creators, consulting with ai consulting for small businesses shows where assets lie for better speed without sacrificing quality or authenticity.

But using it as a crutch rather than collaborative helps; by doing the heavy lifting first, it gives everyone else something to build from – but without taking credit of course.

AI Makes Scheduling Easy

What’s more annoying than “When works for you?” AI solutions for scheduling can check calendars, suggest options, reminders and help reschedule without going back-and-forth a million times over email.

AI scheduling tools save anywhere between one and three hours weekly per person in any office just by reducing the need to schedule meetings and avoiding no-shows because intelligent systems recognize patterns for reminders based on personal preference.

These systems integrate well with current calendar systems and can be simplistic or more advanced; some merely help set up appointments while others can offer agendas pre-formed based on previous notes or automatically send follow-up notes if people get disconnected.

For the Product-Based Businesses Out There

If your business sells products, then AI inventory management systems can predict needs based on sales patterns, seasonal trends and neighborhood events, weather patterns – and countless other details – to help determine what’s best stocked up and what’s best left out of sight.

AI inventory management allows businesses better access to supply chain demands without unnecessary waste. Businesses that use these solutions find they rarely need excess supplies during busy seasons because they’ve learned patterns all too well; they predict busy times and slow days accurately enough that orders can be placed with precision instead of guessing.

Moreover, such systems can alert businesses of supply chain issues before they happen – saving a lot of trouble down the line when someone realizes they shouldn’t have ordered 200 units over there since it needs another part that’s not going to arrive for another six months.

Accessing AI Solutions

The businesses thriving are not trying to use AI everywhere all at once but instead are utilizing it in one or two specific areas with clear problems and specific tools designed to accommodate them. Then once they’re up and running smoothly for several weeks or months, then it’s time to approach the next opportunity.

When assessing where teams are wasting repetitive time with bottlenecks that form consistently or where there’s not enough information for decision making – and those intersections provide reliable opportunity.

The other great component is most of these tools don’t require technical experience – AI has come light-years over the past few years of reducing the complexity needed for business owners to actually find solutions without figuring out coding or machine learning algorithms; many offer free trials or opportunities for real-world testing before setting up services permanently.

What It Does For The Bottom Line

Depending upon your business model’s space size (volume) and implementation with other priorities – not overwhelming teams necessarily – most SMBs receiving AI applications across one or two segments have found time savings up to 10-20 hours a week in cumulative efforts.

That’s a lot of time that could be used for growth initiatives or cultivating positive client relationships instead of grinding it out through frustration.

More than saving time – and thus money – it’s about better decisions made faster. Businesses that hire more part-time/helpful team members due solely to information from AI projections will better cultivate their ideas than those who fail to utilize what they have.

Ultimately businesses who thrive aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets or fanciest tech – but instead those who find opportunities for making smarter work – and AI gives them what they need to do just that before competitors beat them to it! Better figure it out now before playing catch-up later!