Artificial intelligence can be useful to small businesses that need help with writing, communicating with customers, researching, organizing and analyzing data, and conducting routine administrative tasks.
However, there is a trap that some companies fall into when trying to integrate more technology into their operations.
The issue stems from believing that having more access to artificial intelligence makes a company more productive.
A firm may sign up for multiple AI subscriptions, develop intricate automatization processes, and waste more time on the technology than the task that they initially wanted to improve.
Instead, small businesses should begin their AI journey by focusing on the task at hand,
asking themselves, “What can we delegate to artificial intelligence?”
rather than “What technology should we implement?”
Below are five suggestions for making the most out of AI, without getting overwhelmed by the tools themselves.
Start With a Business Problem
The easiest way to make a mistake while considering the implementation of artificial intelligence is to start with the technology.
Before thinking about what software to choose or what tools to use, it is critical to identify the tasks that employees perform on a daily basis.
Which actions take a lot of time?
Which responsibilities are monotonous?
Which activities involve organizing information?
Which jobs require generating the same types of documents over and over again?
These are the ideal candidates for experimenting with AI.
For instance, a firm may realize that its workers waste hours every week trying to summarize meeting notes.
At the same time, a different business may identify that employees spend too much time trying to organize customer inquiries.
These realizations are far more insightful than simply stating that “a company needs AI.”
Choose Tasks That Are Easy to Review
Not all tasks are appropriate for automatization.
A good starting point is to think about activities that have a predictable result, are repetitive, and do not require a person to exercise extensive judgment when reviewing the outcome.
For instance, writing a first draft, summarizing a conversation, or organizing customer questions are all examples of processes that can benefit from artificial intelligence.
In contrast, completing financial reports, legal briefs, or tasks that involve sensitive or personal information may require more individual oversight.
The point is to begin with a task that can allow employees to use AI as an aid, rather than surrendering responsibilities that they cannot review with ease.
Use AI for First Drafts
One of the easiest ways for a small business to begin using artificial intelligence is to rely on it to write first drafts of various documents.
A marketer can generate a rough version of an article, a sales representative can utilize a tool to organize their notes into a follow-up email, and a manager can use a technological assistant to put together a preliminary list of action items based on a conversation.
However, those first drafts should always be reviewed and edited by people, so that the final product does not contain errors or irrelevant information.
This is especially critical in cases when the document will be seen by the public, since AI-generated text may lack nuance and fail to account for specific subtleties.
By relying on automation to put together the rough draft of a document, and people to edit and approve the final version, a company can save time and increase the accuracy of its operations.
Create a Small Internal Knowledge Base
A firm may have valuable information scattered throughout different files and documents.
Employees may waste time trying to locate information that other workers have previously found.
A good idea is to build an internal knowledge base where staff members can keep track of all relevant information.
A company can start by compiling documents that provide general information to clients and employees, such as details about the products and services that a business offers, frequently asked questions, and official guidelines.
Then, depending on the capabilities of an AI tool, the technology can be used to help people find or summarize that information.
It is important to note that the success of that endeavor will be dictated by the accuracy of the knowledge base.
If a business keeps old pricing guides, procedures, and policies that are no longer relevant, the AI will simply replicate that information, instead of providing up-to-date details.
That is why knowledge management requires ongoing maintenance and oversight, so that the information that people use and that AI summarizes is accurate and reliable.
Automate the Predictable Part of a Workflow
When it comes to automatization, it is a good idea to begin with the simple and predictable aspects of a process.
Some companies fail to implement artificial intelligence because they try to delegate too many responsibilities to the technology at once.
Instead, a small business can begin by identifying the easiest and most repetitive elements of a given task.
For instance, a firm that deals with customer inquiries may use an AI tool to label and summarize emails, so that a human employee can later review the communication and respond to the client.
A similar approach can be applied to reports.
For instance, an AI can organize and summarize the information contained in a given document, while a manager can interpret the results and make recommendations based on the findings.
This way, a company can use technology as a complement to human judgment, without getting overwhelmed by the process.
Improve Customer Service Without Removing the Human Element
Customer-facing AI assistants can help an organization respond to frequently asked questions.
These tools can help provide information ranging from the operating hours of a business to the general specifications of a product and its delivery policies.
That can be incredibly helpful for customers who only have simple questions.
At the same time, it is important to remember that some clients will always require a more nuanced approach.
A customer may contact an organization to explain that they have purchased a defectiveproduct, or to ask for permission to rescind a purchase.
That is why the most effective customer service strategy is to rely on AI to respond to generic inquiries, while reserving more complex cases for humans.
This way, a company can ensure that most customers get fast responses, without making anyone feel like they are interacting with a machine.
Use AI to Organize Customer Feedback
Customer feedback can give companies valuable insight into their strengths and weaknesses.
The challenge is that clients may share similar concerns in very different ways, so that similar issues are hard to identify at a glance.
Lucky for businesses, AI can help organize customer feedback by detecting patterns and compiling similar subjects into categories.
For instance, multiple clients may mention that they find the instructions that come with a product too vague, whereas others may point to the slow delivery times as the main issue.
These insights can help an organization realize which areas need improvement.
It is critical to remember, however, that the purpose of using an AI tool is to highlight concerns that require further investigation, rather than dictate what a company must change.
Protect Confidential Information
When implementing AI, it is important for organizations to remember that they must protect confidential information.
Before allowing employees to upload customer data, private records, and other sensitive information onto a third-party platform, it is vital for a company to understand how its information will be dealt with by the service.
At the same time, workers must also know which information they should input into external programs, so that the wrong data is not shared.
A simple internal policy can help a firm prevent many issues.
For instance, a company may develop a set of categories that describe the types of data that employees can input into an AI, ranging from public to confidential.
That way, a business can ensure that its workers are aware of what they should and should not share with an external service.
Technology becomes much easier to manage when people understand what rules apply to their actions.
Measure Whether AI Is Actually Saving Time
An organization must always remember that the value of an AI tool is dictated by its utility to the firm.
In theory, a given process may appear to be a good fit for automatization.
- However, in practice, the implementation of a solution may generate mixed results.
For instance, a person may spend an hour putting together a report before automatization.
- After integrating AI into the process, the same worker may spend twenty minutes generating the document, but thirty minutes reviewing and editing it.
- While the results are still better than before, the time spent on the task has not changed drastically.
- That is why it is important for a company to measure how much time automatization actually saves.
- In addition to the duration of a given task, businesses should consider other factors, such as the reduction in errors, the amount of manual review, the quality of the final result, and whether the technology is even used.
If the results are satisfactory, a company can begin experimenting with other areas of its operations.
Train Employees on How to Use AI
Even the most sophisticated technologies are rendered useless if people do not know how to use them correctly.
A small business should always dedicate time and resources to ensuring that employees understand what an AI tool can and cannot do.
Workers should know what tasks qualify for automatization, what activities should be left for people, and what to do if the results generated by an AI appear suspect.
A short and informative internal guide can be incredibly helpful to employees who must interact with a new technology.
It should contain advice concerning appropriate prompts, information that should not be inputted into an AI, and instructions for reviewing automatization results.
The goal of such a guide is not to make every worker an expert on artificial intelligence, but to help people understand how to use it.
Three Simple AI Projects to Try
A small business that wants to get started with AI should consider trying three simple automatization projects.
The first one is to rely on the technology to organize meetings, generate notes, and create action items that employees can review.
The second one is to use AI to categorize customer inquiries.
The third one is to repurpose content, such as turning one article or presentation for workers into multiple versions for customers.
These projects are a good starting point because they are simple, can be implemented on a small scale, and help a company realize the advantages of artificial intelligence before committing to more time-consuming automatization procedures.
Final Takeaway
Small businesses should not feel pressured to transform their operations with artificial intelligence.
In most cases, the best place to start is to find one recurring task that takes too much time and attempt to improve it.
After automatization, a company should make sure that people are still involved in the process, that confidential information is not compromised, that AI results are reviewed, and that the changes actually lead to time saved and improved outcomes.
A small business that succeeds at these steps can then think about additional opportunities for automatization.
Ultimately, the companies that will benefit the most from artificial intelligence are the ones that understand their own operations well enough to realize that, in some cases, technology can make people more productive, rather than the other way around.
