Unlock your potential: Three ways AI can help your small business

As a small business owner, you’re the chief executive, head of marketing, lead salesperson, and customer service manager, all rolled into one. With so many hats to wear, the one valuable asset you’re short of is time.

When you’re being pulled from pillar to post, there’s little room for important strategic thinking – or even just the time to take a breather.

For a long time, artificial intelligence (AI) felt like a futuristic tool, more at home on the Starship Enterprise that your local business office. But now, those tools that used to be reserved for science-fiction are now accessible, affordable and practical to use.

And – used in the right way – they can level the playing field for small businesses to keep up with enterprises with bottomless pockets. By handling routine tasks and providing powerful assistance, AI can free you up to focus on serving your customers and building your business.

Here are three straightforward ways to start using AI.

1. Automate your repetitive tasks

Every business has them – the small, time-consuming administrative jobs that add up to hours of your time every week. AI can act as your willing virtual assistant, taking these repetitive tasks off your plate to give you a chunk of your time back. This isn’t about replacing human roles; it’s about freeing yourself – or your team – from the weight of routine admin.

A great example of a tool for this is Zapier. It acts as a bridge between the different web applications you use every day, allowing you to create automated workflows – or ‘Zaps’ – without writing a single line of code. Imagine setting up a rule that automatically saves attachments from new emails into a specific project folder on your cloud storage, or one that adds new sales leads from your website to a spreadsheet. These small efficiencies add up over time, giving you back precious hours.

A word of advice though. While automation is powerful, it needs a thoughtful approach. Start by automating low-risk tasks before you apply them to more important parts of your business. And check your automated workflows regularly to make sure they’re running as expected.

2. Power up your social media

Maintaining a consistent and engaging social media presence is essential for connecting with customers and reaching new audiences, but it can feel like a full-time job. Coming up with fresh ideas, eye-catching visuals, and compelling copy is a challenge – especially when you’re juggling other priorities. AI can be your creative partner, helping you produce high-quality content without needing a dedicated marketing team.

Tools like Canva have integrated AI features that make design simple for everyone. Do you want to make professional-looking visuals, but don’t have a graphic designer to hand? Imagine you want an image for a weekend promotion. All you need to do is type a prompt like “Instagram post for a 20% off shoe sale with a blue and white background”. The AI will generate a few design options that you can then then easily customise to fit your brand.

You can do the same sort of thing for generating captions and post ideas too. It’s a great way to come up with compelling social media content quickly and easily.

Just remember that AI is a tool to assist, not replace, your unique brand voice. Always review and edit AI-generated content so that it sounds authentic and reflects your business’s personality. Your customers connect with you, so make sure that human touch is always there.

3. Use LLMs for everyday business needs

Large Language Models (LLMs) are the technology that powers tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. These ‘chatbots’ have taken the world by storm because of their sheer versatility in helping with almost any task involving language.

Whether you need help drafting professional emails, writing simple code, analysing lengthy documents, writing blogs, solving complex problems, brainstorming ideas, or much more besides, LLMs can save thinking time, improve the quality of your communications, and even help you do things you’d never have been able to do yourself.

Put simply, the applications are nearly endless. You can paste a long, complex customer complaint into the tool and ask it to “summarise the key issues and draft a polite, professional response”. You can turn a few bullet points into a well-structure blog post. Or you can ask it to generate ideas for your next newsletter.

But this is where human oversight is most critical. Treat any output from an LLM as a first draft, not the finished product. Always fact-check any information it provides and, most importantly, never input sensitive customer or financial details into a public AI tool.

AI is a great tool, but it’s your expertise that will shape its output into something truly valuable for your business.

Expand your world

By adopting these accessible and often free tools, you can make everyday work easier, save time, reduce costs, and give your business a competitive edge. AI is here to support you, handling routine things so you can focus on the unique strengths that drive your success.

Of course, to get the most out of these powerful online tools, you’ll need a connection you can rely on. Whether that’s a business full fibre connection or a leased line, we’ve got the perfect package for any business need. For new connections or if you’re interested in a speed boost, enter your postcode here to see what’s available at your address.