AI for SMEs: 6 Beneficial Uses

Adopting new technology can be hugely beneficial for small businesses. Technologies that have experienced a boom in recent years, such as video communications tools or open banking, can help SMEs achieve significant growth. The latest technology trend, artificial intelligence, also has the potential to massively benefit SMEs.

In this article, we’ll be looking at using AI in small business. Below, we’ll list six of the most helpful uses of artificial intelligence, so SMEs can effectively leverage this new technology to increase their revenue and support their continued growth. Read on to learn more about AI for SMEs.

 

1. Boosting Efficiency

Automating routine tasks and optimising time management to boost efficiency aren’t new ideas for small businesses. However, AI-powered automation means these tasks can now be completed much more effectively — AI tools can boost small business efficiency by up to 40%.

For example, workflow tools like Akiflow and Motion use AI to build optimum workflow schedules, ensuring each workday is as productive as possible. Eliminating manual tasks like organising your calendar is one of the more common uses of artificial intelligence.

Similarly, look for AI-powered bookkeeping systems for SMEs to help make organising your finances more efficient. AI is a great tool for helping you complete tasks like bookkeeping that you would otherwise need to hire someone else to perform.

 

2. Data Analysis

Running a business in our modern digital era means having access to a ton of data. Your social media, finance, and inventory management tools will all produce facts and figures in such quantities that you may often feel overwhelmed.

However, AI can help with this. Using AI for data analysis means having an automated tool sort through all this data and present it to you in the form of useful, actionable insights. This strategy saves time and money, and helps you plan for the future by providing insights you can build into financial plans or marketing strategies.

 

3. Writing Content

Content creation is a common challenge for business startups, as it requires a specific set of skills, and the quality of written content can be highly subjective. Producing blogs, whitepapers, or even short email marketing campaigns, can also be time-consuming.

One of the more popular AI tools, ChatGPT, can help immensely with the creation of written content. By providing a prompt of a few sentences, ChatGPT can generate long-form content for you in moments.

However, take care when using ChatGPT in this way, as the quality of AI-generated content can vary significantly. It’s much more effective to request an outline for an article, and then write your own material based on that, than it is to copy and paste an entire AI-generated article that’s potentially inaccurate or poorly written.

 

4. Graphic Design

As we’ve mentioned above, AI is a great tool for accessing skills that you may not have access to personally. Design is a good example, as designing logos and marketing materials is important to any business when they’re trying to establish a brand.

DALL-E 2 is an AI-powered image generator that can help small businesses produce everything from logos to imagery for social media posts. If you need to tweak designs, the free graphic design tool Canva offers AI functionality that lets you adjust and redesign images after they’re generated.

However, as with generating written content, take care when using AI for graphic design. The quality of AI content can vary greatly, so don’t rely too heavily on it.

 

5. Customer Service

Using AI instead of other, more costly customer service solutions can help bring down your expenses, which is crucial when running an SME in a cost-of-living crisis.

AI-powered customer service can also be more appealing to customers themselves. For example, research by Aberdeen Strategy & Research has found that companies using AI-powered service tools experienced an increase in customer satisfaction rates that was 3.5 times higher than competitors who did not use AI.

Using AI for SMEs’ customer service typically means employing AI-powered chatbots on your website. These chatbots can answer most customer queries, but also learn from their interactions with customers to improve future interactions.

 

6. Personal Assistance

Running a small business can be almost impossible without assistance. Even if you have employees to handle the day-to-day operations of your business, there’s a lot to be done at a senior leadership level that requires an extra pair of hands. If you can’t afford to hire someone as a personal assistant, AI can fulfil much of the role.

For example, Otter.ai can transcribe meetings for you to review in future, allowing you to attend meetings without needing to take notes in the moment. Levity offers an SME-focused tool for email management, where AI will sort and categorise emails so you don’t miss anything important.

 

AI Tools To Try In Your Small Business

Below, we’ve listed all the AI tools referenced in this article, along with their intended purpose. Feel free to try them out and see if they can improve the way you work —  but keep in mind that AI can be inconsistent and your experience may differ.

• Akiflow – An AI-powered time management software.
• Motion – A project planning tool that uses AI to optimise how you spend your time.
• ChatGPT – This hugely popular AI tool allows users to input short text prompts to ask questions or generate new content.
• DALL-E 2 – Creates images are made based on short text prompts from users.
• Canva – Canva also allows for manual graphic design, but now offers an integrated AI image generation tool.
• Otter.ai – Records audio during meetings, takes notes, and creates meeting summaries upon request.
• Levity – AI-powered automatic email generator.

 

Unlock The Power of AI With Funding From Rev&U

While many of the AI tools we’ve listed above are free, some are not, which means you may need to access a new source of funding in order to implement them into your business. If you are wary of traditional bank loans and can’t find an investor, 365 finance offers easily accessible funding for small businesses

365 finance offers revenue-based finance, which offers several significant benefits over other funding options. Revenue based finance does not require a business plan or credit check to access, and instead of hefty end-of-month payments, a percentage of your monthly revenue is deducted each day to repay the finance owed. Since the repayments are based on your revenue, you don’t need to worry about repayments outpacing your income.

At 365 finance, we can provide both long and short-term financial solutions, with revenue-based funding available from £10,000 to £400,000 in capital. Apply for Rev&U today without affecting your credit score, or speak to our team to find out how we can help your business. To find out more, head to our website.