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Getting from the headlines to the benefits of AI in a small business
Tech company big hitters, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM have ensured that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has played a role in the news over recent years, spending millions of dollars adapting AI to the point that it can outperform humans in solving a problem.
The problem solved could be as mundane as winning at a board game like ‘Go’ or answering more questions correctly in the TV quiz ‘Jeopardy!’ The fact that a computer can do the task and do it better than a human is the important thing here and demonstrates the advancements in this area is the cutting edge of AI research and, collectively, the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The ways in which an individual can translate these broad industry trends in to actionable insight is, like most other things in Small Business, often left for the owner to figure out. The problem may not be as intractable as you think, AI might just be the biggest single productivity improvement your business has experienced since the mobile phone.
Practical guidance on how to start adding AI in to your business
The research says that small business owners consider Predictive Analytics a ‘Dark Art’ – and a practice which has a level of fear associated with it. But AI is simply another tool available to help small business owners to optimise the business processes.
Start at the easy end of the spectrum by looking at the many tools which you buy that may already have AI built in to them. AI is often part of the products you buy, inbuilt as packaged software solutions, built in to bots or delivered as part of a consultancy engagement.
Why? AI will save small business owners 30% of their labor cost
The key point here is that current AI applications do small things more efficiently. Each of the simple applications we show in the examples below, whether they help you communicate, or use accounting software has an AI component, to improve its performance in some area. It is the sum of those benefits which will add up to the productivity improvement small business owners will receive.
Some of the best work in the area comes from McKinsey who suggest that in the next decade or so, around one third of tasks currently performed by a human will be automated with an AI solution.
The above mentioned diary management bot is a great example of how time can be saved. It is used to assist with booking and moving meetings and takes an inordinate amount of time which could otherwise have been used productively.
Some teams have admin assistants whose role it is to set these things up, however, having an AI process which can negotiate these things for you frees up time and ultimately saves money.
Together, the sum of these AI automations will likely remove one third of your labor cost in the next 10 years, which you can then apply to things like customer experience improvements or take as profits. That’s a huge improvement for any small business owner.
Examples on the easy end of the AI spectrum for Small Businesses
Here are some examples of business processes you could optimise by implementing AI today. Using AI in your business this way, is the same as buying a year’s license to Microsoft Office or Salesforce customer management. (In fact, both of those products now contain AI elements.)
These are some of the different programs designed to assist with varying areas of your small business:
- Accounting: Quickbooks, one of the most popular accounting packages used worldwide to reconcile small business’ books contains software straight ‘out of the box.’ Their AI powered Virtual Assistant –helps users navigate the product and answers questions related to cash flow, payroll and the Quickbooks product itself.
- Communication: Slack is a new type of communication platform which is replacing email and chat in many small businesses. One of its key components is ‘bolt ons’ or ‘add in software’ which are produced by third parties. By far the most popular bolt ons are ‘bots’ which conduct tasks independently. For example, Niles recognises common questions and answers within your team and answers them automatically, before a person uses their precious time to repeat the facts.
- Diary management: Trevor is an AI Calendar which can take over many of your most common diary management tasks. Need to set up an appointment with an assistant (either virtual or real) outside the company? Trevor can suggest times your diary is empty and negotiate an arrangement which is convenient for both sides.
Interested in implementing more AI in your office? Why not start by tasking a member of your team with recommending a new software tool, containing AI, which could improve a key business process for you?
“The opinions expressed by BizWitty Contributors are their own, not those of BizCover and should not be relied upon in place of appropriate professional advice. Please read our full disclaimer."
