March 12, 2025
How AI Can Help Small Businesses
Considering using AI to support your small business?
You’re not alone. Some 40% of small businesses in the US now use generative AI tools, while 91% of small biz AI users say the technology will help them achieve their growth plans.
Whether you’re only just arriving at the AI party or looking to level up your use of the technology, read on to learn about:
👉 The benefits of AI for small businesses
👉 9 specific small business use cases for AI
👉 How to implement AI solutions in your small business
Let’s get into it…
What is AI for small business?
Artificial intelligence (AI) for small business is technology that performs small business tasks ordinarily requiring human intelligence.
It does this through machine learning and natural language processing, analyzing and memorising data through algorithms. This means AI automatically “trains” itself to automate tasks for your business without you having to program it.
All of which makes your business more efficient, increasing your chance of achieving your growth goals.
What are the benefits of AI for small business users?
AI can support small businesses in a variety of ways. It can automate customer interactions, trim unnecessary costs, and take over those mind-numbing admin tasks that eat up your day. So instead of drowning in emails or wrestling with spreadsheets, you can focus on growing your business and delivering a high quality service.
Scale your business (without increasing headcount) 🌱
AI can help you scale without having to expand your team or put in extra hours of work yourself.
As well as performing time-consuming, labor-intensive tasks, AI can analyze vast amounts of internal and external data – helping you identify trends and spot opportunities faster.
You can also be flexible in the way you use AI. For example, you can scale up usage to meet demand during busy periods, then reduce it (or phase it out completely) at quieter times. Think of AI as a seasonal labor force that’s on hand at the click of a button.
Level up your customer service 🤝
With nine in 10 consumers willing to pay more for a customer experience that leaves them happier, it’s clearly in your interests to provide the best possible service.
But if you don’t have the resources to handle all your customer support yourself (or the budget to outsource it), AI can help.
Common AI-powered customer service solutions include:
👉 AI call answering services
👉 Chatbots on websites and social media platforms
Depending on the tool you choose, AI can either help you resolve customer queries faster or even handle them for you. Either way, the end result is the same – you get more time to spend on other essential tasks.
Spend less time on low-value tasks ⏱️
In the early days, you probably want to be all over your business. Because it’s good to know every area of your operations inside out, right?
Trouble is, there are only 24 hours in a day. And would you rather spend them plugging away at smaller tasks, or have more capacity for creating your dream business?
That’s where AI comes in, with over three-quarters of small business owners agreeing that AI helps them focus on high-value actions.
Cut operational costs ✂️
In a similar vein, handing lower-value tasks over to AI leaves you less reliant on human labor, allowing you to reduce unnecessary spending on wages.
Actions like data entry, call handling, and appointment scheduling may once have been a full-time job, but today they can easily be handled by artificial intelligence – saving you money without sacrificing service quality.
Create sales and marketing assets faster 💨
AI tools can also streamline your sales and marketing efforts.
Combining the wealth of online information with your specific prompts, AI can be trained to simulate your brand’s tone of voice and come up with content that will reach and engage your target audience.
Using large language models (LLMs) and natural language processing (NLP), AI can process huge amounts of data and refine your communications to be as compelling and human-sounding as possible.
That said, you don’t want to become too reliant on AI for marketing.
Half of consumers can correctly identify copy that is AI-generated, while:
🤖 26% would feel a brand is impersonal if their copy does not feel human-written
🤖 20% would feel that the brand is lazy
So ensure you review and edit as much as possible to maintain what makes your brand unique.
Speed up data analysis 📈
Who wants to spend all their time poring over endless information? Even the biggest data nerd has to admit there’s more to life.
There’s certainly more to business, anyway – and AI frees you up to focus on other tasks.
AI saves you time sifting through customer data, performance metrics, and wider market trends. All of which helps you respond faster to changes in your industry (like the introduction of new competitors or products).
How to use AI for small business: 9 key use cases
From handling customer queries to managing tedious back-end tasks, there are plenty of actionable ways you can start to use AI for your small business. All of which frees you up to serve customers and make money!
1. AI-powered answering services ☎️
An AI answering service is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to replicate a human phone service. It can answer calls from customers and assist them with their queries using voice recognition technology. Benefits include:
👍 More cost-effective than human services
👍 Can capture key customer data
👍 More potential business, as customers are never ignored
AI answering services for small businesses are also significantly cheaper than human-powered alternatives – plus they provide a higher standard of customer support because the AI agent is trained on the specifics of your business.
👉 See how AI answering services can help your business run smoothly in our detailed guide: 10 Benefits of Using an AI Phone Answering System.
2. Website chatbots ⌨️
Similar to answering services, chatbots perform important customer service duties – the big difference is that these conversations happen via instant messaging rather than over the phone.
Chatbots typically use natural language processing to assist potential and existing customers. They can guide customers toward the right product or service, help them overcome common problems, or answer frequently asked questions.
All of which leaves you with more time and budget to invest elsewhere, while keeping up with competitors and growing your customer base.
3. Accounting tools 🧮
AI also has a lot to offer for those tedious accounting tasks. So if you struggle to keep on top of processing invoices, managing statements, monitoring cashflow, or tracking accounts, worry not.
AI can help you to automate or refine accounting and bookkeeping tasks, so the day-to-day responsibility of managing your business finances becomes less of a headache.
4. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems 👐
If you need help optimizing your customer relationships and leveraging new opportunities, AI-driven CRM systems are just the ticket.
These tools can learn over time how to turn data into marketing gold and potential new sales – such as sharing special offers with existing customers based on their purchase frequency and total spend.
5. Cybersecurity 🔒
What small business doesn’t want to protect itself?
Trouble is, the increasing sophistication of cyber threats can feel intimidating. Not least because it takes an increasing amount of effort to keep up with them.
AI security tools can help you combat ghouls in the system and protect customer information by automatically scanning data for irregularities and alerting you to anything untoward.
6. Marketing and advertising 🗣️
Generative AI tools like…
👉 Adobe Firefly
👉 ChatGPT
👉 Midjourney
…can create content at lightning speed, saving hours at a time creating blogs, website pages, sales emails, or any other sales and marketing assets you require.
(Although you’ll still have to spend time planning and reviewing that content if it’s going to have any real value.)
7. Recruitment 👩💼
Expanding your team?
While crafting your ideal person specification and interviewing candidates can be exciting, the recruitment process is often a little laborious.
AI can help you review resumes or application letters in the early stages of finding talent, by identifying specific qualities, skills, and desired experience. That way, you can spend more time speaking to those candidates who can make the biggest positive impact on your business.
8. Field service management 📍
Field service management is another aspect of small business that you can outsource to the machines, making your operations more efficient and communication more consistent.
AI makes it quicker and easier to manage field-based teams by handling activities like scheduling, task management, status updates, and identifying issues.
9. Translation and transcription 📄
If your small business needs support with note-taking or translating, AI can help you out.
Whether at in-person meetings, over calls, or in pre-recorded videos, recording and transcription services can provide handy summaries of conversations and also support with creating any relevant follow-up tasks.
Meanwhile, AI-powered translation tools can help you answer non-English-language queries, potentially helping you reach a wider customer base.
How to implement AI solutions in your small business
Okay, so we know that AI can be a big win for small businesses, and we’ve looked at the specific ways you can adopt it. But implementing AI solutions is a whole different challenge – and you’ll want to take it step by step. The key is to start small, plan strategically, and gradually integrate AI into your daily operations – setting yourself up for success from the get-go.
Identify uses cases for your business
You’ll want to first consider what specific purpose AI is going to serve for your business.
Rather than investing in the first AI tool that comes along, think about the biggest problems you want to solve for your business and the key goals you want to achieve.
Whether your objectives are shorter or longer-term, you’re more likely to see results if you truly understand where you want AI to take you – and how it can support you day-to-day.
Look at the highest-priority use cases for your needs, then do your own research into the best tools for those specific requirements.
Start small
Start with the one part of your business that most needs help.
Would it help you keep up with the competition if you could put more focus into your sales function? Or could your customer service really benefit from a little automation?
Even small wins can make a massive difference to your performance. And once you’ve started seeing positive results from AI, you can experiment with rolling it out across other areas of your business.
Consider how AI will work with your current software
Sure, AI can help small businesses get more bang for their buck.
But the tool(s) you choose have to integrate well with your existing software – otherwise, you may end up wasting money and creating more work for yourself. So do a little research to find out which solutions will work for your business, rather than against it.
Alternatively, if you’ve identified a specific AI tool or function that could yield major benefits for your business, but it doesn’t play nice with your current stack, maybe it’s time to consider upgrading your existing systems.
Train your team on AI tools
Once you’ve taken the plunge, make sure everyone in your business knows how to make use of the AI tool(s) you’re introducing.
Create best practice documents so you can feel confident that everyone will be using AI in the same way. Also, consider choosing AI services with robust customer support just in case any queries or issues come along.
As well as providing a thorough understanding of how an AI tool works, employees need to know how, exactly, it will contribute to:
👉 Their role
👉 The success of the business
Because if they can’t see the benefits of AI, they’re unlikely to use it effectively (or correctly), which will hamper your implementation efforts.
Regularly review your AI toolkit
So you’ve chosen your AI tool and rolled it out successfully. Congratulations – but don’t sit back just yet; make sure it keeps working for you.
The best way to prolong the value of AI is to continue assessing its impact. Is it helping you reach your specified objectives? If not, don’t be afraid to pivot and try something new. And stay on the lookout for new use cases and tools that could save you more time and/or improve your service quality.
The bottom line
Artificial intelligence can feel out of reach for smaller businesses with limited budgets (and little desire to waste their precious resources experimenting with expensive tools). But the fact is, lots of small businesses are already using AI. And the technology isn’t costing them money – it’s making them more efficient. So if you haven’t made the leap into AI yet, now’s the time.
FAQs
Is AI suitable for all types of small businesses?
AI has huge potential for any small business. In particular, those with workloads that outweigh their resources, or goals that can’t be met without additional support. There are also particular industries that are well suited to using AI. We see a lot of interest in our AI call answering service from industries like:
How can small businesses use AI to improve efficiency?
AI could boost efficiency in your small business in many ways. It can save you or your team hours of time carrying out tasks rapidly and effectively, quickly analyze data to gain valuable insights, and improve customer satisfaction through human-like interactions.
What is the best use of AI for small businesses?
The best way for you to use AI ultimately depends on your industry, audience, and specific offering. However, if your business receives a high volume of calls (which is often the case for sectors like home services, for example), an AI answering service could help. A tool like Rosie is a strong starting point. Never again will you experience the frustration of missing out on potential sales or losing the chance to capture key customer data.