AI & SMBs: Are AI Solutions Worth the Investment?

Artificial intelligence is an unexplored field. Being that it’s still in its early stages of development, it’s quite normal to consider it unfamiliar territory – you just don’t know what to expect from it. The problem is that a person running a small business needs to make calculated moves that are guaranteed to increase their income.

The first thing you need to know about the use of artificial intelligence is that its current abilities are often blown out of proportion. At this time, AI technology is still young – it requires a lot more time and energy so that it can conduct complicated tasks by itself.

However, that doesn’t mean that the AI technology we currently have available isn’t useful. As a matter of fact, a small business can benefit from it greatly. Here’s how you can make progress by using AI.

Cut Down the Support Centre Costs

robot women in technology background

Support centers are an absolute necessity. Not only is this a channel your customers can use to report their issues and concerns, but this is also a medium that enables you to collect feedback regarding your offer and thus make the necessary improvements.

As a small business, chances are you don’t have a lot of money to spend on this. On the other hand, your support center isn’t a department that you can just cut off.

Well, this is where AI comes in. Thanks to patterns of frequently asked questions and repetitive phrases and keywords, you can build chatbots that will communicate with your customers instead of you, giving them all the right answers.

Have a Personal Virtual Assistant

In small companies, having an assistant is a luxury. This means that your head is constantly overflowing with information, which usually leads to forgetfulness, overlapped meetings, slips, sharing inaccurate data, etc.

There’s a simple solution to this problem – AI can be your personal assistant. This technology has advanced enough so that it can schedule your meetings, offer you reminders, and even communicate in your place if you find time to build a personal chatbot. So, without having to cover yearly costs that would go to a new employee, you can simply use AI.

Be the First One to Hear the News

As it was mentioned in the beginning, a small business mustn’t take too many risks – your business moves need to be calculated. Naturally, to develop your business in the right direction, you first need to collect information.

Conducting market research is a necessary part of any business model, regardless of your industry. However, collecting and analyzing big data is a pricy, demanding process – as you’re probably aware of. Well, the good news is that AI can do it instead of you.

Some of the existing AI tools can keep track of phrases, keywords, and articles that are relevant to your business online, show you the context, and thus help you with the development of future strategies.

Automate the Entire Process Patterns

What makes AI so popular, and the reason you keep encountering news about this technology on every business news portal, is its automation capabilities.

Thanks to AI, you’re able to automate administrative and repetitive processes that take place in your office – anything from document approval to making orders can become a part of a cycle that doesn’t require human attention.

However, it is obvious that different companies have different needs when it comes to automation. For that reason, you should learn about different automation solutions in order to find the most suitable use of AI in your business.

Hire an Intelligent Alarm System

Although still young, AI technology is smart enough to notice patterns. As a matter of fact, its capabilities go pass those borders – AI can notice pattern deviations.

This is what makes this it the perfect digital security guard. Once you implement it into your system, and once AI understands what is considered to be the usual online behavior in your company, it will be able to recognize and report intruders the moment they appear.

It’s also important to realize that AI tools won’t function immediately after you implement them. This is a technology that needs to adapt to your business, learn about it, and grow with it side by side. However, if we take all the points listed above into consideration, it is certain that AI and small business can work more than well together.