Here’s a figure that may surprise you:
98% of small businesses use some sort of AI-enabled software tool in their operations.
Here’s another number to put that one into perspective:
There are some 33.2 million small businesses in the United States.
That’s a lot of small businesses — and a great deal of AI tools. It seems like just yesterday skepticism about artificial intelligence was high and adoption low. Now, an overwhelming majority of small businesses use an AI tool in some capacity. Go figure!
With those statistics in mind, I want to explore this AI adoption trend throughout this blog, asking and answering questions like:
- Why are a vast majority of small businesses turning to AI tools?
- What AI tools are they using?
- What are business owners actually saying about AI tools?
- Are there any hot takes? (Hint: Yes! And, they may even come from me 👀).
So, without further ado, let’s discover some answers.
Why Are Small Businesses Turning to AI Tools?
AI adoption has accelerated at a breakneck pace, but why?
According to a report by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, wherein they surveyed 507 small businesses that use AI, key benefits of these tools over traditional means include:
- More free time to focus on high-value tasks (76%).
- Higher-quality decision-making (69%).
- The ability to compete more effectively with larger businesses (68%).
- Better customer acquisition (67%).
- More effective customer service (61%).
- Heightened data security (59%).
- More efficiently personalizing the customer experience (55%).
Of course, there are time and cost savings associated with these, too. The same report says that small business owners report a median weekly savings of 13 hours. That’s nearly two full work days if you’re on a standard 9-5 office job schedule, not including lunch breaks. That’s a lot of time.
What AI Tools Are Small Businesses Actually Using?
Those perks are pretty alluring, but “AI tool” could mean anything. After all, all kinds of software use artificial intelligence to augment their capabilities. One-fourth or more of surveyed small businesses report using the following AI tool types:
- Financial management tools (40%).
- Email marketing automation (32%).
- Cybersecurity tools (32%).
- Inventory management (29%).
- Image creation, including presentations and branding material (28%).
- Social media management (28%).
- Customer support and customer service chatbots (27%).
- HR management tools (27%).
- Project management tools (26%)
- Content writing and creation (26%).
- Audio-to-text transcription (26%).
To make things interesting, let’s explore one of the more controversial use cases: content writing and creation, which comes in at No. 10 on this list.
A Real-Life AI Content Creation and Writing Use Case (With a Hot Take)
One business owner in particular — who’s featured in the Associated Press article we linked to in the intro to this blog — is named Randy Speckman. Randy owns a small web design agency out of San Diego and has seven employees.
According to AP, Randy tried lots of different AI tools before landing on two that were a good fit for him and his business. He mostly uses the tools to generate various types of marketing copy — for mediums like blogs, email newsletters and social media. So, he falls into that 26% small business camp that uses AI tools for content writing and creation.
Using these automated content tools means he hasn’t had to spend extra money hiring additional writers to produce marketing collateral. But there’s one quote I find particularly interesting:
“The only downside [of his chosen tools] is needing to review and tweak the AI’s initial drafts.”
I suppose the reasoning behind him saying this is that if he didn’t have to review the drafts and could just generate and post without a second thought, it would save even more time and money.
While this may be a common take for lots of AI software users — that having to review and edit AI-generated content is a downside — consider this:
AI-generated or human-written, all copy needs to be reviewed — and oftentimes edited or tweaked — before delivering it to a client, publishing it on a blog, sending it via email, posting it on social media, etc.
In marketing — or any type of content production and distribution — it’s extremely rare that a first draft squeaks by unaltered. There is always another set of eyes, and sometimes even two or three. With AI, you’re saving the initial time and cost upfront compared to if the piece were written manually, which is a bulk of the work.
Moreover, wouldn’t it be kind of scary or disconcerting not to have to give AI-generated content a quality assurance check? Isn’t the whole idea to use these platforms as a tool and not a total replacement for talent?
Someone else AP interviewed for their article agrees — Jan Watermann — said “It’s great for efficiency but still requires human creativity and strategy to get the best results.”
Harkening back to that same SBE Council report, a majority (57%) of surveyed small business owners agree that governments should play a role in establishing ethical guidelines to ensure responsible AI practices. And until legislation is created around AI in the U.S., it’s up to business owners themselves to practice ethical and responsible use — which means keeping an eye on AI output.
Keep People At the Heart of Content Creation
Creating a balance between automation and authenticity is the best, most responsible path forward — no matter how smart AI gets. Here are a couple of ways to help you achieve such balance beyond simply ensuring human oversight:
Allow for Seamless Human Intervention
Customer-facing AI tools should include options for users to reach a human agent quickly when needed. For example, chatbots can be programmed to hand over the conversation to a live representative if a question becomes too complex.
Even internal-facing tools that streamline processes should make it easy for staff to interject and course-correct if algorithms skew too far off the path or begin to show biases.
Be Transparent About AI Usage
Let customers know when they are interacting with an AI system, but highlight the benefits, like faster response times. Transparency builds trust, and customers appreciate knowing when they’re interacting with AI or AI-created assets versus a human.
The key takeaway here is this: If you’re part of the 2% of small businesses who haven’t considered using AI-enabled tools yet, you should. There are a lot of great reasons why! But in doing so, ensure ethical, responsible use and create a healthy balance between full-fledged automation and human authenticity.
