Artificial Intelligence (AI) is dominating today’s business world. If you’re a small business owner, you need to use AI to optimise operations, boost productivity, and stay ahead of the competition. Let’s take a look at the best AI tools for small businesses.
Table of Contents:
- Why Use AI Tools?
- Top AI Tools for Small Businesses
- FAQs
- The Final Word
Why Use AI Tools?
Here are the benefits of using AI tools:
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- Saves time: AI automates many tasks, freeing time for more important work.
- Efficient: AI tools can process a lot of data simultaneously and provide accurate insights.
- Accuracy: AI doesn’t make silly errors like humans. So, you can rely on its data to make decisions.
- Consistent: AI performs consistently and doesn’t sacrifice quality even if you give it a lot of tasks to work on.
- Saves money: AI tools are more efficient than humans. Many tasks still require human intervention, but using AI for those that don’t can save you a lot of money. For example, you can automate email newsletters instead of hiring an employee to schedule and send the email at the right time.
Top AI Tools for Small Businesses
When choosing an AI tool for your small business, here’s all you need to consider:
- Ease of use: Choose user-friendly tools so you and your team can quickly learn how to use them and take advantage of their capabilities.
- Support: Getting used to a new AI tool can take some time, but the process can be smoother with strong customer support.
- Integration: Check if the tool can integrate with your existing software.
- Price: Good tools are expensive, but being a small business, you need to also consider whether the tool offers good value for your money.
With that said, here are the best AI tools for small businesses:
1. ChatGPT (Information Gathering)
ChatGPT is among the most popular AI tools. It has a user-friendly interface and a conversational chatbot that can answer your general questions, brainstorm ideas, write articles, and even code.
This tool has a lot of data to provide accurate and tailored responses to your prompts. ChatGPT remembers the instructions you provide in a chat and structures its responses accordingly to meet your needs.
ChatGPT-3 and GPT-3.5 are free and do the job for most users. However, if you need more accurate answers or want to generate responses from images, you can upgrade to ChatGPT-4, which costs $20/month.
2. Jasper AI (Content Writing)
Jasper AI is a writing tool that uses technology similar to ChatGPT to create content. From detailed how-to guides to listicles to social media post captions, Jasper AI can write everything in seconds or, at most, a few minutes.
Copying and pasting AI-generated content isn’t a good idea because it won’t rank high on Google. However, you can use AI to overcome writer’s block and speed up your writing. Jasper AI’s advanced machine learning algorithm can quickly learn your brand’s unique voice and write content that meets your needs.
Jasper AI costs $49/month, but they offer a seven-day free trial.
3. Grammarly (Writing Assistant)
Grammarly writing assistant checks your spelling, grammar, and style as you write. It provides suggestions to make your writing clearer and more engaging. As a business owner, your email, messages, and other content needs to be professional and polished to attract customers. Grammarly has your back.
Grammarly has introduced a new AI tool — GrammarlyGO — which lets you generate a content outline, paraphrase, and modify existing content.
Grammarly is a freemium tool. Upgrading to the Premium plan, which costs $30/month, provides access to features like full sentence rewriting, plagiarism checking, and citation consistency checking.
4. Speechify (Text-To-Speech)
Speechify converts written text into spoken words. This AI tool can convert all types of text into audio. Speechify is an excellent tool if you have difficulty reading or want to multitask by listening to important documents while working on other tasks.
Speechify is a freemium tool. Upgrading to the Premium plan, which costs $139/year, gives you access to over 30 high-quality natural reading voices and the ability to listen at up to 5x speed (an excellent option if you’re multitasking).
5. Otter.ai (Speech-To-Text)
Otter.ai converts audio and video into text, making it useful for creating records of meetings, interviews, and other important discussions. This tool is also an excellent note-taker. You can set it up to join your meeting, take notes, and send you the key takeaways.
Otter.ai saves you a lot of time because you don’t have to watch the entire meeting to review specific points. It also helps you stay focused during meetings by eliminating the need to take notes. Otter.ai has a free plan. The paid plans start from $16.99/month.
6. Buffer (Social Media Management)
Buffer is an all-in-one social media managing tool. You can create and schedule content for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok. You can also analyse the performance of posts, which is crucial to growing your social media pages.
This AI tool also lets you brainstorm new content ideas and write social media post captions. Buffer is a freemium tool. The paid plans start from $6/month, but they offer a 14-day free trial, so ensure to use it.
7. DALL-E 2 (Image Generation)
DALL-E 2 is an AI image generation tool developed by OpenAI that creates visuals based on text descriptions. If your business needs custom images for marketing or creative projects, this AI tool can provide them at a price significantly less than professional graphic designers.
OpenAI charges on a pay-per-image basis. The price can range from $0.016 to $0.120 per image, depending on the image quality.
8. Canva (Graphic Designing)
Canva is a user-friendly graphic designing tool that helps you create professional-looking visuals for social media posts, presentations, posters, etc. Small businesses need attractive advertisements to stand out, and Canva is the perfect tool for creating those ads.
Canva has a free plan, which does the job for most users. Paid plans start from $15/month, which provides access to over 300 million stock photos and videos, background removal, and unlimited premium templates.
9. Mailchimp (Email Marketing Campaign Management)
Mailchimp is an all-in-one email marketing tool. It has various features, including a landing page builder, list segmentation, ad retargeting, and A/B testing. It also has lots of free templates to choose from.
If you have just started your business, you might be new to email marketing. Mailchimp provides helpful tips and best practices for writing emails that convert.
Mailchimp has a free plan, which has a cap of 1,000 monthly email sends. Paid plan starts at $4.59/month (billed annually), which increases the monthly email send cap to 5,000 and offers access to features like email scheduling, A/B testing, and automated workflow.
FAQs
Are AI tools secure for handling customer data?
Yes, reputable AI tools prioritise data security and comply with government regulations. Make sure to read the tool’s privacy policy before purchasing it.
Are AI tools expensive for small businesses?
It depends on the tool. However, most tools are significantly less expensive than hiring an employee to do that job.
How can I implement AI tools in my business?
Follow these steps when implementing AI tools in your business:
- Plan and set clear goals
- Involve your team
- Implement one tool at a time
- Monitor and evaluate the tool’s performance
- Keep up with the latest trends
The Final Word
AI tools help small businesses optimise operations, enhance customer experience, and increase profits. Be sure to choose the right tool and integrate it effectively into your business to maximise the benefits of this technology.
If you’re a small business owner and need help growing your business, get in touch with Ken D Foster. With over 30 years of experience in professional development, Ken will thoroughly analyse your business, make you realise its full potential, and accelerate its pace of success.