Key points
- You run a small business and keep hearing AI could help. What could AI take on for you, and where do you begin?
- AI usually does well at repetitive, patterned work: drafting replies, letters and quotes from examples you have approved, sorting email, answering routine questions using your own information, summarising calls and matching invoices to orders.
- AI usually struggles with judgement and work that varies case by case. It can invent facts it was never given and is usually poor at spotting its own errors, so check its work as you would a capable trainee's first draft.
- A UK government survey found twenty-seven per cent of micro businesses using AI, rising to fifty-two per cent of large ones, though it only covered firms with five or more staff.
- Start with AI in software you already pay for, like email, since trying it is cheap. Pick a frequent, routine task customers never see, so slips are caught before reaching them.
- Before changing anything, log for a week or two how long the task takes, how often errors happen and who does it, and decide what result would make you stop. Weeks later, compare, including checking time. If checking takes as long as the task once did, the tool has added a step, not removed one.
- Free and paid AI tools can treat your data very differently. Keep customer and staff details out until the supplier says where they go, who sees them, whether they are used for training and whether they can be deleted, and a data protection adviser has checked your duties.
- You need no technical skills to begin: just a clear problem, someone to check results, and a little time. For the full guide, visit AI Consultancy Finder.
Transcript
You run a small business and keep hearing AI could help. What could AI take on for you, and where do you begin? AI usually does well at repetitive, patterned work: drafting replies, letters and quotes from examples you have approved, sorting email, answering routine questions using your own information, summarising calls and matching invoices to orders.
AI usually struggles with judgement and work that varies case by case. It can invent facts it was never given and is usually poor at spotting its own errors, so check its work as you would a capable trainee's first draft. A UK government survey found twenty-seven per cent of micro businesses using AI, rising to fifty-two per cent of large ones, though it only covered firms with five or more staff.
Start with AI in software you already pay for, like email, since trying it is cheap. Pick a frequent, routine task customers never see, so slips are caught before reaching them. Before changing anything, log for a week or two how long the task takes, how often errors happen and who does it, and decide what result would make you stop.
Weeks later, compare, including checking time. If checking takes as long as the task once did, the tool has added a step, not removed one. Free and paid AI tools can treat your data very differently. Keep customer and staff details out until the supplier says where they go, who sees them, whether they are used for training and whether they can be deleted, and a data protection adviser has checked your duties.
You need no technical skills to begin: just a clear problem, someone to check results, and a little time. For the full guide, visit AI Consultancy Finder.