Artificial intellengence is all around us right now in 2024. It is an invisible-ish technology that is like a maid with ballet shoes cleaning your house without you noticing, you cannot hear or feel it but it is there nonetheless.
Great news is that you and I can get some help from technology to run our business'. A few years ago when AIfirst got bandied around as a buzz word we were sceptical and probably a bit confused as to how it was actually going to take form and how exactly it would help us. Was it going to be a robot packing orders? would it be automated processes making mundane tasks a breeze?
This article explores how artificial intelligence can help us small business owners and why and how we should embrace this new technology.
I will also point out the drawbacks that i have discovered in my research when it comes to using ai and any pitfalls to watch out for as you navigate this new technology with me.
As Goodordering is a product based online business (with some IRL locations too - see Spitalfields thursdays) these suggestions are based around my experiences and projections within the context of a similar business model to Goodordering.
Writing with chat GPT
You can write blog posts and valuable content with the help of chat GPT. At first when it came out, i used to to write the actual articles, but now i realise i can use it to do the research for me and i'm better off doing most of the writing myself.
Pitfall: There are search engines that can indentify AI written articles and maybe this might make them rank lower in search engines so when i do use it to generate content i make sure that i use it sparingly like salt.
Around the clock customer service
Using AI customer service apps can automate your inbox to be able to help customers around the clock,
Drawback: if you have been stuck on a bank chat with a robot you will find that its so obvious when its not a real person at the other end of your query and you may end up alienating customers even more. The reason why they got in touch in the first place is becuase they have a problem or something negative. So having a generic response may not be the best way to deal with an angry customer!
Scheduling social media
I use Later but there are others like Hubspot, Buffer etc. that can help you with making sure that you have your social media platforms covered when it comes to posting regularly. Most small business owners have the right intention but just not enough time or organisation to plan. And lets face it, social media works best when it is consistent.
Ai assistant with social media - its hard to figure out what technology is just technology and what is AI, maybe it doesn't really matter. However for example if you have to write a caption in a social media planning tool, AI can help you to re-write your caption in the right tone or a longer caption. It takes what you do and improves it and there is where i think that AI really comes into itself.
Making ai generated videos and photos
This can be fun and capture attention of customers and is worth looking into
The instagram account of darylanselmo is one to look at for some amazing examples of this such as this one below.
