Why Small Businesses Need To Start Thinking Beyond ChatGPT

By Emma Lewis, bOnline

ChatGPT has for many people been the first step into AI, especially when it comes to running a small business. It can write emails, summarise documents, brainstorm ideas and help with customer communications, but it is only one part of a much bigger AI landscape.

As more specialist tools become available, businesses can use AI to do far more than generate text, from reducing admin to improving customer service and making existing software work more efficiently.

Look Beyond The Prompt

ChatGPT is useful when someone needs help with a particular task, but many everyday business jobs happen repeatedly and follow the same process. This is where AI and automation can have a bigger impact, by handling some of the work in the background rather than simply helping an employee complete it.

For example, a new customer enquiry could be automatically categorised, added to a CRM and passed to the right member of staff, while meeting software could turn a conversation into notes and follow-up tasks.

The aim isn’t to remove people from these processes, but to reduce the repetitive work around them so employees have more time to focus on customers, sales and tasks that need human judgement.

The same principle applies to business communications. VoIP and digital phone systems can do much more than simply make and receive calls, with features such as call routing, AI receptionist, voicemail transcription, call recording and CRM integrations helping businesses manage customer conversations more efficiently. A voicemail, for example, can be turned into text so an employee can quickly understand what a customer needs, while information from a call can be linked to a customer’s record rather than being left as a separate piece of information.

For a small business receiving a steady stream of calls, these small improvements can make a noticeable difference. Staff can spend less time searching for information or updating records and more time actually dealing with customers.

Start With The Problem

With so many AI tools out there, it can be tempting to start with the technology and then look for a way to use it. For most small businesses, it makes more sense to start by looking at where time is being lost.

Employees might be copying information between spreadsheets, answering the same customer questions, updating records after calls or collecting information from different systems to create reports. These tasks may seem relatively minor, but when they are repeated every day, they can take up a significant amount of time.

The people doing these jobs are often best placed to identify where improvements could be made. Asking employees which tasks are repetitive or frustrating can reveal simple opportunities for automation without requiring a complete overhaul of the business.

Make Better Use Of Existing Software

Businesses don’t necessarily need to invest in a whole new collection of AI tools. Many of the systems they already use are adding AI and automation features, allowing companies to improve existing processes without introducing more software.

A CRM might summarise customer conversations, accounting software can reduce manual data entry and project management tools can highlight outstanding tasks. Digital phone systems can also connect with CRM platforms, giving employees customer information when a call comes in and making it easier to keep records up to date.

This is important because adding more software can sometimes create more problems than it solves. If employees have to constantly switch between different platforms or manually move information from one system to another, the technology isn’t really making their jobs easier. The most useful solutions are often the ones that fit into existing workflows and remove steps rather than adding them.

The Real Value Of AI

For a small business, the best use of AI may not be the one with the most impressive demonstration. It could be something much simpler, such as reducing the admin involved in handling calls, automatically updating customer records or removing a few hours of repetitive work each week.

Those savings can add up over time. If employees spend less time on routine administration, they have more time available for customers, sales and other work that directly contributes to the business. Automation can also help small teams handle more work without necessarily needing to increase headcount.

Businesses should still look at the cost of any new technology and measure whether it actually saves enough time or money to justify the investment. Not every AI feature will be useful, and automation isn’t the answer to every problem.

The starting point is to look at how the business currently works and identify where things are slower or more complicated than they need to be. From there, AI, automation and better-connected tools can help make those processes faster and easier.

ChatGPT will remain a useful tool for many businesses, but it shouldn’t be the whole AI strategy. The bigger opportunity is to look at the wider business, including customer management, communications and administration, and find the places where technology can quietly take care of the work that doesn’t need a person doing it manually.