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Artificial Intelligence has actually been around for decades already but it grew past being a buzzword and into the mainstream in 2022 with the surprise popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.  Nowadays, it might be challenging to find someone who doesn’t have an iota of an idea of what AI is and what it does.  In fact, its widespread cultural adoption belies its real impact behind the scenes where it steadily transforms and shapes businesses and industries towards a more automated and optimized direction.

Now as a small business owner, you might think that last statement doesn’t apply to you and is targeted mostly towards larger scale companies, but that is far from the truth.  That last statement is just as relevant to your smaller, local-based trade as it is to any regional or global firm.  In fact, 75% of small businesses have taken advantage of AI, according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.  Additionally, 93% of small businesses agree that they save money and improve profitability utilizing AI solutions.  We learned about these two interesting points when we attended a webinar hosted by CallRail, “Q&A: Demystifying AI for Small Businesses.”

You might have heard too that AI actually places everybody on the same playing field, and this was underscored at the webinar when they shared that small businesses have access to the same AI technology that big companies employ.  At the same time, small businesses are granted a chance to achieve the same impact as their larger counterparts.  Small businesses however enjoy being able to adapt or incorporate new technology and processes easier than their larger counterparts.

So how do you join the small businesses using AI to make money and grow?  What are examples of AI being utilized by small businesses?  Where do you start in understanding and applying AI solutions for your small business?

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Artificial Intelligence and Its Subsets

Perhaps it’s best to follow suit with the webinar and include a quick look but fundamental understanding of AI and its subset.  As you might know, AI technology enables machines like computer systems to simulate or emulate human intelligence and behavior by learning from training data, pattern recognition, decision-making, and problem-solving.

When that pattern recognition is taken one step further by involving huge data sets and advanced algorithms, a subset of AI called Machine Learning is developed.  Aside from simulating or emulating human intelligence, Machine Learning allows computer systems to learn and adapt.  However, a misstep in ML is the oversight of certain variables affecting the accuracy of the intended output.

A subset of ML called Deep Learning builds upon this limitation of overlooking variables by actually learning from these variables with historical data to generate accurate and high level outputs.  DL achieves this by leveraging multiple layers of artificial neural networks for in-depth data processing and analytical tasks.

And when that high level data set is transformed into generated yet fine-tuned content like text, images, or code, we now arrive in the territory of Generative AI.  This subset of DL models include the popular ChatGPT.

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How Are Small Businesses Using AI?

Like any other company or industry, small businesses have started to use AI to save time by streamlining, automating and optimizing whichever aspect of their processes that they could.  One example is speech-to-text where instead of listening to every call, you convert a recorded phone call into summarized text with relevant and possibly actionable information or insight.  By filtering calls in this manner, you’re also able to identify which types require the utmost attention and immediate follow-up, an especially valuable feature for qualifying leads.

As they say time is gold and so in the same vein where you free time by outsourcing time-consuming and repeatable tasks to another person or agency, automating processes through AI allow you to devote the time you free up to other more advanced functions or find more opportunities that can help further improve productivity and profitability, growing your business along the way.

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Will AI Replace Small Businesses?

Now adapting and utilizing AI in your small business isn’t the end-all and be-all; it won’t even be replacing you wholesale anytime since it is, after all, just another tool at one’s disposal.  Embracing the hot new tech keeps you at pace with the rest of the pack, but how you stand out will still fall on your business savvy and the intrinsic, unique value you bring to the table.  Whether it be for your marketing or improving processes or customer relations, AI will help you glean as many insights as possible from your business transactions, interactions, and communications, but how effective that knowledge becomes will still depend on how well you leverage it.

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