Why the AI Window Might be Closing Faster than Most SMBs Realize
How to seize the opportunity. Now.
ChatGPT has only been out for about 2 years.
And, just 24 months in...
It's become quite clear that this tool and others like it have the power to completely transform how we work and live.
It's outperforming financial analysts in predicting earnings. (Financial Times)
It outperformed the average human at identifying emotions. (Psychology Today)
It beat human students on NAEP science assessments across various grade levels. (Springer Nature)
These are three of many, many examples.
WHY IT MATTERS: lots of small business owners are at risk of underestimating both AI's current capabilities, and how quickly it will pick up new abilities that will become (make or break) competitive advantages.
Now, I want to be clear...
This does NOT mean that the small businesses don't have some (or many) users logging on to use ChatGPT.
Plenty do.
It also does NOT mean they aren't leveraging SaaS tools in different areas of their business that are "AI-enabled."
I'm talking more at a macro level.
We need to stop asking "whether we're using AI at all"...
And start asking: "in what areas of business are we NOT using AI?"
And for many? This list is longer. A lot longer.
For the remainder of this article, I want to try to get tactical. And share a brief overview of each business area and some good starting points to innovate with AI.
Sales
There are so many amazing sales use cases for AI.
Automated data mining to generate prospect lists
Using AI to write sales proposals
Automated analysis of competitor websites and messaging
Using AI to transcribe calls and analyze them (great for sales managers)
Creating personal brand content for sellers (including video editing)
Marketing
Some great marketing starting points:
Creation of social media graphics
Creation of SEO content and articles
Q&A support of virtually any marketing technology
Business plan creation and messaging ideas
Automated workflows for customer feedback
Finance
On the finance front:
Financial modeling
Spreadsheet categorization
Accounting rule research
Report creation
Connecting disparate financial tools
Operations
On the operations front:
Creation of training materials
Dashboard creation and updating
Critical path analysis
IT
On the IT front:
Cybersecurity automation
User Helpdesk support
Network monitoring
HR
On the HR front:
Automated recruiting cadences
Candidate research
Interview question creation
HR compliance
Q&A support on tough one-off situations
Legal
On the legal front:
Legal research
Document drafting
Document review
This could be a very long list.
But my point is this: these tools are already capable of transforming EVERY aspect of our businesses.
We avoid leveraging them at our own risk. Both short-term and long-term.