AI Tools for Small Businesses

Here’s a list of AI tools for small businesses to try

Table of Contents

What Are AI Tools for Small Businesses?
Key Benefits of AI for Small Businesses
Top AI Tools for Small Businesses
How to Choose the Right AI Tool for Your Business
Introducing Orderry: AI-Powered Business Automation
Find the best AI tools for your small business

Efficiency is key to keeping small businesses afloat. Unfortunately, this goal is often elusive when operating with minimum resources. Small business operators are often trapped in unanswered emails, incorrect data, and unpaid invoices.

Fortunately, thanks to technological leaps, AI is no longer a fantasy or bogeyman. It’s now part of day-to-day business operations like accounting, scheduling, and customer communication management. Like other business tools, AI software for small businesses varies in reliability, cost, and solutions. By customizing your AI for small business package, you can find the solutions best tailored to your concerns.

What Are AI Tools for Small Businesses?

An AI tool is a program that applies an AI model to solve problems. The type of problem a model can solve varies depending on what it’s trained to do and the data fed into the model. AI applications are built into existing digital programs or launched independently. You can access AI tools online via the web or downloadable applications.

AI tools for small businesses vary in design and solutions. Currently, most developers have integrated AI into small business tools for marketing, accounting, reporting, and scheduling. Finding the best AI tools for small businesses begins by querying your problems and then finding a product that fits.

AI tools can help you redefine tasks in your business. For example, if you need a brainstorming session, consider ChatGPT as your AI consultant for small business. You can train the program to offer rebuttals and alternative views to your idea and help you structure mind maps.

AI writing assistants in language checkers like Grammarly help you restructure emails for better tone and delivery. You can also enable Grammarly into your customer communication software to help you restructure dry and brusque sentences into opportunities for connection.

Also, built-in assistants are some of the best AI for small businesses, especially when running your small business CRM. An AI chatbot for small businesses helps you pull reports, recreate schedules, and instantly process incoming messages without leaving your CRM.

Key Benefits of AI for Small Businesses

• Increased efficiency and automation: Used within the boundary of its capabilities, AI tools help small business owners increase efficiency through automation. Rule-based tasks such as data entry, invoice processing, and chatbot requests are easy to automate using AI applications for small businesses.
• Cost savings and resource optimization: Small business operations such as research, writing, and editing in customer communication and marketing are now easier to accomplish using AI virtual assistants for small businesses. While all tasks require your human infusion, AI writing tools make it easier to ideate and overcome writer’s block. You can then free up those mental resources for more complex tasks.
• Better customer experience and engagement: With an AI chatbot for small businesses, you can automate responses to common questions. You can also use AI writing assistants to help you curate better responses to customers across platforms while adding your twist to incorporate humor and slang when necessary. Furthermore, AI assistants analyze customer data and make personal recommendations based on past searches and purchases.
• Enhanced decision-making through data analysis: AI copilots make decision-making easier by combing through data. Depending on the platform, you can use AI assistants to generate visuals based on your sales and customer data and identify patterns in your business sales. AI assistants can also help you predict the effects of specific changes in your small business, such as prices.

Top AI Tools for Small Businesses

There are numerous tools with AI for small business owners. Here’s a list of the top AI solutions for small businesses.

Marketing & Customer Support

1. AI chatbots

Tidio is a leading AI chatbot for small businesses. The tool includes Lyro, a conversational AI that responds to customer queries in different languages. The AI tool integrates into Tido’s live chat feature and customer conversations across different platforms for quicker responses.

What’s more, you can customize your charges based on the number of customer agents and the conversations they have every month. Lyro also allows you to add custom responses for the chatbot to ensure your voice and brand descriptions are accurately captured. If the AI assistant cannot respond to a query, it prompts customers to ask for real human agents, ensuring efficient use of human customer support agents.

2. AI-driven email marketing experience

Mailchimp has added an AI marketing assistant to their email marketing tool to help you optimize your experience. Within the platform, you can count on Intuit Assist to help you launch personalized campaigns quickly. AI-generated emails help you respond quickly, professionally, and easily, and you can use automation to follow up with leads at the best times.

You can also use the AI models to predict when new leads and customers are likely to make purchases to follow up with personalized recommendations. You can pay for a monthly package or customize your package based on the number of contacts you have.

3. Social media automation

As a small business owner, you’ll often find that you need to repurpose marketing content on social media. When you’ve run out of ideas, you can turn to FeedHive, a web-based AI social media automation tool that helps you generate dynamic content from old posts. The AI write and engagement checker ensures your posts are refreshed for posting while retaining engagement. FeedHive also lets you map content onto your calendar for better planning and bulk creation.

4. AI text-to-video tool 

If you’re tired of generating voice-over videos or don’t have the confidence to speak on camera, Fliki is the right AI assistant for you. This AI-powered text-to-video tool transforms your scripts into well-narrated, audible, and engaging voice-overs for marketing. There are more than 2000 voice options with countless languages and dialects for you to choose from. The platform also offers handy templates to inspire your creativity when you’re unsure where to start.

5. AI-powered writing assistants

Writing assistants like ChatGPT are some of the best AI marketing tools for small businesses. Small business owners use ChatGPT to generate ideas for marketing, prepare outlines, write articles, and also sharpen ideas through rephrasing. ChatGPT also accepts instructions and outlines before providing output. The better your prompts, the better the output.

Operations & Productivity

1. Task automation

Asana AI adds to the already dependable task manager. Users can now count on the AI assistant to automate tasks such as reminders for ongoing tasks, project summaries, and launching projects.

The AI assistant can create smart charts based on queries to make it easier to analyze projects, launch new projects, including necessary data fields, and generate goals for new projects.

2. AI-powered scheduling

The Clockwise AI scheduling app transforms your scheduling experience by reducing conflicts between tasks and enabling better energy efficiency. The assistant helps you block out time for focused work, lunch and tea breaks, and meetings. You can use the assistant to create an “ideal day” that optimizes your time instead of switching between incompatible tasks.

When you integrate the app with other tools, Clockwise marks your status according to your schedule and prevents messages from disturbing your focus. You can also use analytics to review how you spend your time and even set no-meeting days for better focus.

3. Inventory management

AI assistants built into the Catalog section in the Orderry mobile app help small business owners track their inventory, add it to the sales catalog, and prepare adequate descriptions. You can add images from your phone to the application for AI-powered product recognition for detailed and accurate product descriptions. You can also use the AI-powered picture editor to remove the background for a clean marketing image.

Add new products easier with AI in Orderry mobile app

Sales & Finance

1. AI-driven sales assistants

Regie.ai is an AI-powered sales assistant that improves sales through several features, including email verification for new leads, call script generation to stick to the topic, and ice-breaker suggestions when talking to new customers.

The tool also includes a built-in writing assistant to help you polish your email and text responses. There’s also an automation feature to help you automate emails, sales messages, and social media posts for more consistent and timely posts.

2. Automated invoicing

Odoo’s AI invoicing tool helps you develop digital invoice templates and lift essential data from printed invoices. Since processing data is faster with automated entries, you’ll enjoy a faster invoicing process and improve your workflow. More accurate data collection also means fewer delays in your financial obligations, improving overall cash flow. Over time, the algorithm learns your preferences, which enables better automation, reminder settings, and accurate analysis of your small business.

3. AI-powered bookkeeping

Zeni helps you unleash the power of AI bookkeeping, which includes benefits like real-time insights into your profits and losses, automatic receipt capturing, and vendor unification to prevent data doubling. The in-built AI audit bot checks transaction accuracy and balances, detects errors, and strictly adheres to accounting standards. You can use Zeni to track spending across your small business and generate real-time financial statements to assess your business’s health.

How to Choose the Right AI Tool for Your Business

Before choosing AI tools for your business, consider the following factors.

• Pricing: While some AI tools are free, others cost money. Compare the costs of different tools to check the benefits against the cost. Evaluate the true cost of an ongoing subscription and check for any hidden charges for integration and customization against the return on investment.
• Ease of use: Choose AI tools that are easy to use on desktop and mobile. Look for navigation features that make it easier to select what you need quickly. Test how quickly the tools respond after installation and seek AI tools that integrate with your workflows without intense training. Most tools appear as chatbots and offer prompts to show new users how to use them.
• Scalability: AI tools that expand and shrink with your small business needs make it easier to retain cash flow by preventing overspending and maximizing profit when sales increase. Choose scalable AI solutions with customizable service and payment options to make it easier to scale operations.
• Integrations: As you add another digital program to your workflow mix, be sure to select one that integrates with your existing tools. AI tools with links to popular small business solutions and customizable integrations upon request make it easier for you to maintain smooth workflows.
• Support: When you run into problems using your AI tool, customer support is the first place you stop. Therefore, before adding AI tools to your small business, consult customer support to gauge their responsiveness. Consult them on various issues, including integrations, pricing models, and discounts, to get a sense of their professionalism, honesty, and reliability.

Ultimately, what you want depends on your needs. Here are some real-life AI applications in businesses.

• For example, United Parcel Service (UPS) uses AI to analyze package theft by mapping high-risk areas and reassigning packages to safe locations.
• VideaHealth uses AI to improve X-ray image analysis for more accurate diagnosis.
• John Deere uses AI to enable autonomous planting and harvesting through computers attached to farming truck engines. The AI models also identify weeds for precise spraying to control herbicide use.
• Etsy employs Vertex AI training in its search and ad recommendations to help buyers discover better, similar, and related products and new items.

Introducing Orderry: AI-Powered Business Automation

Orderry customer management software brings small business management to your hands, enabling you to respond to issues on the go with less hassle, thanks to AI-powered tools for web and mobile.

AI-suggested replies in chats

AI-suggested replies are enabled for app and web users to help you automate customer responses. With pre-saved responses, you’ll ensure your customers get prompt answers for common queries before stepping in and tweaking them for personalized responses.

Communicate faster with AI-powered reply suggestions in chats

Catalog in a mobile application

The catalog tool helps you scroll through your products and services. The built-in AI writing assistant tool helps you generate clear and concise product descriptions without grammar errors.

AI-powered background removal for product images

The AI image recognition program identifies new products and develops product descriptions. You can also use the tool to remove the background on images you take with your phone for clean and professional marketing images.

AI-powered product posting

Speed up product posting and boost inventory management in your business. Use AI to recognize items, auto-fill product details, and generate descriptions in seconds. Simply update your inventory by uploading a supplier file and mapping its data to Orderry fields — no manual work needed.

AI-powered product posting in Orderry

Find the best AI tools for your small business

There are tons of opportunities for using AI tools. In content creation, you can use AI marketing for small businesses to create writing prompts for web copy, social media posts, and articles. For customer communication, AI writing assistants help you maintain professionalism in your responses. If you’re struggling with inaccuracies, AI tools in inventory and bookkeeping automatically transfer data from sales and finance to help you focus on analysis.

In conclusion, AI tools improve efficiency and help you scale operations at an affordable cost. Orderry’s AI tools help you power business automation for better customer management, communications, and business operations.