As a business owner, you hear it everywhere…
AI is the future, and the future is here! AI in our product – here’s how to use it. AI, AI, AI!!!
When it comes to artificial intelligence, in the business world, there are TONS of options for products, services and software. Right now, it’s mind-boggling to think about trying to navigate AI.
With all of the shiny objects and bells and whistles that have tremendous potential to help your business, it’s stressful. How do you decide what helps your small business do big business when it comes to AI? How do small towns like New Castle businesses use AI to do more, and do it well?
In this article, we are going to look at AI as a general concept. Then, we are going to cover AI’s impact on businesses, while talking about some suggestions for really good uses, along with things to avoid.
When we’re done, you’ll be able to answer the following…
What are the good ways of using AI?
What are the bad methods of using AI to stay away from?
What are the best methods of using AI for my business?
Core Concept: What is AI, and why does it matter to your future business?
AI, or artificial intelligence, is the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and act like humans. These systems can, and usually do, learn from experience, adapt to new situations, and perform tasks that typically require human cognitive abilities like learning, problem-solving, and decision-making.
AI systems are built as models. So you might use an AI model dealing with languages to build chatbots and automated customer support call centers. You might use an AI model dealing with chemistry to test new drugs and drug interactions.
For many business owners, AI means having a customizable, 24/7 employee that is blindly devoted to your business’s success. This means automation, cost-reduction and, most important, ease of use. This is all something that equates to a big benefit to any business owner.
AI is actually something great for business owners. Single-manned small businesses will find an equivalent amount of benefit as large-scale global corporations will from AI.
In many ways, AI will allow businesses to do more at scale. Via different software, services and other products, your business will be able to take advantage of this growing technology for everything. From notifying you of random events to logistics to marketing and more, AI is going to be a staple in how we do business as we enter the future.
But, one thing needs to be said…
AI isn’t only ChatGPT. AI isn’t only LLM (large-language models). AI isn’t only one thing, and only one model.
AI, in a general form, can be any model for any action that can learn and adapt and perform actions at scale. There are AI models for language. There are AI models for biochemistry. There are AI models for astrophysics. There are AI models for business analytics.
AI isn’t this one thing, for this one task.
AI in business, from service and software to daily uses
AI seems to be integrated into everything. Our social media platforms have AI built-in. Our devices have AI built-in. In our businesses, our SaaS products and services have AI built-in, and heavily advertised and promoted!
What are some of the beneficial additions of AI in different business sectors?
Finance
In finance, the largest step forward is in security. Fraud prevention and fraud detection are slowly becoming standard from integrated AI models. Credit scoring and speedier loan application determination is a big benefit as well.
Healthcare
Healthcare is the sector of business I’m the most excited about when it comes to AI’s potential. AI can assist with diagnostics and early detection of a lot of disorders, conditions and diseases, as well as supporting personalized treatment plans, accelerating drug discovery, and enabling remote patient monitoring.
Manufacturing
The biggest leap forward with AI in manufacturing is in the supply chain and optimizing it across various companies. As well, AI in manufacturing means predictive maintenance for equipment, as well as better quality control through vision systems.
Retail & E-commerce
Retail and e-commerce can make use of the tons and tons of data for better predictive analysis of buying trends and stock/supply. AI can also make use of better customized buyer experiences and customer support.
Transportation / Logistics
With respect to transportation, of course, the use of autonomous vehicles is a breakthrough. However, the exciting advancements are in the shape of route optimization and real-time optimization for supply chain needs.
Agriculture
Predictive analysis of weather conditions, soil issues and crop yields are currently being used across America right now. Some farms will also see the benefits of animal health tracking using AI models.
Legal & Compliance
Using AI models, research and analysis are vastly sped up in the legal world. As well, document review and management like due diligence, contract review and automated documentation are all useful AI actions.
HR and employee management
Unbiased hiring practices and talent acquisition seem to be the standouts here. However, automated onboarding tasks, retention programs and predictive performance reporting are all being used currently in various software.
General
One of the most exciting things happening in AI is the ability of communication to be global. AI models, right now, are available that can do speech to text and text to speech, while handling localization in the interim. Meaning, real-time communication with other people around the world, no matter what language you speak, nor how well or poorly you speak it.
Marketing, Advertising, Branding and Sales
For what our agency does, there are many advantages in using AI. The primary one is that we can get hyper-focused, but still automated, on our serving of messaging. This also leads to better focus on sales funnels and lead generation handling. Considering branding, there are quite a few platforms that allow for brand consistency to be managed accurately, with automated and learned monitoring.
But, not every AI product or service can be a good one.
For you, your mileage may vary depending on the situation that you are in, and what your goals are.
However, I can give some good advice on using AI for what a marketing agency or an advertising agency may do for your business.
The “Do” and “Don’t” list of AI in your business marketing efforts
Your business has problems that likely have unique solutions. Your goals will likely also be different from many other businesses, including other businesses operating in your industry.
With that said, there are some very standard considerations that you should have if you are considering adopting some form of AI into your marketing, advertising, branding and sales processes in your brand.
What follows is a general “DO” and “DON’T” set of lists for your business.
DO – Using AI for ideation
Ideation is the process of coming up with ideas for something. For your business, this could be anything from offers to topics to write articles to post about on social media to even campaigns.
The point here is that you can use AI, specifically something like ChatGPT, to scour the net and find trends that will lead you to decide on that next great idea.
Using AI for social media post topics, article subjects, video subjects, lead magnet topics, new offers and similar actions is helpful, not hurtful.
DO – Research and analysis in AI
Research and analysis can be time-consuming to say the least. With AI, you can literally have your AI model perform the research, as well as formulating that research into a more digestible report of that data.
You can do basic competition analysis, industry research and marketing activities like article research, keyword research and offer research.
DO – Preparing a plan
Planning and outlines are roadmaps for us, as business owners, to get things done. Giving AI your restrictions and deadlines for something, and then giving information on the task, allows AI to spit out a pretty reliable plan. I’ve shown clients how to use this for their own social media planning and GBP postings with success.
DO – Article and blog title suggestions (and more)
Do I think AI can write articles and pages for websites? Yes… they do already.
Do I think that is a good idea? No, not at all.
But, having your favorite AI model help you by suggesting good article and blog titles is awesome. Just give AI the subject of the article and any other specific it should have, and tell it to give you X amount of suggestions. For a bonus, ask it to give suggestions as if it were someone, specifically the ideal demographic that you are writing the article for.
DON’T – Website generation
Can AI build your business website? Yes. In fact GoDaddy and Wix have some compelling products that make this task super easy. However, your Uncle George could build a website too.
Just because they can, doesn’t mean they should.
What is AI missing?
For the most part, they are missing two key factors in a business website: human-level messaging and sales-centric copy.
Messaging of a website gets lost when you aren’t doing it and giving that task to AI. As a caring human, I can write better copy that builds more interest and drives more sales than AI. Plus, it’s connecting content – meaning, the other human reading it feels the brand, rather than just visiting the site.
Sales-centric copy is necessary to meet the financial goals of a website – a very important thing. As AI, you likely will get generalized CTAs (call to actions) and suggestions. However, AI will not be the same as our marketing agency building, planning and then testing those CTAs and sales objects.
DON’T – Creative content like images and video
Have you been seeing more AI images and AI videos lately?
Here’s my question – how do you know?
While AI images and AI videos are getting better and better, they are nothing compared to the REAL images and REAL videos of you, your employees and your work that you do. Plus, a real video takes a few seconds to record – and AI video can take an hour or more for a few seconds.
DON’T – Most branding for your business
I would not use AI for visual branding and messaging for your business. Things like AI made logos and signage are definitely in this group. As well, mottos, business names and color schemes are not always the best when it comes to AI.
DON’T – Using AI for a vision and mission statements
So, this is a bit of a problematic statement – don’t use AI for mission and vision statements. Technically, you can input all of your core values, plenty of brand information and more and see what it spits out. Yes, that’s fine.
But your vision statement and your mission statement are deeply personal and close things that make a business into a brand into something people trust.
Instead of AI, include more people in these actions.
And if you do use AI at all for this, allow AI to be a guide in helping you formulate the statements – not in building them for you.
A New Beginning For AI In New Castle Business And Beyond
AI is a progression in technology that has a lot of potential for mankind. But with good AI trends, the bad can come.
In this article, I hope you see that not all AI will lead to a bunch of T-1000 situations in the future. In fact, there are some great ways you can use AI to help your business, meet your goals and even grow this year – and it isn’t all about ChatGPT!
We also talked about what you should do and what you should avoid when your marketing, advertising, branding and sales are involved. We looked at specific industries benefiting from more custom AI models.
If you are looking for help with your business marketing, with a real human like me, give me a call at (724)510-7201 to start a conversation!