7 Ways Small Businesses Can Leverage AI to Stay Ahead of Competitors

Sergio Saenz • Nov 29, 2021

How Small Businesses Can Use AI in This Day and Age


#1: Develop customer insights to help make more informed decisions.

Customer insights are data points that help small businesses understand the behaviors and preferences of their customer base. AI tools can pull information from sales reports and social media (to mention a few), and then analyze it to provide new insights about what types of products or services people are looking for.

This is what valuable business intelligence tools do – they help you make informed decisions based on how current customers feel about your company, leading to increased brand loyalty and revenue growth.


#2: Market Segmentation

You could already be collecting this data in a spreadsheet, but with AI tools, you can get more out of it. AI lets you extract insights from data in a matter of minutes, allowing you to quickly determine what products and services are most profitable and which ones need work. 

This allows your business to pivot and focus on the items that bring in the most money and attract new customers.

#3: Product Recommendations

The data gathered through information mining also provides insight into customer preferences for products and services.

When combined with purchase history, this information makes product recommendations possible – just like we see when we’re shopping online. These suggestions are valuable because they let consumers know what other people who have similar tastes are buying, which helps them make better purchasing decisions.

AI writing tools can also analyze customer data and create personalized descriptions that speak to your customers and their specific problems. 

The more direct your product descriptions are when it comes to your customers and what they’re going through, the higher the chances are that such customers will buy your products or services (and not a competitor’s).

#4: Customer Analytics

How do customers feel about your business? What are they looking for in a product or service? Do they have suggestions for how your company can improve? Small business owners don’t always have time to sit down with their customers and ask them these questions, which is where AI has the potential to change the game.


You can crunch huge amounts of data into usable insights that help you learn about customer wants and needs, making it easier than ever before to provide great products and services.

#5: Provide highly personalized client services.

By using the data you’ve gathered about your customers and using it to create rich, personalized content, AI can help you create highly targeted messages designed to build brand loyalty.

One way that smaller companies can accomplish this is by creating a chatbot for their website or social media presence. A chatbot is an automated system where users type in questions and receive answers programmed by the company.

Your small business may not be able to offer 24/7 customer support like Amazon, but investing in a chatbot can be a great way to provide personalized help and build customer loyalty at the same time.

From the perspective of marketing, chatbots can also be beneficial by letting you engage with customers on social media or via posts on your website. You don’t want to always sell to your audience – you need to add value by providing information that helps them make better decisions, too.

#6: Evaluate your company for optimal performance.

Most companies already use performance reviews to evaluate the effectiveness of their employees. With AI, you can take this evaluation process one step further by utilizing tools that help measure how effectively your company is operating as a whole.

Using the right tools for process management, small businesses can track things like key metrics and other KPIs (key performance indicators) which let them know what areas are doing well and where they could be improved. 

This data can also be used to continually improve processes throughout the company to increase efficiency without sacrificing results.

#7: Increase productivity by streamlining time-consuming tasks.

AI boosts productivity in business in two ways: 

1) it automates menial tasks that distract or slow down employees

2) It allows employees to focus on higher-level tasks that have a greater positive impact on the business.

In many cases, employees are bogged down by time-consuming tasks such as scheduling meetings and making travel arrangements. AI can manage these processes for them so they don’t have to log into multiple platforms to coordinate everything. This way, employees will save a lot of time that would otherwise be spent on less important or even nonessential activities.

AI helps businesses stay ahead of the competition

AI is an important tool for businesses to use to stay ahead of the competition.

When it comes to small businesses, there is always competition. 

Whether you are selling products or services, the competition is always present. AI tools can help small businesses stay competitive in ways that were not possible just a few years ago.


Wrap Up

In conclusion, the availability of artificial intelligence is providing small business owners with tools to compete with much larger companies. By leveraging these tools, any size company can stay ahead of the game. 

Businesses that can quickly adapt and change ahead of their competitors will be better positioned for success in the future when compared to those that continue down the same path as before. The time to pick sides is right now.


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