Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important tool for businesses regardless of size and industry. Most of their employees have used AI in some way to make their jobs and tasks easier. It has made them more efficient, they have eliminated or reduced mistakes substantially, and have become more productive. The benefits of AI are clear, if you’re one of those companies that have yet to use this tool, it’s time to consider investing in it. Even small businesses can leverage AI to gain a competitive advantage.

 

What are the benefits of AI for small businesses?

 

Boost Customer Engagement

Engaged customers are likely to recommend your products and services to friends, colleagues, and/or family. They also share the content (videos, articles, infographics, and others) you publish through various platforms. AI allows you to gather data about your customers such as shopping behaviour, preferences, and other patterns. This information enables you to develop and implement customised campaigns for your intended audience. This personalised approach allows you to connect with your customers and build a stronger relationship with them. You’ll know their pain points, the times they usually shop, the items they purchase, and the level of customer service they desire.

 

Available 24/7

One of the benefits of AI is that a chatbot or autoresponder is available 24/7. The bot can answer simple questions, provide links and some information, and help customers outside regular working hours. This improves customer satisfaction because you’ll never know when they might encounter a problem using one of your products. This constant availability boosts your brand image. Some AI systems can learn simple tasks on their own as they interact with customers regularly. They can provide similar solutions to similar problems that a customer experiences.

 

Save More Money

You can reduce your business expenses when you invest in AI. This technology reduces the need to hire in-house employees to do repetitive tasks. You can designate work such as scheduling appointments, gathering data, sending notifications to clients and customers, sending emails, simple data entry, and others to your chosen AI program. You don’t have to spend on training, onboarding, salaries, and benefits when you use AI for some of your tasks. This increase in savings provides you with the financial flexibility you need to grow your business and pursue opportunities. You can consider entering a new market, launch a new product or service, or boost spending on marketing campaigns because of the additional resources you have.

 

Improve Generating and Qualifying Leads

AI is a tool you can use to qualify and generate leads for your business. Algorithms can comb through the information of your customers. They can pinpoint behaviours, intentions, and patterns based on their interactions with them. You can use the data they gathered to gain actionable insights about your target market. Create a customised message or campaign that resonates with your market. This improves your conversion rate and customer engagement. One of the benefits of AI is it can also assist you in qualifying leads. Establish and input scores based on your chosen criteria. Let the machine categorize data sets and extract the information you need to acquire the leads that are likely to convert.

 

Automated Responses

Multitasking can drain your employees. They might be doing tasks beyond their area of expertise. This can lead to fatigue, and they will burn out eventually. This has a negative impact on morale and motivation. It also increases your company’s turnover rate. AI can ease the workload of your employees through automation. Some of the tasks you can automate include:

• Scheduling appointments, meetings, and sending of notifications.
• Automatic replies to emails.
• Some data entry tasks.
• Routine office work.

Automating the mentioned tasks and other similar work frees up your employees. This enables them to focus on productive, creative, and decision-making tasks.

 

Manage Supply Chains

Your company will need an efficient supply chain management system to reduce costs. Many businesses either overstock or understock their items. Overstock causes higher storage costs while understocking may lead to a loss of customers because the items they want are often unavailable. One of the benefits of AI is that it improves supply chain management. The machine can analyse your company’s historical supply chain data, details about suppliers, delivery schedules, and others. Once it assesses the data, it can optimise all aspects of your process. It can identify the ideal time to schedule an order when stocks are low. It can also determine inefficiencies in operations. These advantages enable you to cut costs and maintain ideal inventory levels.

 

Detect and Prevent Fraud

Fraud can stunt the growth of your business or might be the main cause that leads to its failure. One of the benefits of AI is that it enables your team to detect and prevent fraudulent activities. AI can analyse several data sets simultaneously. It can identify anomalies in transactions and behaviour of users when they use your system. With the data AI provides your team, they can detect fraud in real-time. Depending on the AI you use, it can adapt to new tactics that fraudsters conduct through machine learning.

 

Marketing Campaign Optimization

AI provides you with an advantage when you make your marketing campaigns. It can sift through information quickly. It can identify patterns in behaviour depending on the parameters you established. The data AI collects makes it easier for your team to gain insights into the mindset of your target customers. You can personalise campaigns based on market segments you developed using your AI tool. The machine learning capabilities of AI allows it to refine campaigns as it learns more about your customers.

 

Scale and Adapt

AI’s machine learning feature enables it to adapt to your customers, performance indicators, and goals. Its ability to sift through numerous data sets quickly and easily enables it to adapt to trends in your industry and shopping behaviour of customers. It can assist you in customising your strategies and refining your sales pitch. You can scale your AI system up or down depending on your growth objectives.

 

The benefits of AI outweigh some of the risks you encounter using it. Designate a person or a team to oversee the tasks AI uses. This allows you to manage the system efficiently and maximise its capabilities. If you need assistance with bookkeeping and accounting, we at Robookkeeper can assist you. Our experienced accountants offer first-rate small business accounting services.