ON BUSINESS || The #1 AI Question Every Business Owner Is Asking Right Now
Whenever I talk about integrating AI tools into our workflow, the first reaction I see from business owners who've been in the game for a while, aka Millennials like myself, is fear.
They know they must embrace AI, or their businesses will be left behind. Their minds tell them that they will have more time to figure out how to integrate this new technology; there are more important problems to deal with. Like sorting out the AP system, filing corporate taxes, recruiting and retaining talent--you know, the fundamentals of a business that they feel will never go away. As someone who has been tinkering with AI tools and building AI stacks to make my business operations more seamless and efficient, I can assure them that they do not have more time. At least not as much as they wish.
So, the big question business owners ask and hope someone can answer is: "The topic of AI is so big. Where do I start?"
I will suggest a path that may seem very rudimentary. Still, as with other things that at first appear scary, most business owners haven't even touched any AI tool due to their fear of what it might do (of fear of realizing how advanced the tools are and confirming their fear of how little time they have to adapt). The most important thing when going into an ocean of AI tools is to know what you want. What is the use case for which you want these tools?
Open a Chatgpt account. We're starting easy. This is the most commonly used Large Language Model (LLM). People are turning to LLMS like Chatgpt to conduct their searches because they get the answer right away instead of digging through 3 pages of search results or a long webpage trying to sell you something to find the response. Type in something, anything, you're curious about. You could start with: "How will AI impact [insert your industry] over the next 3 years, and how can I prepare and adapt AI into my business to ensure we stay relevant?"
Define a use case. After you get acquainted with the most basic AI tool, let's expand your field of vision to see what's out there and how AI can save you time. As I mentioned, a great way to filter through all your options is to figure out what you want to do. For example, do you have a marketing coordinator coming up with five topics per week to write blog articles? Great. We will free up their time by devising a prompt they could use every week to have the LLM do the research and develop the topics and key talking points for each subject. What was the use case here? You want an AI tool that can research and draft blog posts.
Free up everyone's time to focus on strategy. Use your brains where they matter. Your team's mundane tasks can be automated with AI tools. Transferring data from one platform to a spreadsheet? Automate it. Building charts and graphs in PowerPoint? Automate it (Suggested Tool: Claude). Need to create supporting graphics for a blog post? Automate it (suggested tools: Canva, Midjourney, Chatgpt). Voiceovers for a corporate you don't have time to read? Automate it (suggested tool: ElevenLabs). If your team is still doing these things, it's busy work. Competitors have already started automating all of these items with AI.
In response to the FAQ I hear from business owners about where to start with AI, the above three steps take you from baby steps to considering how to introduce AI tools into your workflows for efficiency and productivity. The first step is the hardest, but as with every business challenge you've tackled, it all ends up being fine when you put one foot in front of the other and continue moving on. If you have questions regarding AI tools and how regular business owners who do not code can use them effectively, email us at info@pendulummag.com.
