What you need to know about AI for your small business

For so long, the very thought of artificial intelligence (AI) conjured up images of science fiction films. But in 2023, AI jumped off the screen and into the mainstream, writes Suzanne Mitchell, Australia Market Lead for GoDaddy.

The release of a flurry of generative AI technology like the viral ChatGPT rocketed AI into the headlines as it became the new must-try tool for business and students with a pressing assignment deadline.

So, if you’re curious about AI and how it could support your small business, here’s what you need to know about the new generation of chatbots.

What are these new AI-powered chatbots?

Most people have had an interaction with a customer service chatbot that typically uses a narrow set of parameters to discuss and act on a customer issue.

ChatGPT, Google Bard and Bing AI are all generative AI tools that are designed to go much further to perform tasks such as answering questions, writing content, emails and code or summarising complex documents or topics.

Generative AI uses prompts (instructions) to search the internet to find patterns in the reams of online text to provide answers to your prompt, and uses the thread of your conversation and previous queries to craft its responses.

What can AI be used for?

There’s many ways you can use AI like ChatGPT. You can ask it to write everything from a love letter to a cover letter, a grocery list to a new computer program.

You can also ask it prompts (questions) including everything from “which order should I watch the Star Wars movies in?” to “explain Einstein’s theory of relativity”.

The prompts you give are used to define and refine the answer, and the more details and the better your prompt, the more precise the response is likely to be.

How can small businesses use generative AI?

AI can help small business owners to gather information about best business practices and customer insights, as well as to automate tasks like content creation, product descriptions or social media management.

With the right prompts, AI can help small business owners to understand some of the key elements for starting a business, can help to build content for websites, improve customer service responses and boost sales.

What are the benefits?

Small businesses often are stretched for resources – time, people, expertise – to accomplish many of the tasks that will help them boost their business. Generative AI can help offer additional resources to help tackle many common issues facing small business owners, like marketing and customer engagement.

Ultimately, this technology can help level the playing field for small businesses when it comes to some of the most important business functions like marketing and insights. You also don’t need to be a tech expert to use it and, right now, the applications are free.

What are the watch-outs?

AI generative technology is still in the development stages, with Google’s Bard described as an ‘experiment’ by the company. Even Sam Althman, Chief Executive of OpenAI, creators of ChatGPT, acknowledged on Twitter that: “It’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now … we have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness.”

AI may be able to quickly produce credible-sounding advice and content, but AI has no way yet to fact-check its own answers.  As a result, reviewing content is still important to check for accuracy or bias. Users also don’t know if the answers have been crafted using Intellectual Property (IP) from a competitor or proprietary source, which may create risks.

Further, it is important you don’t enter anything confidential or sensitive into the chat, as ChatGPT saves user input to review for abuse or to help it improve.

Where should I start?

Once you’ve created an account with a chatbot like ChatGPT, Google Bard or Bing AI, you can start to play around with some of the inputs. Try some of these thought-starters:

• Looking to boost sales? You could ask your AI bot to: “Share three effective strategies for building trust and rapport with potential customers.”
• Want some help with social media marketing? Try asking: “Create three captivating offers and calls-to-action to sell <product> to <target audience>.”

While generative AI technology is still very new and requires caution, it has the potential to support small business, opening up opportunities to access insights and create content well beyond the traditional reach of small enterprises.

For more on how AI can help your business, head to our Artificial Intelligence section.

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