Is AI Coming for Small Businesses? How Small Businesses Are Approaching AI Integration

Guest Editorial by Brian Aagaard, Founder, Cooperhawk Business Brokers

Main Street businesses have emerged as the next frontier for artificial intelligence integration. Recent statistics published by the Los Angeles Times report that 92 percent of small businesses have integrated AI into their operations. And other studies show that small businesses are already seeing positive returns on their AI investment when it comes to productivity, product quality, and customer service.

courtesy Carlos Chavez Photography

But the growth of AI integration among small businesses is also causing some concerns. A recent survey of small business leaders conducted by Goldman Sachs identified several barriers to effective integration, including confusion about which tools are most effective and a lack of tech expertise needed to maintain and optimize them.

When combined, the statistics support the view that AI is coming for small businesses, but also suggest that successful integration is not guaranteed. Leveraging AI in ways that allow small businesses to compete on a bigger stage requires adopting a strategic approach to integration that acknowledges the strengths and weaknesses inherent to small business operations. The following are some tips that can help small business leaders get the most from their AI investments.

Start by Focusing on AI’s Strengths

AI’s abilities are constantly being advanced. Cutting-edge applications such as AI-assisted probabilistic scenario planning and AI-driven self-optimizing supply chains allow businesses to predict and respond to problems with unprecedented speed and agility.

For small businesses, however, pursuing cutting-edge AI applications isn’t the best strategy. Sticking with the main and plain applications will allow businesses to get a solid return without requiring a large investment or exposing them to significant risks.

For example, AI gives small businesses power they’ve never had before to turn data into insights. Identifying patterns in data is one of AI’s key strengths, and AI platforms can extract insights in real time, which means small businesses can leverage data-driven decision-making to capitalize on their agility.

Using AI to analyze financial data helps small businesses improve their cash flow projections. Based on past performance and current financial indicators, AI-driven platforms can effectively predict when a small business will hit a cash crunch and suggest the steps needed to avoid it.

Data analysis can also help companies to optimize their marketing efforts by assessing impact at a granular level. AI-driven tools can tweak settings on Facebook and other ad platforms at regular intervals — daily, if indicated — to make sure opportunities are capitalized on and performance is optimized.

Essentially, small businesses should focus their AI investment on tested and proven tools, allowing large businesses to shoulder the costs associated with developing new technologies. By doing so, small businesses can get the benefits without the risks.

Use AI to Make Your Current Team Stronger

Busy work is a big problem for US workers. According to a recent study, more than half of employees are frequently pulled away from meaningful workplace engagement by busy work, with some saying they dedicate as much as 16 hours per week to low-impact tasks. AI gives small businesses the potential to rescue employees from the tyranny of busy work, releasing them to focus on tasks that fast-track business growth.

AI platforms can manage a wide variety of paperwork duties, such as reconciling receipts with credit card statements. AI can sort email inboxes to ensure the most urgent messages make it to the top of the stack and streamline the process of finding important information in archived messages when a review is necessary.

AI essentially cuts down on the number of steps small business employees must tackle to manage operations. Consequently, AI-assisted processes take less time, provide fewer opportunities for error, require less input from employees, and don’t involve the drudgery that can lead employees to loathe their jobs.

Small business leaders integrating AI should keep in mind that most workers are worried AI is coming for their jobs. By focusing on platforms that empower workers rather than replace them, small business leaders can facilitate better performance while also fostering a higher level of employee loyalty.

Never Completely Delegate the Process to AI Platforms

As mentioned above, small businesses can benefit significantly from using AI-powered platforms to streamline their processes. But delegating every step in a process to AI can be dangerous.

It’s best to think of AI as an intern that you bring onto your team. It has some general skills, but it needs supervision, evaluation, and correction to learn how to apply them to your business’s unique situations. Making human oversight part of your AI integration strategy allows you to make sure AI hallucinations and other shortcomings don’t negatively impact your operations and reputation.

A solid best practice for small businesses as they integrate AI is establishing “checkpoints” at which human employees must sign off on AI output. These can include reviewing AI-generated content before it is posted to social channels or AI-generated invoices before they are sent to clients.

AI has the capacity to level the playing field for small businesses by optimizing their resources in ways that allow them to compete with much larger organizations, but leveraging its capabilities also requires navigating some challenges. By using AI’s strength to amplify your business's own strengths and ensuring that it isn’t given too much autonomy, you can unleash AI in ways that increase efficiency, quality, and profits.

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Brian Aagaard, founder of Cooperhawk Business Brokers, is a seasoned professional with decades of experience across both corporate and privately held companies. After a long and successful career in the corporate and private sector world and having spent the last 10 years with one of Minnesota’s leading business brokerages, Brian launched Cooperhawk to bring a personal, relationship-driven approach to business brokerage — one that prioritizes integrity, transparency, and the success of Main Street business owners. While its foundation is rooted in Main Street businesses, Cooperhawk also has the expertise to guide more complex transactions, reflecting a forward-looking vision for sustainable growth in the evolving business marketplace.