What AI automation can actually do for a small business
By Liam Cohen · · 2 min read
Most of what you hear about AI is either hype or a sales pitch for software you’ll never use. Here’s what it looks like when it’s actually doing work for a small business.
The work it’s good at
AI automation is good at the jobs that eat your week but don’t need your judgment until the end:
- Email. Sorting what came in and drafting replies in your voice, so you review instead of typing.
- Finding customers. Watching the places where new business shows up and drafting a personal first message.
- Routine operations. Looking things up and handling everyday order, member, or customer tasks when you ask.
Two real examples
A winery’s wine club. At Marshall Stuart Fine Wines in Temecula, an AI assistant called Simon runs on its own dedicated computer and connects to the winery’s wine club and order system. The wine club manager talks to it through a simple messaging app. Routine club and order tasks get handled on request, and member emails come back as drafts to review. Time that used to go to admin goes back to members and guests. Read the Marshall Stuart story.
A recruiting firm’s new business. DMS Recruiting fills manufacturing, engineering, and data center roles. Their automation server watches government contracts, news about new facilities, and job boards to find companies that are hiring, then drafts a personal message to each one. The owner reads it, tweaks it if he wants, and clicks approve. It’s the kind of research you’d otherwise need a whole office of people to do. Read the DMS story.
You stay in charge
The fastest way to lose trust with customers is an AI sending something you didn’t mean to say. So nothing I build sends on its own. It drafts, you approve, and for anything that can’t be undone, it asks first.
Is it right for your business?
Ask yourself one question: what do you or your team do every single week that’s the same steps every time? If the answer comes quickly, there’s probably something an assistant can take off your plate.
Tell me what’s eating your week, and I’ll tell you plainly whether automation can help.
Common questions
- Is AI automation only for big companies?
- No. Small, owner-run businesses often get the most out of it, because the owner or a small team is doing all the repetitive work themselves.
- Will an AI assistant send things without my permission?
- Not the way I build them. The assistant drafts, and a person approves anything that goes out. For anything that can't be undone, it asks first.
- Do I need to learn new software?
- No. You talk to it the way you'd text a coworker.
