6 small businesses leveraging AI to increase profitability and scale

For many companies, the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought both new challenges and new opportunities to reimagine operations. While some companies have been slow to adopt the technology, 38% of companies are already using AI to improve processes and drive meaningful outcomes.

Below are six real-world examples of how small businesses can leverage AI to increase profitability and scale their operations.

Overcoming staffing challenges with voice-based AI systems

For businesses that rely on phones, such as restaurants, spikes in call volume can overwhelm your staff. But with a hybrid system that combines real staff and voice-based AI, restaurants can increase production capacity without straining their teams.

“[Our] “A voice-based AI system takes the initial customer information and food order and returns that information to a human receptionist, who double-checks the caller and the order to ensure it is correct. For businesses that experience a spike in voice calls at certain times of the day, such as food or restaurants, having the right number of human agents can be very difficult, so using an AI voice agent is extremely helpful,” says Faster Answering. said company owner Lou Haverty.

[Read more: How to Fill Gaps on Your Team When College-Aged Employees Go Back to School]

Automate research to guide clients into high-risk markets

AI can help small and medium-sized businesses improve their information gathering processes, especially in emerging markets where risk and uncertainty are high. By automating the collection and analysis of information, businesses can gain more accurate and timely insights and reduce their reliance on manual research and analysis.

“By leveraging a customized stack, [uses] OpenAI API [platform] Davis Richardson, Managing Partner of Paradox Public Relations, said:

Identify opportunities for micro-transformation

Asia Solnyshkina, founder and CEO of ProSense.Digital, encourages her teams to gradually adopt AI through small continuous improvements, or microtransformations. Her company uses AI to “work less and work smarter,” allowing teams to scale to enterprise levels without feeling overworked.

“Each week, each team member identifies one task that can be automated or streamlined using AI,” Solnyshkina says. “This is a series of micro-transformations, small wins that add up to long-term change without major restructuring.”

Solnyshkina added that AI also acts as the team's “organizational memory,” transcribing meetings and automatically generating documents, roadmaps, and workflows.

[Read more: How to Encourage Your Employees to Use AI at Work]

Each week, each team member identifies one task that can be automated or streamlined using AI. It's a series of micro-transformations, small wins that add up to long-term change without major restructuring.

Asia Solnyshkina, Founder and CEO of ProSense.Digital

Identify opportunities for micro-transformation

Solnyshkina added that AI also acts as the team's “organizational memory,” transcribing meetings and automatically generating documents, roadmaps, and workflows.

[Read more: How to Encourage Your Employees to Use AI at Work]

Automate your PR strategy to drive client growth

Zen Media has improved the consistency and scalability of its creative services with a systematic AI-driven approach. The firm's PR-as-a-System model leverages AI to help teams deliver faster, more predictable results that support clients' long-term success, said Sarah Evans, partner and head of public relations.

“Rather than relying on one-time successes, we are using AI to support consistent, composite visibility through smarter media planning, more agile narrative development, or faster turnaround,” Evans said. “This allows us to be proactive rather than reactive, directly contributing to customer growth and retention.”

Protecting users from incorrect information

As the proliferation of AI adoption sends ripples across industries, new risks and vulnerabilities are emerging, particularly around misinformation, deepfakes, and data security. In response, enterprises are developing solutions to address security challenges and fill the gaps revealed by AI.

Ben Coleman, co-founder and CEO of Reality Defender, said: “Our detection models must constantly evolve to stay ahead of the generative AI tools that criminals are using to create increasingly imperceptible deepfakes, so how we use AI in detection is directly tied to our growth.”

[Read more: The Future of Project Management Software for Small Business]

Speed up estimating and win more construction bids

In the construction industry, AI has proven to be a valuable assistant that can free up estimators’ time and transform pre-construction planning from a manual task to a quick automated process.

“Tools like Togal.AI, which we have deployed across multiple departments, enable our teams to use AI to perform construction estimating in minutes instead of days,” said Patrick E. Murphy, Chief Investment Officer at Coastal Construction. “Not only does this reduce overhead costs, but it also increases our competitiveness by allowing us to submit more accurate bids faster. Time is money in the construction industry, and AI is helping us win more projects.”

CO— is dedicated to bringing you inspiration from leading and respected experts. However, before making any business decisions, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your personal circumstances.

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