Introducing Business Matters, a new feature created by Source staff specifically for local businesses. Our goal is to examine issues that impact business success, from branding and marketing to the broad trends shaping both brick-and-mortar and online commerce.
Confused. scared. It’s useless. Unrelated. Change the situation completely.
Please choose one. That’s how AI is currently being described.
Even as AI systems are increasingly being deployed and used in enterprises, there is still no clear consensus on their value. This is especially true for small businesses that don’t have the deep pockets to experiment.
Fortunately, sound guides and recommendations are starting to emerge.
A recent article from the University of Rhode Island Small Business Development Center points out that the key to leveraging AI is to use it to “speed up human decision-making, rather than replace it.”
In other words, AI acts as a tool and we use it. It doesn’t take advantage of you, it doesn’t replace you.
Where AI can work effectively for your business
Unsurprisingly, AI excels at handling mundane, often boring sales, marketing, and communications tasks.
For example, AI can be used to create first drafts and outlines for all types of print and electronic communications.
It’s also great at generating multiple versions of headlines, body content, and even visuals, and reusing content in different formats.
For example, you can use prompts to have an AI program provide five, ten or more variations of a headline for an ad, blog post, or sales copy. This can take several hours, even for an experienced and knowledgeable team.
Where you need to manage AI
Just as important as understanding where AI can be an effective tool in your business is recognizing where it won’t help.
In a number of important areas, you and your team will need to maintain “monitoring” of AI-generated content, just as you would if you were working on a product created or proposed by an outside contractor.
This piece of content represents the heart and soul of your business. For example, the Small Business Development Center identifies the following tasks for which human oversight remains paramount:
— Brand Voice
— Messaging priorities
— Offer development
— Understanding your customers
— fact check
Notice how all of these areas involve judgments and special understandings of human dynamics and relationships. They can remain elusive blind spots for even the best AI systems.
AI clearly helps develop more effective business tactics, and leveraging these capabilities is beneficial.
But the fact remains that “while AI helps teams move faster using AI, strategy remains human-driven.”
Full article:
https://web.uri.edu/risbdc/marketing-trends-for-2026-whats-changing-how-steady-businesses-can-expand-their-customer-base/
