Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool. It’s going to change the world and help us fix big problems. But, it’s also great for smaller tasks – it can make our everyday work life better. Think of creating the best marketing plan or making things run smoothly in different parts of a company.

There are lots of AI tools out there that can help your business grow and improve. In this article, we will discuss the 10 Best AI tools perfect for small business owners and managers looking to boost their business.

Understanding Artificial Intelligence (AI):

Artificial Intelligence, commonly known as AI, embodies the branch of computer science dedicated to creating machines capable of tasks that generally necessitate human intellect. This broad scope includes abilities like processing natural language, identifying patterns within datasets, resolving complex issues, and adapting to novel scenarios.

AI is a sophisticated guide that enables machines to imitate human cognitive abilities. Through the adoption of intricate algorithms and mathematical frameworks, AI systems are equipped to handle information, adjust to diverse settings, and progressively refine their functionalities. The concept of AI is a recent innovation.

Long before the emergence of platforms like ChatGPT, AI had been seamlessly integrated into our daily lives. Every interaction with voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, or Cortana, and each instance of using Shazam to recognize a song, we’ve been engaging with artificial intelligence.

Best Generative AI tools

Generative AI tools are designed to produce text, pictures, videos, audio, and computer code from simple instructions given by users. These AI tools are incredibly versatile and can be applied in many different areas, fitting the needs of almost any business, regardless of size.

This means that professionals such as lawyers, programmers, accountants, market researchers, salespeople, and HR staff will all find uses for generative AI in their everyday work.

Chat GPT

ChatGPT is an intelligent AI language tool created by OpenAI. It’s part of the GPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) family, made for having conversations that sound natural. Many people talk to it using its chat feature, but it can also be added to websites and apps to help out customers and make things run smoother at work.

Almost every team in any company could find a use for ChatGPT, like answering customer questions, helping train new staff, or even giving the sales and marketing folks a hand with checking customer feedback or creating ads. It’s straightforward to start using ChatGPT, but getting good with it takes some practice.

The good news is there are lots of free help and tips, including from ChatGPT itself, to help you become excellent at making it do what you want. Other options similar to ChatGPT include Bard, YouChat, and HuggingChat.

DALL-E

OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, also developed DALL-E, a tool that turns text into images. Like ChatGPT works with text, DALL-E uses the same kind of technology but for pictures. You can tell DALL-E what you want in an image, and it creates it for you.

Not only can it make new images, but it can also change or add to existing ones if you tell it what to do.

For example, you can highlight a part of an image and ask DALL-E to only change that area. This is useful for making unique designs for advertisements, websites, or art projects and pictures for articles, presentations, or social media posts. DALL-E is not the only one doing this; it has competitors like Midjourney, Craiyon, and Stable Diffusion, among others.

Best AI Tools for Sales and Marketing

AI enables sales and marketing teams to minimize time spent on tedious, repetitive tasks, thereby uncovering crucial insights about customers that can enhance the quality of interactions with them.

Qualifier.ai

Finding the ideal leads can often feel akin to searching for a needle in a vast haystack; however, employing a tool like Qualifier.ai equates to using an ultra-sensitive metal detector. Instead of dedicating a substantial amount of time to scouring for suitable prospects, pinpointing their contact details, and manually distributing a plethora of emails, Qualifier.ai streamlines this process. From a user’s standpoint, the platform is straightforward to use.

Sales personnel simply input into Qualifier.ai the desired industry, job titles, geographical locations, and company sizes (measured by employee count) they aim to target. Following this, Qualifier.ai promptly identifies potential leads with their contact details and autonomously initiates contact through email. Remarkably, the system also autonomously manages follow-ups should there be no initial response from a prospect.

Apollo.io

Apollo.io is a tool that helps businesses quickly find new customers and keep in touch with existing ones. It’s not entirely run by AI, but it uses AI in someys. For instance, Apollo.io can pull in contact details for over 275 million people and 30 million companies, which makes it easier to keep your customer list up-to-date.

It can also listen to your sales calls, pick out the essential parts, and advise on how to improve or what to do next. Plus, Apollo.io can write and send emails for you, ensuring they’re tailored to each person you’re contacting. Whether it’s your first email to a potential customer or a follow-up, Apollo.io uses AI to keep your messages personal and on point.

Best AI tools for Customer Service

Drift

Drift is an intelligent chat tool that can help turn visitors to your website into customers by chatting with them and answering their questions. It’s not just for making sales easier; it can also work like a customer service helper.

By learning all about what your company does (like reading manuals and guides), Drift’s intelligent chatbots can quickly help customers find the answers they need. While it won’t take over your whole customer service team, it can definitely help by handling the more straightforward questions. This means the real people on your team can focus on the more significant issues or spend more time with customers who really need it.

NICE CXone SmartAssist Powered by Amelia

NICE CXone SmartAssist, powered by Amelia, offers businesses advanced chatbots for interacting with customers through text or voice. It connects seamlessly with your existing databases and systems, and it’s ready to handle everyday tasks like password changes, billing questions or refunds, and rearranging delivery times right out of the box.

This flexibility means that whether customers like to talk or type, they can choose their favourite way to communicate, making problem-solving faster and boosting their happiness with the service. What really stands out is how intelligent the SmartAssist chatbot is – it can understand how customers are feeling, switch between topics smoothly, and even keep up if the conversation takes an unexpected turn.

Best AI for HR

Leena AI

Leena AI WorkLM is a powerful tool designed to help HR teams work more efficiently and make employees happier. It uses advanced technology to handle routine HR tasks through a chatbot. This chatbot can help new employees get started, answer any questions about the company’s rules, and even manage requests for time off.

Plus, HR can use it to send out surveys and get insights on better connecting with employees. HR folks can focus more on meaningful work and improving the workplace.

Fetcher.ai

Fetcher.ai uses AI to make the recruitment process more accessible by handling repetitive tasks. Instead of manually searching for candidates on LinkedIn and other job platforms, recruiters can simply tell Fetcher what they’re looking for, and it will find a list of potential candidates.

Fetcher.ai can also send personalized emails automatically to promising candidates, and recruiters can set up the timing and duration of these email campaigns.

Besides, Fetcher aids in tracking how well these recruitment efforts are doing by showing how candidates engage with the emails and which ones are showing interest. It even helps analyse the candidate pool’s diversity to support diversity and inclusion efforts.

Best AI for Meetings

Fireflies

Fireflies is an AI tool designed to improve meetings by using AI to write down, sum up, and study what’s said in conversations. It works immediately with well-known video meetings and cloud storage services, but you can also hook it up to different apps using its API.

After listening to a chat, Fireflies creates a text version you can search through. You can look up parts of the meeting by keywords, main ideas, what the discussion was about, questions that were asked, or even the tone of the talk. This feature makes it simple to go back and check on notes later on.

Duet AI for Google Workspace

Duet AI for Google Workspace enhances the quality of audio and visuals for those joining meetings remotely, offering translated subtitles in 18 languages, noting down key points, and summarizing discussions. It can even represent you in meetings.

With Duet AI in Google Meet, everyone gets a professional-grade audio and visual experience. When a single webcam is used by multiple people, Duet AI in Meet identifies each person individually and assigns them their own frame, ensuring everyone is clearly visible and audible, even if the technical setup has limitations.

Furthermore, Duet AI for Google Workspace boosts productivity by transcribing meetings, summarizing them, capturing video highlights on the fly, and briefing late joiners with a concise overview of the meetings so far. There’s also a convenient feature where Duet AI can attend meetings in your place, convey messages from you, and summarize the meeting afterwards.

Is AI Tools Right for Your Business?

Determining if AI is the right fit for your business hinges on several factors, including your specific industry, the nature of your operations, and the challenges you face. AI can streamline processes, enhance decision-making, and personalize customer experiences.

However, integrating AI requires a thoughtful approach, considering the costs, your organisation’s readiness to adapt, and the alignment with your strategic goals. Businesses poised to benefit most from AI seek to leverage data for competitive advantage, improve operational efficiencies, or innovate product offerings and services.

Bottom Line

AI has revolutionized how we approach work, turning tough or once unreachable tasks into smooth sailing adventures. Yet, while it might feel effortless to toss a couple of questions at ChatGPT and watch it work magic, that AI is a fancy paperweight without the guidance of someone knowledgeable.

Think of AI as a supercharged tool in your arsenal, ready to achieve incredible feats, but it won’t hand those feats to you on a silver platter. It requires your insight and expertise to truly shine.