One of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face is keeping up with emerging technology. And with more businesses shifting budget towards digital, artificial intelligence tools and machine learning are rising in popularity.
AI is considered by many to be spearheading the Fourth Industrial Revolution. From self-driving cars, voice search, and Amazon product recommendations to cyber security, chatbots, and stock market software, AI is being leveraged to make our lives easier. In fact, if you’ve found this article via Google, then guess what? AI helped you get here.
So how can an entrepreneur like you truly take advantage of this awesome technology?
To help answer this question, I’ve gathered 5 different ways in which AI-powered tools can help startups owners save time and money, make smarter business decisions, increase efficiency and, hopefully, increase your bottom line profits in the process.
An AI tool at it’s finest. Customer-facing messenger chatbots are proving to be extremely effective in qualifying leads and boosting conversion rates. Chatbots are also being used internally to improve communication between departments, and even help employees transition to a new office location. All relevant for today’s startups.
How do AI chatbots work?
The chatbot is trained and learns based on the data you input, so when a customer or employee engages with the chatbot, it maps out every potential reply to the users’ message and responds accordingly. Think of a chatbot as the ultimate customer support tool, allowing your team to only focus on the issues that matter.
How can chatbots help startups?
With a data-fueled chatbot on your front line, you can truly ensure that questions get the best answer, and that queries are forwarded to the right person - because you determine the output. But wait there’s more, chatbots can help you sell more, especially when you get into topics like conversational marketing, and deploying chatbots at specific touchpoints in your sales funnel. If you’ve ever wanted to have a real pulse on your business, chatbots are a great way to do it.
AI-powered design is starting to disrupt the industry in the best way possible- and it’s a beautiful thing for budding entrepreneurs and business owners looking for affordable solutions. Working with an AI design tool is kind of like having a web or graphic designer next to you, complete with best practices, color and font recommendations, device compatibility and more.
How do AI designers work?
Much like a chatbot, design platforms that utilize machine learning and artificial intelligence are able to produce custom elements based on the user data. Combined with what the design engine has been taught, the end result is typically an affordable, compliant design asset - such as a logo or web page layout.
How can AI powered logo makers help startups?
You have logo inspiration and want to maintain creative control, but don’t have the time to fiddle with logo templates, or the funds to hire a design firm. This is where AI-powered design apps can provide real value. Imagine having your entire brand identity (logo design, business cards, social media assets) created and finalized in hours instead of months. I’d like to think that’s worth a good amount of coin for any ambitious startup.
I truly believe digital marketing is on the cusp of a huge transformation due to mobile technology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. According to Rand Fishkin, the future of SEO and competing in Google’s organic search engine has never been clearer. As a business owner, this means you need to pull meaningful insights and make decisions to remain visible in search engine results.
How do AI SEO tools work?
SEO software companies use machine learning to analyze large sets of data from multiple sources, at which point the platform makes specific conclusions and recommendations to help improve organic search performance. It’s like having a data analyst tell you why certain pages rank, which changes will make the biggest impact, and where your competitors are truly winning.
How can AI-powered SEO tools help startups?
Google Analytics now provides AI-powered intelligence and insights directly within their platform, and this is great for one-person marketing departments and business owners alike. Having AI within your SEO reporting environment is like having an SEO specialist on hand at all times. Review notable (automated) insights, ask questions, and drill down to find more meaningful data than ever. Without the additional salary.
As part of your SEO efforts, content marketing involves intelligent content creation and strategic distribution of said content on the web. Though it may seem above the capability of the average SMB owner, AI-powered content intelligence platforms can be super helpful in removing the guesswork - ensuring you’re focusing on creating content around topics that are proven to drive results.
How do content intelligence platforms work?
Content intelligence platforms can help in a variety of ways: writing better headlines, ad copy optimization, personalization, and being able to predict content performance. Using AI and machine learning, most platforms have the ability to assist with editing and score the content based on historical metrics.
How can AI-powered content intelligence help startups?
For example, Atomic Reach helps marketers by providing actionable insights that save the guesswork, enabling their content to produce better results aka more traffic. It’s like having an analyst who can sift through all content ranking for a phrase, and provide intuitive feedback on what makes the #1 site’s content better than yours? If you run a business that employs people to produce weekly content across various channels (paid, social, email, blogs), then a content intelligence platform is for you.
AI-driven video software is not exactly a new thing, but in the past few years the quality of videos these platforms are able to produce has increased substantially. With major players like Adobe stepping up their game, smaller platforms have been entering the scene with adequate solutions for fast paced, effective video creation.
How do AI video programs work?
Most video creation platforms utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to match each scene in your video with relevant clips and images based on the content you provide. Then there are more advanced platforms like Adobe Premiere Pro CC which can color match automatically, making the process of editing multiple camera shots for color consistency a breeze.
How can AI-powered video makers help startups?
Let’s face it, shooting and producing videos of any kind can be laborious and expensive. Using an AI-powered video maker can help in many ways. Most platforms come with large databases of stock video and imagery, and some of them will even let you enter the URL of your blog post, and automatically turn the text into a video. The possibilities are endless.
As machine learning advances and artificial intelligence becomes more common in the everyday business, the cost will reduce dramatically. Mix a little bit of DIY with any of the smart solutions we discussed and your cost savings will become very apparent.
In summary, you can leverage AI to increase profits by:
Also, don’t be afraid to give your AI chatbot a name - something tells me it’ll appreciate it.
Author Bio:
Elijah-Blue Vieau is a musician turned digital marketer from Toronto, Canada who has helped hundreds of startups, small businesses, and enterprises grow their business online. When he’s not running SEO operations at Logojoy, you can find Elijah teaching workshops at local tech hubs, recording and performing music, and exploring the north country with his wife and two daughters.
