Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Local Businesses

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Think again if you think artificial intelligence is out of your reach as a local business.
Unless you are running a business off-grid, there is a high chance that you are surrounded by AI, whether you know it or not.
Today, AI is more accessible than ever. The best news is many of these AI tools are affordable even for local businesses.
Let's learn more about how local businesses can benefit from AI.

1. Boosting Your Sales

Every business has an end goal — increased sales.
As a result, many local businesses have started using Artificial Intelligence to increase sales without being overwhelmed.
Here's how AI is helping businesses improve conversions.
Let's say your local business is not getting customers by phone. Telephone sales have plummeted, and you don't know what to do.
Therefore, you can leverage AI solutions like Talk IQ, DialPad, or CallRail to identify where it is going wrong.
These technologies integrate your phone system to analyze conversations between sales representatives and customers. By doing so, you can identify the critical mistakes and improve the efficiency of your sales tactics.
Here's a screenshot of a call report generated by DialPad

2. Helping to Get Better Marketing Results

76% of customers expect companies and businesses to understand their needs and expectations. But predicting what customers need would be nearly impossible without technology.
This is why many local businesses have turned to AI for marketing assistance.
By leveraging intelligent technologies, AI marketing helps to collect data, generate insights, anticipate customers' next actions, and arrive at automated decisions. In other words, AI can streamline your marketing efforts and help you make smarter decisions.
Below, we have listed top ways to leverage AI to help with the marketing of your local business.

• Content Generation: Content is crucial for every business. Whatever the medium, content is essential for marketing, whether emails, social media posts, blogs, or advertisements. Tools like Frase can help you decide what content to write and how to write it for maximum results.
• Email Automation: Tools like Mailchimp, Constant Contact can help you automate email marketing campaigns.

Here's how Frase provides content writing ideas:

3. Refining the Hiring Process

Human resources is another area of business where AI is slowly creeping in.
Recruiting, vetting, and interviewing candidates are the most time-consuming tasks for a local business. Furthermore, it is often hard to determine whether the candidate is lying or suitable for the position and won't quit after a few months.
Because of this, many local businesses are gamifying the hiring process to assess applicants' skills and performance. In some cases, the gamified hiring process continues even after the applicant becomes an employee.
Artificial intelligence is then used to compare the results to determine the most suitable candidate for your local business.
AI tools like X.ai can help schedule interviews, whereas Clearfit helps find and rank candidates to save time and money.
Here's a screenshot of Clearfit providing features to rate and assess job candidates:

4. Improving Business Productivity

Reviewing documents and extracting information is the most time-consuming task. With so many business documents, it may take a while to prepare the forecasts,
For example, local businesses collected, analyzed, and reviewed cash receipts from customers to tally the total revenue in the past. Fortunately, with AI, that's no longer necessary. Using digital tools today, you can gather and analyze information instantly.
AI takes it a step further by helping you unlock hidden insights with your business data. It reviews, analyzes, and extracts critical information from the business data to help you cut the time and cost required for manually reviewing and processing documents.
For example, the team used an automated document review application developed by Deloitte to increase the scope of their review process and process up to 150,000 documents.
Popular tools that improve productivity are Monday for work management and scheduling, Quickbooks to automate accounting and tax calculations, and Calendly to schedule online meetings.
Here's a screenshot of Monday's event planning module:

5. Automating Administrative Tasks

Imagine doing the same thing 100 times a day, every single day? That would make even a workaholic hate their job and find something else.
In addition, let's not overlook the negative effects of repetitive tasks. People often make mistakes when performing repetitive tasks. If you are a small business, every mistake can cost you a significant amount of money.
That's where automation comes in handy. According to Accenture, AI can increase productivity by 40% and increase profits by 38%.
AI can identify repetitive tasks and automate them to reduce human intervention.
For example, AI technology called forward-facing systems can automate call management. As a result, you won't need a staff member to sit at a desk waiting for calls or move around the office to forward calls to the right person.
This frees up employees' time to concentrate on more important tasks at the work they enjoy.
Here's an illustration of how an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system works:

6. Offering Intelligent Services

Technology is advancing at a breakneck speed. As a result, local businesses need to keep pace with current advancements to stay relevant.
So, how can AI help local businesses stay relevant in this uber-competitive world?
It comes down to offering intelligent services.
AI can help local businesses provide intelligent, personalized services and meet customers' ever-growing expectations in a digital world.
Many local businesses are transitioning to a recurring service model instead of traditional, one-time services. The model involves recurring revenue from services provided every month.
Netflix is a typical instance of a business leveraging AI. Netflix collects customer data and then uses this information to personalize recommendations.
Another example is Dollar Shave Club. Dollar Shave Club is a men's grooming subscription service that sends its shoppers grooming materials like shaving creams and razors every month. Thus, helping it generate recurring revenue.
Here's an example of Netflix recommending TV shows and movies using the customer data the platform collects:

7. Improving Cybersecurity

Cyberattacks affect businesses of all sizes, regardless of their size. Fortunately, artificial intelligence can help solve these issues by learning and adapting to the business' cybersecurity needs.
Cybersecurity AI analyzes business software, apps, and other technologies for behavior patterns. AI can recognize acceptable behavior by analyzing how customers and employees use digital tools. As a result, anytime AI detects activity outside typical behavior, it quickly fixes and removes the problem.
The following are a few of the top AI-based tools to improve cybersecurity at your local business.

• Endpoint detection and Response: EDR monitors devices connected to your networks for threats and responds accordingly.
• Antivirus Software: Modern software can detect and remove any harmful malware. E.g., McAfee.
• Domain Name System (DNS) Protection: Provides extra protection by preventing employees from accessing harmful websites. Additionally, it filters content that you don't want on your business network.

Here's an alert by McAfee showing the detection and neutralization of a cyberthreat:

8. Improving Customer Services

Providing excellent customer service is a vital component of every local business. Without proper customer service, it is difficult to retain customers. That's where AI-powered chatbots can improve customer service.
If you feel uncomfortable with using chatbots, then think again. Because chances are, you have already been using it for years.
From "Hey Siri, which is the best restaurant near me? to "Hey Alexa, can you play the latest songs?" chatbots influence our everyday decisions.
With the help of chatbots, local businesses can reduce employee costs while maximizing customer service. They provide unlimited opportunities for customer engagement as they are customizable to meet business requirements and are available 24/7.
They are very versatile and are capable of performing various tasks like troubleshooting and starting conversations with potential customers.
Babylon Health platform is a prime example of how businesses can use chatbots effectively. They leverage an AI-powered chatbot to diagnose based on the user's response.
Here's an example of a chatbot providing automation-based replies:

9. Playing a Vital Role In Local SEO

Artificial Intelligence is already playing a pivotal role in local SEO. Google's algorithm, RankBrain, uses AI technology to determine what content to rank on the top page.
So, if you have been struggling to appear in local search results and get your business noticed, AI can help you.
Below are some key points to consider to using AI for your local SEO:

• Voice Search: The relationship between AI and voice search cannot be ignored. Voice searches have become increasingly popular in recent years.
  You can improve your local search ranking by optimizing your business listing for voice search. By leveraging AI, tools like Yext can help improve local search ranking on search engines and voice assistants.
• Content and keywords: Tools like MarketMuse, Frase, and BrightEdge provide suggestions on the topics you can write to improve your local SEO.

Here's a screenshot of Yext displaying local listings data:
Related: How Is Artificial Intelligence Changing the Landscape of SEO?

10. Supporting Competitive Intelligence

They say, know your competitors. If you want to remain competitive in this ever-changing world, you need to know what your competitors are up to.
But how can you do that?
Simple. Today, numerous AI-based tools help you tap into your competitors' strategies.
This AI software tracks your competitors across various channels, like websites and social media, to determine price changes and even subtle changes like messaging.
Moreover, these tools can also detect your competitors' product gaps, strengths, and weaknesses. You can customize your business strategy to compete with them with this information.
Popular competitive intelligence tools that you can use for your local businesses are BuzzSumo, Similar Web, SpyFu, and SEMrush.
Here's a screenshot of SEMrush showing competitor analysis data:

Frequently Asked Questions

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1. How Can AI Help My Local Business?

Artificial Intelligence brings many benefits for local businesses, including cost reduction, improving productivity, spying on the competition, managing cash flows, predicting sales trends, etc.

2. Which AI Software Can Help With The Sales Process?

AI-based software like TalkIQ can help with sales processes in your local business by extracting critical information from calls and providing information that can help you improve your conversions.

3. I Am Worried About A Cyberattack. How Can I Improve The Cybersecurity Of My Local Business?

As a local business, you can use AI tools like Domain Name System protection to prevent employees from accessing harmful sites and use Antivirus software to detect and remove malware.

Key Takeaways

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• Improve sales conversion with AI-based technology like TalkIQ.
• Automate repetitive tasks like meeting scheduling with Calendly or Google Calendar.
• Provide customer services by leveraging AI-trained chatbots to engage potential customers.
• Leverage AI to provide intelligent services to generate recurring revenue. E.g., subscription boxes.
• Use competitive intelligence tools like Buzzsumo to gather competitors' strategies.
• Maximize marketing ROI with AI-based technologies like Frase, Spyfu, and Semrush.
• Simplify the vetting, interviewing, and hiring process with AI technologies like Clearfit.
• Utilize Yext to improve local SEO results and SEO for voice searches.