AUSTIN (KXAN) – Starting a small business can be expensive. From marketing payments to bookkeeping.
This has some small business owners turning to artificial intelligence (AI).
According to the US Chamber of Commerce, about 25 percent of small businesses said they are using or testing AI to outperform competitors.
AI lessons in Austin
Distance Learning Media partnered with the City of Austin and the Texas Veterans Commission to teach small business owners different ways to grow their businesses and compete with larger companies using AI.
Julie Niehoff, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Distance Learning Media, holds classes where she teaches the benefits of using AI.
“Anything that’s automated, and creating shortcuts for you, is AI. When we hear about AI, it sounds scary,” Niehoff said. “In terms of everyday life and AI tools, it’s not something to be afraid of.”
Instead of struggling to market or design, Niehoff said AI makes it much easier.
“When you go into Chat GBT, you can say, ‘Write me a social media post’ or, ‘Write me an outline for class.’ You can take it further and say, ‘ Who are my potential best customers? What are their potential objections,” Niehoff said. “It will give you that information, or at least a starting point for you to start thinking about things you haven’t thought about.”
In these classes, Niehoff emphasizes that AI isn’t just used to get work done.
“It doesn’t mean you just take it as, ‘This is my audience. There you go.’ It’s not like that. But you can take it and it can trigger something in your mind, ‘Oh, I didn’t even think about that,’ and you have another income opportunity. And can take on the path,” Niehoff said.
Ultimately, Niehoff said AI still needs that human touch.
“Their experience cannot be replaced with this machine,” Niehoff said. “You still need to put the human layer of intelligence, the human intelligence on top.”
‘opened my eyes’
Shani Montek Ahmed has partnered with Distance Learning Media to expand his South Austin business, Franklin Music Academy.
She and her husband teach custom music lessons.
“[The toolkit] This really opened my eyes to how smooth and fast we can work. I think for a lot of small businesses, our biggest concern is keeping up with the big companies,” said Montec Ahmed.
Montique-Ahmad is using AI to help grow his business.
“You can do project management, tasking, marketing, content creation with AI,” Montique-Ahmad. “It can help you build apps for your business.”
It has also helped them reduce some of their expenses.
“QuickBooks has an automation where they basically learn your transactions,” Montique-Ahmad said. “I have a bookkeeper who oversees it, but we’re obviously underpaying his bookkeeper because AI is at the forefront of everything out there.”
Montek Ahmad said it is a tool he and his family plan to use to grow their business for years to come.
“I want to see rapid progress, not just the baby steps we’re taking,” she said.