5 ways you can put AI to good use in your business

Let’s be honest: AI isn’t just a business buzzword anymore. It’s here to stay and, when used appropriately, it’s a technology that can benefit businesses in countless ways.

In our increasingly digital world, if your business isn’t utilising this technology to enhance your operations, you should be open to the opportunity. Now is the time to find out how AI can help manage your workflow, improve your efficiency and give you a leg up over your competitors.

How AI is transforming the business world

Here’s how I’m seeing AI transforming the business world, in my business and industry, and beyond.

1. Improving productivity

Artificial intelligence can help you increase your day-to-day productivity in myriad ways. Consider how AI can automate your workflow, reducing the time you spend on certain tasks so they can get more done in work hours and increase your organisation’s productivity.

IT experts, for example, can use AI programs to write code for them in minutes that would previously have taken hours or days, leaving them with time to take on other projects.

Meanwhile, in the legal field, AI is writing response documents based on previous similar cases. I asked Ian Aldridge, founder and principal lawyer at Progressive Legal, about this.

“You give AI documents like a contract or a letter and tell it to draft a response in line with what you’ve previously done in these types of cases,” Ian said. “Then, instead of something that has taken you eight to ten hours to do, it’s almost instant. You’re cutting down on that time so much.”

He believes this is going to increase the productivity within the legal field which will, in turn, reduce the costs of providing legal services and make it accessible to more small businesses – a major professional goal of his.

“People are afraid of what they don’t understand. When they understand more, they will seek out that advice,” he added.

2. Creating content

This is the obvious one, of course. I use AI tools such as ChatGPT or Jasper as a starting point for some of my blogs and articles (maybe even this one!) and find it saves me quite a lot of time in the content creation process.

Other creators use AI like Jasper for design work, branding and music creation, while non-creative businesses use it to write case studies, business plans, proposals and much more.

I was surprised to find that AI is even being used to create content within the legal field.

“Right now, I can tell AI to draft me a disclaimer or waiver on a skincare brand, for example,” Ian said. “It’s starting to do that already and it will get better and better the more data is given to it. In a year or two’s time we’ll start to see them providing document generation for low-⁠level legal documents, that’s for sure.

“And because AI is creating that low-level content, we can focus on the more complex documents – meaning we’re going to see a vast improvement in the quality of legal documents generally over the profession. Better documents, better advice and therefore better service equals happier clients.”

3. Automating processes

Depending on the size of your business, you will perform anywhere from dozens to hundreds of tasks every day. Wouldn’t it be great if you could outsource some of the more menial ones?

For example, you could use a chatbot system to answer easy customer queries by pointing customers towards the appropriate pages of your website.

Or why not use an AI program to extract information from documents and forms, then enter them into databases and apply them to generate reports? Ian points out that that’s already happening in the legal field.

“If we had an AI bot working in the background right now, they could review that document and provide a note on suggested changes within five minutes, based on the precedents and the advice that we have given in the past,” Ian said.

As well as saving time and human resources, using AI in this way can improve accuracy and reduce the risk of human error.

4. Making decisions

AI can also be used to analyse data – essentially unlimited amounts of data – to identify trends, predict different outcomes and even suggest the best course of action, even in litigation matters!

AI is able to process data and extract patterns from information faster than a human can. This processed data can then be used by humans (you!) to weigh up against your company’s goals, values and restrictions.

For example, airlines can optimise ticket prices using AI to analyse demand, competition and other factors in real time, which lets them make more efficient pricing decisions. In the European Union, AI is being used to decide cases in small claims and low-level tribunal matters, even being used to predict cases involving human rights. Ian anticipates this will become commonplace at Progressive Legal within three years.

5. Streamlining recruitment

While I think the final decision on new hires must always lie with the humans in your business, using AI can streamline the earlier stages of the process.

You can use AI to search sites that candidates post on, such as LinkedIn, screen resumes and cover letters, and conduct initial interview stages.

It’s your turn

If you’re not already using AI to work smarter, not harder, now’s the time to start. The ways you can implement this technology into a business are almost unlimited, so start thinking about how it can help you increase business revenue, boost productivity and efficiency, offer better customer experiences or reduce costs.

A caveat: AI can’t do everything, so you’ll need to consider specific use cases that will work for your business.

And, of course, just like other technologies, AI can’t work alone. It needs to be integrated into your business structure and aligned with your objectives.

For advice and expert tips on using AI in your business, head to our Artificial Intelligence section.

This article was first published in May 2023 and has been updated.

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