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How can a sole trader/small business owner use AI to their advantage? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by FarraigePlaisteach to c/asklemmy

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I'm used to seeing articles about AI being used for either highly scientific uses or for generating semi-entertaining nonsense. For a personal business involving managing appointments, documenting meetings, tracking payments etc, can AI help with any of that? Other things include undertaking CPD training, occasional advertising as well as maintaining a website from time-to-time.

The people I know who don't think AI has any use for them belong in this category and work in the area of mental health, yoga teaching / training, nursing and massage therapy.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

AI is best used for creativity. It’s not precise, and it should not be relied upon for executing important tasks.

My advice for a small business owner would en to use AI to bounce ideas off of. Ask it for new ideas. Tell it things about your business, the situation, and ask it for potential threats to your model, or potential improvements to your process.

But treat it as a consultant. Meaning you are still the decision-maker, and it’s your job to evaluate its ideas.

It’s creative and highly error-prone. So it’s good for brainstorming. Not good for precision planning or execution.

If you tell me what line of business you’re in, I can provide you with some ideas about how I would use AI to help with that business.

Some things I have used AI (ChatGPT 4) for:

I ask it questions about how to use specific software tools and libraries
I had it develop a plan for dealing with mold in my apartment (since the mold itself was making it hard to think)
I describe a concept and ask if there’s a term for that concept. This helps me find online discussions by humans about that topic. I trust humans for accurate information, use AI to help me find the search terms

[–] FarraigePlaisteach 1 points 3 months ago

I wouldn't wish mold expousure on anybody. I hope you make a full recovery.

Those are good suggestions, thank you. I'll likely be retiring soon but the people I'm thinking of are some psychotherapists I know. It's very interpersonal and thankfully a relatively no-nonsense profession. They don't want technology between themselves and their clients, that's for certain.