Artificial intelligence, commonly known as AI, has made a lot of things easier, but many people are still afraid of it and have described its capabilities as scary.
Some worry that it could be harmful by creating false narratives, videos, and audios of real people, and could also result in people losing their jobs.
Artificial intelligence is a term for any technology that makes it possible for a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks that are usually performed by human beings. From healthcare to entertainment, it is reshaping every industry.
The use of AI presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses. Black people and other people of color can tap into the benefits of this accessible technology to grow their businesses.
For some people, keeping up with innovations can be challenging, as they barely get familiar with one technology before another one springs up. As a Black entrepreneur, you’ve probably felt the weight of trying to keep up. Due to how overwhelming it can be, you may be asking yourself, “Do I need to evolve? Is AI something I should really be ‘wasting’ my time on?”
The truth is, change is the only constant in business, and as an entrepreneur, you should know this already. How you manage this change makes all the difference in the kind of results you will get. AI is here now, and it is changing the way we live and even do business. You can choose to embrace it to your advantage or convince yourself that it is just another passing trend that will fade away.
Why Black Entrepreneurs Can’t Ignore AI
AI is already transforming how businesses operate and compete. For Black entrepreneurs in Philadelphia, it offers ways to level up operations, expand reach, and build a competitive advantage without necessarily needing a huge budget or a technical team.
Mastering it can help level the playing field. So, whether you’re running a food truck in West Philly, a boutique in Germantown, a bookstore in University City, or creating content online, AI can be that powerful tool your business needs for growth, efficiency, and impact.
Some think AI is for the big tech companies, and their small business has nothing to gain from it. The truth is, it is for every business that wants to get ahead of the game. You can’t be sitting on the fence in an increasingly digital-first world. Ignoring AI can mean missing out on opportunities that can put your business ahead. Before you decide to say no to AI, remember the many businesses that have failed over the years because they ignored technological change and refused to keep pace with the times.
These are some of the reasons you cannot ignore AI as an entrepreneur.
Saves time and money: With AI, you can free up valuable time as it has the potential to handle many repetitive processes like data entry, scheduling, and customer service enquiries. What would take you days of repetitive work can take AI minutes, with fewer errors and more strategic output. This gives you time to focus on other aspects of the business. It also reduces the need for manual labor, helping to cut down on operational costs.
Risk of becoming obsolete: Your competitors are already using it. You can choose to sit it out and watch others jump on the train while you become like those businesses that dismissed the telephone or the internet and are nowhere to be found today.
Understanding customers better: With certain AI tools, you can get real-time insights about your customers, website traffic, and ad performance. With this, you can make smarter decisions.
According to McKinsey, as reported in Forbes, data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, six times as likely to retain customers, and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result.
How Black Entrepreneurs in Philly Can Adopt AI in Business
A study by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) showed that small businesses are using AI tools, and 82% find them effective in running and growing their businesses.
How can entrepreneurs integrate AI into their business? It begins with asking what problem you are trying to solve in your business and how AI can help. Here are ways AI tools can be useful for Black entrepreneurs.
Operations: With AI tools, you can say goodbye to repetitive tasks like invoice processing and other administrative tasks. It can help with bookkeeping, organizing, planning, and streamlining the business operations. This allows the business owner and his employees to focus on other important matters.
Customer communication: If you want to deliver personalized, fast, and more efficient experiences that drive customer engagement, you should not ignore AI tools. Today’s customers expect real-time and fast answers, which human agents may not be able to meet. With chatbots and virtual agents on your website, common customer inquiries can be answered in seconds.
These tools empower businesses to improve products and services by analyzing data and behaviors that can aid in better understanding customer behavior, preferences, and challenges.
Sales and marketing: Business owners can leverage predictive AI tools for analysis and swift decision-making. With its ability to analyze huge amounts of customer data in seconds, it can generate insights about future customer behavior, suggest more personalized content, and spot patterns in large datasets for marketers to act on. Also, marketing campaigns that once required months can be rolled out in weeks or even days.
Design, photos, and visuals: The creative industry has also felt the impact of AI. With certain tools, you can generate unique images within seconds. You don’t need an entire design team to achieve the visual you want. Organizations are creating stunning, high-quality visuals for social media, advertising, and web design in seconds with AI tools. With the growing demand for faster turnaround and personalization, AI tools are becoming a collaborative partner for designers, marketers, and business owners.
What AI Tools to Try as an Entrepreneur
From marketing and sales to design and financial management, there are AI tools for just about anything you need for your business.
Speaking on a podcast, Stacy Kirk, a tech entrepreneur, mentioned some important tools entrepreneurs should not ignore. They include Canva, Grammarly, Seamless.AI, and Elevenlabs.
“I am gonna tell every entrepreneur if they have a browser open, Safari or Chrome, they should always have in a tab Claude and ChatGPT open. You will find over time how you can leverage it to just help you brainstorm,” she stated.
Here are a few tools you can try:
- Adobe Express: Useful for small businesses and startups needing quick, professional-looking designs.
- Upmetrics: For writing business plans with 400 templates to choose from and tracking financial performance against set goals.
- Motion: Calendar tool that uses AI to automatically schedule and prioritize your tasks.
- DALL-E 2: For creating original, realistic images and art from text descriptions for creative development.
- Zoho’s Zia: A sales tool that can support users with marketing tasks, from lead generation, lead management, data collection, and writing sales copy to constructing multi-channel campaigns.
- Otter.ai: Smart note-taking meeting assistant that records conversations, transcribes interviews, and generates summaries.
- Bookeeping.ai: Helps with real-time accounting, automates approximately 95% of bookkeeping tasks.
- Jasper: Content generator for articles, blogs, social media posts, and marketing copy.
- Lumen5: AI tool for video creation.
