10/29/2026
Five Things to Try First With AI in a Small Business
How do you start using AI in a small business?
Start with a chore that is repetitive, heavy on reading or writing, and low-risk if the first attempt is wrong. Let the AI prepare the work and keep the final call yourself. Five chores fit that description in most small businesses.
The rule that holds for all five: the AI prepares, you decide. Anything a customer will see, anything involving money, and anything only you know stays with you. I wrote about that sorting in Which Decisions to Hand AI, and Which to Keep.
Five good first jobs
1. Review your website
Ask the AI to read your site and tell you what is missing, unclear or out of date.
2. Plan your content
Have it turn that review into a long-term plan of what to write, in what order.
3. Sort incoming email
Let it sort customer messages by what each one needs, so the urgent ones don't wait.
4. Prepare before you reply
Have it research the question and the person first, so you aren't answering cold.
5. Draft the repeat writing
Let it write the first version of replies and descriptions you write over and over, then edit them yourself.
Jobs one and two: your website and your content plan
Ask your AI to review your site the way a new customer would. What would they want to know that isn't there? What is confusing? What is stale? Then ask it to organize what it found into a plan: the topics worth writing about, a sensible order, and what to leave out.
I've shown friends how to do exactly this. The plan isn't the point. The point is that you end up with a list you can work through, instead of a blank page and a vague sense that you should be posting more. You still decide what is true about your business and what you want to say.
Jobs three and four: your inbox
An inbox full of customer requests is where small businesses lose hours. Ask your AI to sort incoming messages by what each one needs: a quick answer, a quote, a complaint, something that can wait. Then ask it to research each one before you reply, so a surprise question doesn't catch you cold.
I helped another friend set this up, with the sorted requests landing in a simple queue. The AI never replies for them. It makes sure that when they sit down to answer, the groundwork is already done.
One caution: think about what customer details you paste into any AI tool, and check what that tool does with them before you do it. For Claude, Anthropic answers whether your data is used for model training, and the answer differs between consumer and business accounts.
Job five: the writing you repeat
If you write the same kind of reply, product description or follow-up over and over, let the AI draft the first version. Then edit it into your own voice. Treat its draft as a rough first pass, never the finished piece.
How to know a job is a good one
Before you hand anything over, ask whether a plain script would do it better. A script is cheaper and gives the same answer every time, which is why I wrote My AI Knows When Not to Think. Reach for AI when the input is messy and the answer takes judgment, which describes all five jobs above.
If an AI builds something for you, such as an automation or a small tool, review it as thoroughly as your goals and time allow. Checking is in addition to the AI's own tests, never instead of them.
FAQ
Which job should I start with?
Pick the chore you dread most that is also safe to get slightly wrong. For many owners that is sorting the inbox.
Do I need special software?
Not to begin. A general AI assistant you can chat with is enough for all five jobs.
Should AI reply to customers for me?
I would keep replies yours. Let it prepare, sort and draft, and send only what you have read.
How do I know it is working?
Watch for time you stop spending on the chore, and for mistakes you catch. If you are rubber-stamping every result, the job may need more checking, not less.
Let my Claude help your Claude
Thirty minutes is enough to find out whether sessions would help your business. It is free, and there is nothing to prepare.
Researched and drafted with AI, then reviewed and edited by the site's editors.