A few months ago, another topic about artificial intelligence appeared on Reddit, but this time, the question was not related to specific tools but rather a kind of call for help. One entrepreneur sincerely asked users of this popular platform how small and medium business owners actually use AI tools and whether they even have time for it.
It turned out that managers and entrepreneurs are well aware that AI tools can help them in their work and daily life; there is no doubt about that. However, when it comes to selecting a specific tool and ‘feeding’ it quality data for the best possible outputs, many give up even before they start. The offer is, as they become increasingly aware, enormous; tools change from week to week, and the pace of work leaves little room for experimentation.
This conclusion was reached by experts from the entrepreneurial and AI arena recently gathered by the BizTech portal, who unanimously agree that artificial intelligence opens up opportunities for companies, their owners, and managers that were reserved for large systems with their own IT teams just a few years ago. The only question is how to extract the best from the tools in the shortest time.
At the Bottom of the List
As Debi Kleiman, director of Harvard’s D³ AI Lab, stated for BizTech, the biggest advances occur precisely where small entrepreneurs struggle the most, which are daily repetitive tasks that consume hours, such as responding to customer inquiries, reservations, administration, and finance. AI takes on this burden and leaves owners with more time for development, sales, strategy, or simply for tasks that no one else in the company can perform instead of them.
Moreover, small firms today can make decisions based on concrete data, not just feelings; analytics and predictions, once reserved for the large, have become practically available to everyone. AI has become a means for many to survive turbulent periods, reduce costs, or fill staffing gaps. However, the problem arises, as highlighted by Nada Sanders, author of the book The Humachine: Humankind, Machines and the Future of Enterprise, in BizTech, that many quality AI systems still require initial investments or knowledge that small entrepreneurs have no place to develop. Large companies have teams and budgets, while small ones must choose carefully and pragmatically, often under the pressure of urgent operational issues.
In other words, entrepreneurs often do not know where to start. They know that AI could solve real problems, but they lack the time to explore tools, assess what is truly valuable, and learn to use new systems. Given their overloaded schedules, AI, although useful, often ends up at the bottom of the priority list.
Personal Assistant
However, there is a solution for that. The first step is, as the Reddit user at the beginning of the story wished, to find out how successful entrepreneurs and managers use available AI tools and how they help them in business and everyday life.
For instance, the owner of Croccantina, a successful domestic gelato brand, Marija Antunović, currently uses ChatGPT and imagines it as her very educated and well-read colleague with whom she often consults. – ‘She’ gives me her ‘point of view’, sometimes makes mistakes, but I am the one who navigates the conversation further or deeper, and based on my knowledge and experience, I test those answers and ultimately draw conclusions. In business, I most often use it when I have doubts regarding the technological process in production, a new business problem I encounter, or I use AI to speed up the process of summarizing text or writing text in English – said Antunović, who has not yet found ChatGPT useful for creative expression, at least not as much as she would like. However, she believes it is an extremely useful tool, while blockages and fears should be replaced with education and learning how to use it to work best for us.
Co-owner of agency 404, Nikola Vrdoljak, uses Chat GPT and Perplexity daily, very likely every hour of the day. Moreover, he says that since he got the Pro version, he has almost stopped using Google. – Both tools are excellent for all kinds of simple queries that I would otherwise ask Google, as well as for more complex ones like travel planning, financial analysis, writing articles, grammar correction, or translation into any language – Vrdoljak noted, adding that it was crucial for him to realize that AI tools should not be viewed as Google but as an assistant with whom one can discuss almost everything. – It’s time to realize that we all now have a personal assistant – Vrdoljak emphasized.
Creative Use
Given that artificial intelligence is at the center of his business, it is no surprise that co-owner of the influencer marketing platform Hypfye, Stjepan Zelić, uses AI tools in creative ways both in business and personally.
