You don't need to build your own AI technology to thrive. As a small business owner in the UK, you can use AI to streamline your admin, marketing, and customer support without technical expertise. If you're just getting started with your company formation, AI can also help with tasks such as researching markets, drafting documents, and keeping early workflows organised.

In this article, Rapid Formations UK leaders in company registration will run through some practical AI tips that any business can adopt quickly without any technical knowledge.

Here are 8 ways you can use AI as a small business:

1. Automate admin and remove repetitive tasks

Admin is one of the biggest drains on small business owners' time. Thankfully, using AI for your small business can reduce the burden of some time-consuming administrative tasks.

AI can speed up repetitive tasks by recognising patterns and performing routine actions automatically, though you'll still need to make some manual inputs. For example, email AI tools can sort your inbox, identify important messages you need to reply to, and help draft responses.

You can also use AI for note-taking. Tools like Otter and Fireflies can generate transcripts for meetings. With AI taking notes, you can fully focus during business calls without worrying about remembering the details. AI tools can also summarise your meetings, making it easier for you to understand what you need to do next.

AI can also look after your calendar. If you're tired of negotiating meeting times with clients and sending reminders, you can use an AI scheduling assistant to do that instantly.

With AI taking care of repetitive tasks, you can focus more on the work that matters most (like sales and building a brand).

2. Improve customer service with AI assistance

Small businesses often mean small teams. And with only a few people (or sometimes just one person) responding to queries, it's tricky to reply to customers as quickly as they may like you to do so. AI can help by answering common queries quickly, allowing you to respond faster and free up your team for more complex issues that build customer loyalty.

One way of using AI to improve your customer service is to install a website chatbot which can answer FAQs about things like pricing, delivery timescales, or website troubleshooting. Examples of chatbot providers include Intercom, Zendesk and Tidio.

You can also use generative AI tools, including those embedded within email providers, to draft polite responses to customer concerns.

Receive lots of calls? You can use AI for this, too. AI phone assistants can take messages, answer basic questions, and route calls to a person if necessary.

Customer queries are constant, but AI can support by handling routine questions. You only need to step in when a personal touch is needed. This approach can help streamline your customer support workflow and reduce response times.

3. Simplify marketing and content creation

In a small business, it can be easy to fall behind on marketing efforts because they require time, creativity, and specialist skills (like copywriting or design). However, if you use AI as your creative assistant, you can turn your initial ideas into shareable content in an efficient way that suits a small budget.

While human input is always important to ensure your small business's personality shines, AI tools can make it possible to do more with fewer resources. Here are some AI tips to help you create content faster.

If you can't afford to hire a graphic designer for every social media post, you can use tools like Canva AI or Adobe Firefly to create visuals with minimal technical design skills. You can also use ChatGPT to help draft written content, like blogs and newsletters. Just make sure you always edit so that it's unique to your business. Sometimes, good marketing is more about quality than quantity. So, don't create lots of content just because you can do it quickly.

Already created marketing materials you're proud of? It's worth making the most of them. AI tools can help you repurpose content into other formats. For example, you can use AI to quickly turn your podcasts into a written summary or your blog into a newsletter.

Make use of built-in AI features in marketing tools, too. For example, you can use the AI support options in Meta's Ads Manager and Google Ads to speed up writing ad headlines and suggest keywords. Similarly, you can use tools like Surfer and Yoast to automatically suggest alt text and meta descriptions for your website content – great for reaching your search engine optimisation (SEO) goals without having technical knowledge.

As well as creating content, some AI for small business tools can help you track engagement and analyse the effectiveness of your content. For instance, by using AI analytics, you might discover that your newsletter drives more purchases than social posts, allowing you to adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

4. Personalise the customer experience automatically

If you sell products online, it's worth remembering that personalised experiences can increase conversions. AI makes that personalisation possible on a larger scale.

You can harness AI to analyse customer behaviour and tailor experiences in ways that can increase sales. Shopify Magic can provide personalised product recommendations to customers based on their browsing history.

AI-driven email tools, like Mailchimp, can also select the best send times for your marketing communications. They can even tell you the people to target.

With the right software, you can use AI to make every customer interaction feel more personal without extra manual effort.

5. Manage finances more efficiently

Managing business finances can be stressful, but AI can ease some of this by simplifying financial tasks.

AI can help with checking figures and forecasting, so you're less likely to feel overwhelmed by business finances.

Simple features like automated expense categorisation in tools like QuickBooks can take away some of the admin. AI-powered tax estimators can also predict liabilities in real-time. Accurate cash flow forecasting can also help you anticipate low-cash periods. AI can flag potential cash flow shortfalls before they happen, giving you time to adjust expenses or negotiate payment terms strategically.

These approaches can make managing finances simpler and hopefully give you greater confidence in your cash flow forecasts.

6. Optimise sales and operations with predictive insights

If you're relying on guesswork, planning for your business can be tough. However, predictive AI can give you clearer insights to guide your decisions. Predictive AI uses past data to anticipate trends, helping you plan more confidently. So, if your AI suggests that certain products are likely to sell out during holiday periods, you can adjust inventory in advance to reduce the risk of stock shortages.

For many small businesses in the UK, AI implementation is becoming easier thanks to built-in features in tools like Shopify and other ecommerce platforms. You can use these AI features to forecast sales, which can help optimise operations. On a day-to-day level, you can also make use of your chosen ecommerce tool's automated inventory alerts to prevent running out of popular items or over-ordering poor sellers.

These insights allow you to make informed business decisions with confidence.

7. Strengthen cybersecurity

Cyber threats are increasing, and small businesses can be vulnerable. The good news is that you can use AI to protect your business against some threats.

AI cybersecurity tools can constantly monitor activity and spot unusual behaviour. Many tools will have built-in AI cybersecurity protection that you're not even aware of. For example, many email providers use AI to label potential phishing attempts.

To be proactive with your cybersecurity, consider using a login monitoring system like LastPass that automatically alerts you when your passwords are compromised. Alerts like that give you a heads-up to change your passwords before bad actors gain access.

AI works quietly in the background to enhance security, which is ideal for small businesses without IT teams.

8. Use AI tools already built into business software

As you might have noticed reading the AI tips above, you're probably already using AI without realising it. A lot of the business software applications you already use include AI features.

If you're new to AI, try familiarising yourself with the technology by using the AI elements in the software you already use and trust. For example, Zoom's AI can summarise meetings, Google Workspace can turn rough notes into polished text, and Microsoft Copilot can help you draft Word documents.

You don't need to invest in new systems to start using AI for your small business. Many tools you already use include helpful AI features. Starting with tools you already know can reduce the learning curve and make it less daunting to add AI into your daily workflows.

Start embracing AI within your small business today

AI can transform how your small business operates, including your customer service, marketing, and admin. However, you don't need to optimise everything all at once.

By exploring AI for small businesses, you can start small and introduce tools that make a difference without overhauling your tech set-up. Try changing just one process. Once you're comfortable using AI there, you can gradually expand.

The more you use AI, the more familiar it'll become. And once you know it well, you'll get more confident with using it to address the unique challenges your business is facing.

And just as AI helps you work smarter, Rapid Formations can handle the time-consuming parts of setting up your UK business – giving you more time to explore the AI tools that can help your company grow.