Insights · AI
Where to start with AI in a small business
Not with the tools. Start with the jobs that eat your team’s time every week, pick one, and prove it works before doing the next.
- Rated 5.0 on Google by our clients
- Zak Single Founder, Zed Studio
- 6 minute read AI
Start with the jobs that eat your team’s time every week, not with the tools.
Pick one job, try AI on it for a month, measure the time it saves, then move on to the next. That’s it. Small, proven wins beat a grand AI strategy that never gets started.
The question I get asked most
At the moment, the question I hear more than any other is: where do we actually start with AI?
Most business owners know they should be doing something. They’ve tried ChatGPT once or twice, been impressed, then gone back to doing everything the way they always have. The problem isn’t the technology. It’s knowing where it fits.
Step 1: list the jobs nobody has time for
Ask your team which tasks they repeat every week and wish they didn’t. Typical ones:
- replying to enquiries and chasing quotes
- writing proposals, quotes and follow-up emails
- notes and actions from meetings and calls
- answering the same customer questions again and again
- turning what you did this week into posts, case studies and newsletters
- pulling reports together from different systems
Step 2: pick one quick win
Choose the job that happens most often, takes the most time and doesn’t need perfect judgement. Chasing quotes and following up enquiries are usually the best place to start, because speed wins work.
Step 3: write down how you do it now
AI is only as good as the instructions you give it. Write down the steps, the tone and a couple of good examples. Then let an AI assistant like ChatGPT, Claude or Microsoft Copilot do the first draft, and have a person check it.
Step 4: set a few simple rules
- Keep personal and client data safe. Use business accounts with the right privacy settings, not free personal ones.
- A person checks anything that goes to a customer. AI is quick, and it can be confidently wrong.
- Write down what works, so the whole team can use it, not just the person who figured it out.
Step 5: measure, then do the next one
After a month, count the hours saved. If it’s working, roll it out across the team and pick the next job. If it isn’t, try a different job. Either way, you’ve learnt something real.
What not to start with
- an expensive custom AI system before you’ve proved the basics
- replacing people, rather than freeing them up for better work
- letting AI talk to customers on its own without any checks
We use it ourselves
We use AI every day at Zed Studio, including an AI assistant in our team’s Slack that helps with admin and reporting. It means more of our time goes on the work that needs real thinking.
Want help getting started?
Our AI workshops take your team from curious to confident in a few hours, using your real jobs, from £950 + VAT and credited against any implementation work. Or join our free monthly AI Office Hours and bring your questions.
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