Let AI Help Run Your Small Business on Your Smartphone

AI can help a business owner access and manage small business loans, generate online orders, set up delivery services, organize email campaigns, market services and products, organize accounting systems, and recruit, hire, and manage staff.

Using customer-relationship management (CRM) systems, business owners can more effectively gather customer data, helping them analyze feedback and make smarter decisions. Chatbots — AI assistants that pop up when a customer visits a website — can be used to direct visitors to the right product or option, or to provide customer support services like processing returns and locating tracking numbers. Tools like these can dramatically reduce the amount of time spent on tasks and can lower costs while improving income. Many of these tools can be accessed for free.

See below for some of the companies offering AI solutions available on your smartphone:

• x.ai. Manage meetings and schedule new ones.

• Zoho. A complete CRM platform, featuring secure business mail, context-aware help desk, project planning and tracking, and custom app building.

• Conversica. AI assistants to help engage customers in authentic conversations over email or SMS.

• Siri. Google Assistant. Cortana. Don't forget about your smartphone's native AI assistants. These tools can be enormously powerful, cutting down on time spent on menial or repetitive tasks such as scheduling, calculations, and answer-finding.

• Mailchimp. If you're on the go and need to create or send a campaign, check your stats, or add a contact to your audience, Mailchimp's mobile applications can help. Mailchimp is also designed to be mobile-friendly, so you can work with the full application from your tablet or other mobile devices.

• ManyChat. Automate and combine Facebook Messenger and SMS to grow your business.