NEWSLETTER: Why you should be using AI as an assistant, not a replacement
You've likely heard lots of buzz about AI replacing jobs. And while that will likely happen in some circumstances, for you and your small business it's best to use AI as an assistant instead.
🎓 AI 101 for small business owners:
Using AI as an assistant
When AI news began flooding the media and socials, many people became fearful that it would start replacing jobs (imagine the panic this has caused any type of full-time writer).
But it’s important to note that as AI continues to evolve, it’s more beneficial to view it as an assistant instead of a replacement.
Why human oversight is important
While AI can provide valuable insights, it shouldn’t replace human judgment entirely. Overreliance on AI without human oversight can lead to unanticipated consequences and errors.
Here is a quick overview of some of the common issues we’re currently seeing with AI:
Inaccurate data including AI hallucinations (I’ll have more on this in an upcoming newsletter)
Data biases
Privacy and unauthorized access to sensitive data
Intellectual property and plagiarism concerns
Those are just some of the reasons you should be cautious when using AI and why you shouldn’t use it to replace a human altogether. It’s best to use AI as your starting point and then put your human touch on it.
I liked this quote from a Hootsuite blog post I recently read:
If you’re looking to use AI for social media, I recommend reading the full Hootsuite article. (This isn’t a sponsored link, I just found it to be really helpful.)
Examples of using AI as an assistant:
Now that you know the best approach to incorporating AI into your business is by using it as an assistant, let’s take a look at a few examples of exactly how you can do that:
As a business owner, think of how can you use AI to make your life easier. Let’s say you own a coffee shop and two of the things that take up a lot of your time are staff scheduling and inventory management. Search for AI programs that can assist you with both of those tasks.
If you have an employee who handles your marketing, instead of you trying to figure out the logistics of whether AI can replace them (as well as that person being concerned that AI may be taking their job), look at ways they can be using AI to assist them in their marketing efforts and maximize what they are currently doing. For example, they can be using AI to plan and generate content and also to improve SEO.
Do you hire contractors to help with certain aspects of your business? Talk to them to see if they are utilizing AI and if they aren’t, suggest they look into it. For example, if you contract the services of a bookkeeper, they can be using AI to become more efficient and to provide you with better insights into the financial health of your business. And if they’re using one of the more popular accounting software programs, there is a good chance that company has already introduced AI features or will be doing so shortly.
In all of the examples listed above, you see that AI didn’t actually replace anyone but instead helped improve productivity. That’s not to say that as AI continues to develop, it won’t entirely perform some of these tasks unassisted one day 😬. But for where things stand now, it’s extremely important to ensure there is human oversight whenever you’re using AI.
🛞 Test Drive
What: AI lead generation
Why: Because it’s extremely beneficial to get quality leads that will result in revenue for your business.
Who: I initially tried to test Lusha and Seamless.ai however neither one would accept my email address. I tried both an Outlook email and also one I own the domain for, and they wouldn’t accept either one so I couldn’t create an account. So I then ended up at PhantomBuster where they accepted my email address and had a 14-day free trial that required no credit card 🎉.
How it worked: Once you set up your account, they give you the option of watching a few videos on what a Phantom is and how to get started. But I’m impatient so I just clicked off the videos and went right to the dashboard where you can see a number of different options.
On the left in the above image, you can see all the different options available when it comes to where you want to extract data from. So it’s nice they have so many different options to choose from.
The one I selected for this test was to set up a “flow” where I would input a Google Maps search and it would then scrape the information (scrape is the term commonly used for when AI extracts data from websites). It seemed pretty easy (and it is, especially if you follow the instructions carefully - more on that below). You do a Google Maps search for what you’re looking for and then copy the search results link and paste it into PhantomBuster which will then extract the information to generate your leads.
For the sake of this test, I pretended I was a small business owner from Manhattan Beach, California who sells products to hair salons. So I did a Google search for Hair salons in Manhattan Beach, California and then copied the Google link and pasted it into the PhantomBuster form.
It then asked me for my browser’s language and the number of results to scrape. The default is 200 so I left it at that. Then it asked me to select which info I wanted it to extract and there were a number of different options.
I did find it odd that ‘website’ wasn’t one of the options but I was happy with the amount of options other than that one not being there. I ended up selecting phone numbers, email addresses, Facebook pages and Instagram profiles.
It then took me to a settings page where I will admit that I didn’t fully understand what it was asking, so I just left all the defaults and continued. After that it went to a page that said ‘click on your flow to get started’, so I did that.
Unfortunately I ended up with an Invalid Input error that I would quickly realize was my fault.
I clicked Resolve on the error page and it took me back to the main page where I immediately realized my error: I had submitted a regular Google Search URL instead of a Google Maps Search URL.
So I went to where I was supposed to go - Google Maps - and did the search there. Then I copied that URL and went back to PhantomBuster and entered it. I then progressed through all the pages again and fortunately it had retained all the previous selections I had made.
When I got to the last page, it showed a countdown that the flow would update in 45 seconds, so I got excited thinking I would have results that quickly. It actually ended up taking around 30 minutes until it finished scraping everything and generated my results, but I don’t know whether that was because my internet hasn’t been the greatest lately (rural living problems) or whether that’s typically how long it takes to scrape the info.
Here is how the results initially looked:
I then clicked Download CSV and here is how it looked in Excel:
Verdict: Overall it was fairly easy to use, once I realized I had to do the search in Google Maps and not just in Google (definitely my error and the result of me being impatient). I think this type of AI program would be beneficial and save someone a lot of time generating these leads.
However…
I recently tried to do another lead generation through PhantomBuster for a client in a small town. What I quickly discovered is that the quality of your results is going to be entirely dependent on how much information is available where you are looking.
For example, I did the Google Maps search again and only got 3 results even though for the community I was searching in, there should have been at least 10 results. But I only got 3 results because only 3 of the local businesses had their information on Google Maps.
And that’s the thing to keep in mind with AI in general: that it’s only as good as the quality of the data it’s been fed. So while PhantomBuster worked great in my test drive, that was because there were a large number of hair salons from Manhattan Beach, California and the surrounding area that have their business information posted on Google Maps. For my small town client, only a few of their target market have their business information on Google Maps which meant fewer results than we had hoped for.
So keep that in mind when you’re doing lead generation: where is your target market most likely to have the most up-to-date information? If it’s somewhere that PhantomBuster can extract that information from, then you could definitely benefit from what they do.
🗞️ Headlines
Here are some articles you might find interesting:
If you want further proof of why AI requires human oversight, read this:
What is a 'AI drift' and why is it making ChatGPT dumber? - ZDNET
The Risks AI Poses for Small Businesses That Automate Too Quickly - Grit Daily
Telford business owner shares pros and cons of AI - Shropshire Star
⏩ In next week’s newsletter:
Learning about prompts and why a good prompt is crucial in generating the best results
A test drive of Anyword for SEO content
🔜 Coming soon
With many small business owners curious as to how AI can be used in their business, I’m developing a course that will teach you what AI is and, most importantly, how you can use it to become more efficient and grow your business.
The course will be based on the following foundations:
Quick - My goal is to have it run no longer than 30 minutes. Business owners are busy enough so I want to teach you as quickly as possible.
Easy - There are enough things going on with your business taking up your precious brain power, so I’m developing this course to be as easy as possible.
Affordable - This course will be very affordable (less than $50). I want you to learn as much as possible for as little $ as possible. (Check with your accountant to see if you can use it as a tax deduction!)
If you want to be notified when the course launches, sign up here: https://forms.gle/mcAwePKDgF5wWUki6
👋 Who am I and why am I writing this newsletter?
My name is Melissa Hopper and I’m a small business consultant and entrepreneur. I’m not an AI expert but rather an AI enthusiast who became curious about how AI could help me in my business and help my clients in their businesses.
I decided to start this newsletter to share what I’m learning and what my clients are learning about how AI can help small businesses. To learn more about what I do, click here.
🙏 Thank you
Thank you for reading this newsletter. Please keep in mind that the views expressed in this newsletter are our own.
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📘 AI database for small business owners:
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⚠️ Please be aware that AI service providers continuously update their programs and services. As a result, some of the information discussed in this newsletter may have changed by the time you read it.
✍️ Editorial note: While we may earn revenue through some links featured in this newsletter (after all, we are a small business that needs revenue to operate), please know that any links posted will be because we genuinely find them to be of interest and not simply because there is an opportunity for us to make money off of them.