When most people think about artificial intelligence, the first thought is ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI chatbot. You type a question, it gives you an answer or, if feeling adventurous, you may ask it to write an email or summarise a document.
But this is only one part of what AI can do.
The more interesting development for businesses is happening behind the chatbot. AI can now be connected to websites, customer databases, booking systems, email platforms and other business software, allowing it to do much more than simply answer questions.
It can read information, make decisions, communicate with customers and trigger actions.
Effectively, we are now looking at asking AI to do something, rather than giving AI something to do. For businesses, that could have a significant and positive impact on how everyday work gets done.
AI Isn’t Just a Chatbot
Chatbots are often associated with answering frequently asked questions. While that’s certainly one useful application, modern AI-powered chatbots can be much more sophisticated.
A well-designed chatbot can understand what someone is asking, ask follow-up questions, identify what they need and direct them towards the most appropriate next step.
For example, we recently built an AI chatbot called Sophie for Total Foot Health, a podiatry and foot health clinic in Salisbury.
Rather than simply directing visitors towards a list of FAQs, Sophie can ask a clarifying question about a visitor’s problem and help point them towards the most appropriate service.
It’s a relatively simple example of a much bigger idea: AI can interact with customers and help businesses manage the journey from enquiry to action.
And that’s where AI starts to become really interesting and particularly useful for business.
The Biggest Opportunity Might Be the Work Nobody Wants to Do
Ask most businesses where they lose time and admin will probably feature somewhere near the top of the list.
It’s the repetitive work that has to be done but doesn’t necessarily require someone’s full attention:
- Moving information between systems
- Sorting incoming enquiries
- Responding to routine questions
- Scheduling appointments
- Updating spreadsheets
- Sending follow-up emails
- Producing regular reports
- Checking and organising data
Individually, these tasks might only take a few minutes. But together, businesses are looking at days per month completing tasks like this.
A member of staff might spend half an hour dealing with administration in the morning, another hour processing enquiries in the afternoon and several more hours each week completing repetitive tasks.
That’s time that could otherwise be spent with customers, or undertaking other work that requires human expertise.
With increasing costs of running a business making things as difficult as ever, automation can provide some immediate value right here.
Connecting Your Systems
There’s another problem that many businesses don’t realise they’re paying for: disconnected systems.
A business could have a website, CRM, email marketing platform, booking system and accounting software, all doing useful jobs independently, but when they don’t communicate with one another, it means somebody has to be the connection.
So, a customer submits an enquiry through the website. Someone copies the information into the CRM. Another person checks the booking system. An email gets sent manually. A spreadsheet is updated.
The entire process relies on people moving information around, but thankfully automation can change that.
Instead of asking an employee to repeatedly transfer information from one system to another, connected workflows can allow information to move automatically.
The result here isn’t fewer employees, rather than fewer repetitive jobs for employees to spend their time doing.
Automation Follows the Rules. AI Can Help Make the Decisions.
It’s useful to distinguish between traditional automation and AI-powered automation.
Traditional automation might work like this:
If X happens, do Y.
For example, if someone completes a contact form, send them an automated confirmation email.
But AI can introduce another layer to this…
It can interpret information and determine what should happen next.
Imagine receiving an enquiry containing several paragraphs of information. Rather than simply forwarding the message to a member of staff, an AI system could identify what the customer is asking about, categorise the enquiry, extract important information and determine which workflow it should enter, and this is when we start moving towards AI agents.
AI Agents Can Actually Do the Work
The term ‘AI agent’ is becoming increasingly common, so it pays to understand what it actually means.
Think of an AI agent as a system that is given a goal rather than simply a question.
Instead of:
‘Write me an email’.
You might give an agent a task:
‘Review these new enquiries, identify which ones require a sales call, find the relevant information in our CRM and prepare the appropriate follow-up’.
The agent will then work through multiple steps using the systems and information available to it. This way, AI isn’t generating something for a human to use, it’s becoming an important part of the process.
For businesses, this opens up opportunities to automate workflows that previously required several manual steps.
Small Businesses Have Just as Much to Gain
AI and automation are too often presented as technologies designed for large corporations with big budgets and dedicated tech teams, but this doesn’t have to be the case – with smaller businesses having plenty to gain.
A small company might have one person spending several hours every week on administration that could potentially be automated. And, with a smaller business, one persons time is arguably even more valuable.
For a small business, saving five hours a week could mean five more hours spent talking to customers and developing new work.
The Future of AI Is About Doing, Not Just Answering
AI has already changed the way we search and find information. In many cases, it has changed how we write too. But the next stage could be even more significant for businesses.
As AI becomes better at interacting with software and completing multiple steps, it will increasingly become part of the way businesses operate. In many instances, it already has.
Although the chatbot is only the visible part, behind it sits a much bigger opportunity – connecting AI to the systems and processes that keep a business running.
For businesses considering where to start, the question isn’t just ‘Should we be using AI?’, but something more practical like –
‘What could our people achieve if we gave them back the hours they currently spend on repetitive work?’
And this, we believe, is potentially where the real value of AI begins.
Our AI and Automation Specialist
Luke Cleall is WADEDIGITAL’s Automation and AI Specialist, helping businesses explore practical ways to use AI and automation to save time, streamline processes and reduce repetitive admin. If you’re unsure where to start, Luke is offering a free 30-minute AI & Automation Business Consultation to look at how your business currently works, identify potential opportunities and discuss where AI or automation could make the biggest difference.
Book your free 30-minute AI & Automation Business Consultation and let’s explore where AI could save your business time, improve efficiency and help your team focus on what really matters.
