AI + You: Boosting Business Productivity & Unlocking Possibilities

by Maria Botta

I encourage entrepreneurs and business leaders of any skill level to experiment with AI tools. 

I don’t know about you and how you feel about AI, but I am:

  1. Excited
  2. A little overwhelmed
  3. Experiencing FOMO = all the possibilities and applications offered by Artificial intelligence (AI) for my business and daily life.

Despite 30% of workers fearing job displacement due to AI and widespread misgivings about AI displacing humans entirely, AI is expected to impact the job market by dislocating 85 million jobs by 2025 but creating 97 million new roles, including new job titles and positions, adding $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

AI + Humans offers many opportunities for efficiency and doing things better than on your own. I save 5 – 15 hrs. a week using several AI tools, which have become indispensable to me and my business. However, the hardest thing is to manage and find the new, latest tools that take care of mundane tasks better. They pop up every five seconds, and keeping up is hard. While the US leads in growth in AI, the other leading countries include China, the UK, Israel, Canada, and France. According to the #1 AI aggregator, “There’s an AI for that,” which is updated daily, has verification tools, and is used by 40M+ humans with over 36 million searches (2024) and my favorite search tool, the website lists 26,785  AIs for15,917 tasks. I am sure that is only a fraction of the current applications, but at least it’s a well-organized and easily searchable start; the AI function is explained, which helps you choose a few – then I typically “audition” these to see if they are a good fit for my needs.

As someone deeply involved in advising and mentoring startups while working as a Fractional CMO, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of AI tools and platforms, profoundly impacting productivity, decision-making, and growth. AI doesn’t just scale businesses; it transforms how we perceive and approach processes, ideas, and other aspects of a business. In some ways, AI allows us to expand our problem-solving horizons and pushes us beyond what was previously imaginable.

While I couldn’t cover ALL AI solutions in this article, I’ll explore a few I use and plan to use and a few ideas to consider for your business. The problems that AI tools solve and that I mention here are not just theoretical concepts; they are currently available and tailored for entrepreneurs, business leaders, and innovators looking to be more efficient and explore something new. Whether you’re optimizing operations, enhancing customer experiences, or scaling your business, AI tools can practically transform your business, saving time, improving productivity, and enhancing decision-making.

These are some of the categories of business AI tools:

  • AI chatbots
  • AI tools for communication and collaboration
  • Generative AI tools for content creation or improvement
  • Video or image creation AI tools
  • Voice or music generation AI tools
  • AI tools for social media management
  • Task or project management AI tools
  • AI scheduling tools
  • AI transcription tools and meeting assistants
  • AI tools for research or business planning

These are a few AI tools that I use regularly. I am not affiliated with any of these companies, nor do I receive any benefit from listing them here; they are recommended based on my own experience and have significantly improved my business operations.

My marketing teams also use digital marketing tools to create organizational Martech stacks, and more and more of these platforms are built on AI or incorporate AI in some way. I write a lot, and many tools help optimize my content for internal communication with clients and content like this. I also conduct regular meetings. AI helps me organize meeting notes, action items, agreements, and deliverables.

A few that I use regularly:

  • AI Notetaker – Fathom
  • AI-backed SEO assistant Optimizing for ever-changing search engine algorithms, conducting keyword research, analyzing content – SEMrush
  • Produce content based on user prompts, including AI text, AI art, and video – DeepAI.
  • Paraphrasing tool, reading and writing assistant, lengthen or shorten sentences. Wordtune.
  • Writing assistant, grammar, punctuation, style, and tone, text generator, AI, and plagiarism detector – Grammarly
  • Email subject line tester – Omnisend
  • Free AI Subject Line Generator, Design, send, and automate interactive emails – Mailmodo
  • Based on GPT-4o and GPT o1 models, offering advanced reasoning for complex problems – ChatGPT
  • Content creation tool designed for marketers, integrate AI-powered workflows directly into your existing tech stack. Jasper.ai

AI Tools, I have used and am looking at for my business or clients:

  • Venngage
  • Monday
  • Dialpad
  • Tidio
  • Vyper
  • Flick
  • Chatfuel
  • Customers.ai

I encourage entrepreneurs and business leaders of any skill level to experiment with AI tools. Getting hands-on experience will allow you to discover which tools align with your specific needs. There is no need to be an expert; many of these tools are designed for ease of use, making it comfortable for you to unlock their full potential for your business.

Whether you’re a startup founder, marketer, or innovator, embracing AI is no longer optional—it’s essential for staying competitive and driving growth.

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