Boost Your AI Literacy to Support Your Micro Businesses
When people talk about AI, a lot of conversations get stuck on uncertainty and confusion. The topic of AI can even fear for people. Will they lose their jobs? Will the AI destroy humanity? It can be quite a range.
Here’s our take: if you’re a business owner, but aren’t sure about AI, ask yourself, What can AI do for my business, my customers, and my employees? Chances are, AI can offer a boost in a number of ways. But how, and in what capacity?
Answering these and other questions often starts with building a sense of AI literacy, which adds up to developing some skills, plus an open attitude, toward the AI as a tool, This can make it easier to use, evaluate, and understand AI technologies in effective, responsible ways.
There’s a long list of AI’s potential benefits for businesses. Here are just three examples:
Retailers are using AI to help content marketing, gain deeper insight into customer analytics, and improve online shopping.
Legal firms and service-oriented businesses are using AI to scan and analyze key documents.
Plenty of businesses are putting AI to work to improve the way they hire, and streamline HR-related tasks.
Is there a “best way” to get started with AI?
There’s no official “playbook” for what AI literacy is. We encourage people to focus on these four areas:
Gain a basic understanding of how to use and operate AI tools. This is like knowing the basics of how to swim before you dive into the deep end.
Make your way toward developing a top-level technical understanding. You don’t need to be an expert, but a little technical understanding of how various AI processes work will go a long way.
Consider a social understanding. This means understanding the basics of communicating and collaborating with AI agents (chatbots), and with AI-assisted people on the other end of chats, messages, and conversations.
Possess an ethical understanding. This helps you contemplate and even act on any moral crossroads and consequences you encounter on account of AI.
At some point, you’ll have to get in the AI waters.
You won’t have to dive into the deep end right away, but you’ll have to dip into the shallow section and swim around.
There are a lot of AI tools for small and micro businesses. They can help with marketing, sales, customer service, customer experience, hiring, or something else. When you’re ready to get deeper into the water, reach out to Brightstone. We’re here to help you wade through your questions, and find your stroke.