Being a small business owner means dealing with various day-to-day obstacles. From managing their cash flow and growing their business to marketing and attracting new clients, it’s all on them, and that can be overwhelming.
Also, the fact that they started their own business doesn’t necessarily make them marketers, business advisors, or strategists. It also doesn’t mean the SMB has the funds for those teams like their larger counterparts. Often, SMBs are left to fend for themselves, searching for help online, which is often too general and not personalized enough.
With AI in the picture, it’s all accessible at their fingertips.
We know, AI can be intimidating and not personalized for many small business owners, but we’ve designed a solution that will bridge the AI gap for SMBs with our launch of BizAI; an AI-driven business advisor that helps SMBs grow, market, and strategize for their business, in seconds.
Roll out the red carpet for BizAI
BizAI is vcita’s AI-driven business advisor, capable of handling requests and offering critical business advice to users. Users can view prewritten prompts on different topics, use one to start a conversation, or compose their own questions about their business and receive an answer in real time.
BizAI is not just another feature. It’s embedded into the vcita platform so users can access it easily for their daily workflows and processes. Whether they need a compelling description for their newest service or want to know how their pricing compares to others in their area, BizAI has all the answers. It even completes these tasks without forcing the small business to leave the platform – all done, all in one.
What truly sets BizAI apart from other AI tools, is that it uses data from two different sources: the business’ information from the vcita platform – in compliance with the highest standards of privacy and data protection, and market and competition information from web sources. These internal and external sources combine to provide the most well-rounded answers to the most complex of queries. What’s more, it uses this data to offer completely relevant and personalized responses for the small business – which is more than can be said for generic AI tools that are disconnected from the business vitals.
Why should this matter to you?
BizAI is pivotal in your SMB clients’ business, but it’s also a catalyst for competitive differentiation, stronger client relationships, and increased revenues for your business.
Competitive differentiation
Your SMBs not only need AI, they want it. A recent BILL survey found that 85% of SMBs are enthusiastic about adopting AI for smarter decision-making and 89% believe software vendors should be adding AI into their solutions. Incorporating the inTandem platform into your offering, which includes BizAI, is the perfect way to answer your small business clients’ evolving needs and differentiate yourself from competitors.
Stronger client relationships
According to our 2023 SMB marketing report, the second largest reason for SMB churn was that they didn’t feel the service provider was a true partner. Being a true partner to your small business clients means understanding and solving their most pressing pain points and offering them services that they might not even know they need. By including inTandem and BizAI in your offering, you are showing your SMBs that their needs are your top priority and that they can count on you to be their go-to for all their small business operations and strategies. This results in SMBs that feel appreciated, seen, and heard, and want to stick around for the long-term.
Increased revenues
BizAI is an inseparable part of the inTandem platform, enabling your business to create a sticky solution that consists of your existing services and inTandem’s comprehensive business management platform. Providing this SaaS solution to your SMBs will propel their digital transformation and diversify your revenue stream.
Benefits of BizAI for your SMBs
BizAI has the makings of a tool that can really impact small business operations and growth. Some of the benefits of BizAI include:
Can be used for various aspects of their business
Many AI tools support SMBs with content generation or marketing, but that’s only the beginning of AI for SMBs. None combine all of these capabilities into one and possess in-depth knowledge of the SMB’s business. BizAI can be used in marketing, content creation, business development, growth strategies, and the list goes on. It’s a multifunctional tool embedded into the vcita account, meaning it has various touch points throughout the platform and can be incorporated into many different workflows.
For example, BizAI can recommend the client that best fits a specific slot on the business owner’s calendar based on the client’s previous preferences. Or how about answering client messages? BizAI can suggest professional verbiage and ensure that proper messaging is used.
Saves the SMB much-needed time
AI is known to save time on research and writing. BizAI however, saves precious time for the SMB in many other aspects. Whether it’s comparing prices of competitors, finding new trends, or writing up an entire business plan, BizAI is right there to alleviate that stress and free up that time for the small business owner. One of our users was able to increase their prices with confidence thanks to BizAI’s suggestions
It’s cost-effective
Small business owners don’t always have the extra funds to use on business advisors and marketing experts. In fact, most small businesses cite cash flow issues as the main reason for closing. BizAI is included in the plan users pay for monthly. This means the small business receives a business advisor, a marketing expert, and more, for a fraction of the cost of hiring someone. Carla Stover, owner of Royal Mystic Tarot beamed: “Instead of me having to hire somebody that’s going to cost me thousands of dollars to tell me that my strategies are correct or incorrect, BizAI does it in a split second. And it’s giving me the correct information.”
Provides valuable data for refined decision-making
Data is a small business owner’s best friend but it is often inaccessible, misunderstood, or misinterpreted. With the proper use of data, SMBs can make smarter decisions and refine their efforts to reach their goals. By combining internal and external data sources, BizAI provides an opportunity for SMBs to access crucial information that would help them hone in on their marketing, growth, and overall business strategies. It can see the business’ activity and suggest better practices to get them closer to where they want to be.
Significantly reduces the learning curve
BizAI’s suggested prompts and follow-up questions drastically minimize the time it takes for an SMB to learn how to interact with AI. They quickly understand that by conversing with the tool, it learns their intentions and, when mixed with the data it already has on their business, can respond with the best possible answers. Further to this, it’s embedded into different workflows within the system, making it a no-brainer to use, minimizing friction while keeping the results highly contextualized.
Helps small business owners feel less lonely
Being a small business owner is often a one-person show. No longer with BizAI! From early user interviews, we learned that it makes SMBs feel less lonely and more confident on their journey of running their own business. They feel they they can consult with BizAI on anything business related and it reassures them. Stover told us, “BizAI helps me understand what other people are doing out there so that I’m not one man on an island trying to do everything without knowing whether it’s really effective.”
BizAI in action
BizAI is officially live to 100% of our direct users, offering immediate value to any small business owner who takes advantage. We are now in discussions with several partners who are eager to make BizAI available to their audience. If you are a vcita partner, please contact your partner success manager to learn more about BizAI
Here are some common uses for BizAI:
- Compare the SMBs’ prices to others in their area
- Offer ideas for business growth
- Recommend cost-reduction strategies
- Identify the most popular services in the SMB’s industry
- Suggest pricing for a new service or product
- Write descriptions of products and services
- Create email marketing campaigns to attract new customers
- Provide suggestions for social media promotion
- Come up with a strategy for a competitive advantage
- And so much more!
Users can choose from a suggested prompt or enter their own prompt, starting a conversation with BizAI and getting the answers they need. BizAI knows exactly what follow-up questions to ask to steer the conversation in the right direction and offer the best answers.
BizAI: the business companion every SMB needs
AI is here to stay, and we’re well aware of that. BizAI is our solution to help bridge the AI gap for small businesses and bring them to the brink of technological innovation. From handling their marketing and strategies to creating content that wins, BizAI has all the capabilities of a business advisor and professional marketer at a fraction of the cost.
It can be used for a variety of business cases, including content creation, strategy, social media suggestions, business advice, and more, making it the ultimate companion for small business owners.
The future of BizAI is bright – for both our direct users and our partners. From the SMB perspective, we will continue to add more AI use cases, make the data BizAI offers actionable, and empower SMBs to leverage AI for advanced automation.
For our partners, our roadmap includes the expansion of partner APIs, which enables them to leverage BizAI to build and integrate their own AI applications and introduce them into the platform.
If you’d like to learn more about the inTandem partner offering and how you can bring AI to your small business clients, schedule some time with one of our partner experts and we’ll explore how we can tailor the solution directly to your business needs.
