Aaron’s AI Academy

Guide

AI for small business owners

Most small businesses do not need an “AI strategy”. They need a few hours back each week and a way to use these tools without worrying about getting it wrong. That is a realistic goal, and this guide shows where to start.

By Aaron Wilkinson · Aaron's AI Academy

Start with the jobs you dislike

The best place to begin with AI in a small business is not the flashiest tool. It is the list of jobs that are repetitive, time-consuming and slightly dreaded: answering the same customer questions, writing product descriptions, turning scribbled notes into something presentable, chasing invoices, keeping social media ticking over. Those are usually where AI assistants help most, because they are mostly about words and structure.

A useful exercise is to jot down everything you did last week that involved writing, summarising, sorting or replying. Then ask of each one: would a capable assistant who does not know my business well be able to produce a decent first draft if I explained it properly? If yes, it is a candidate.

Marketing and content

AI will not replace knowing your customers, but it is very good at helping you turn what you know into content. Practical uses include:

  • Planning a month of social posts around your seasons, offers and events.
  • Drafting newsletters, website pages and product descriptions in a consistent voice.
  • Turning one piece of content, say a blog post or a customer story, into several shorter posts.
  • Writing several versions of an advert or email subject line so you can pick the best.
  • Creating simple images for social media, with sensible care over what is appropriate to generate.

The trick is to give the AI a short “brand brief”, describing who your customers are, how you talk to them and what you never say, and reuse it every time. Most assistants now let you save instructions like this, so you do not have to repeat yourself.

Customer service and communication

Many small businesses answer the same twenty questions over and over. AI can help you write a clear FAQ, create reply templates you can personalise in seconds, and draft calm, professional responses to difficult messages when you are too close to the situation. It can also summarise a batch of reviews or survey responses so you can see the themes without reading every word.

More advanced options, such as a chat assistant on your website trained on your own information, are possible too. They are worth doing carefully and with human oversight, and usually only once the basics are working well.

Admin, spreadsheets and paperwork

  • Spreadsheets: AI can write formulas for you, tidy up messy data, and explain what a spreadsheet someone else built is doing. Copilot in Excel and Gemini in Google Sheets bring this directly into the tools you may already use.
  • Meetings: turning notes or transcripts into a summary with clear actions.
  • Documents: first drafts of policies, procedures, proposals and quotes, which you then check and adapt.
  • Automation: no-code tools such as Zapier, Make and Microsoft Power Automate can connect your forms, email and spreadsheets, with an AI step in the middle to sort, summarise or draft. For example, a website enquiry can arrive, be summarised, be logged in a spreadsheet and get a draft reply, ready for you to check.
  • AI agents: a newer kind of tool that carries out multi-step tasks rather than just answering questions. OpenClaw is an open-source personal agent you run on your own computer or server and message from apps such as WhatsApp or Slack; Grok Bot works through tasks in your apps and websites on your behalf, checking with you before anything sensitive. They are powerful, but need careful permissions. Our guide to AI agents, OpenClaw and OpenRouter explains the basics.

Using AI responsibly with customer data

For UK businesses this matters. Under UK GDPR you are responsible for what happens to customers’ personal data, including when you paste it into an AI tool. Sensible starting rules:

  • Do not put customers’ personal details into free consumer AI tools unless you have checked how that data is handled.
  • Prefer business versions of tools, which typically offer stronger data protections, for anything involving client information.
  • Remove names and identifying details where you can. Often the task works just as well without them.
  • Keep a human in charge of anything that goes out to customers, especially anything involving money, complaints or advice.
  • Write down a simple, one-page AI use policy so everyone in the business follows the same rules.

This is general information rather than legal advice; if you handle sensitive data, it is worth checking the ICO’s guidance or speaking to an adviser.

How to get started this week

  1. Choose one assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and use it for business tasks every day for a fortnight.
  2. Write your brand brief and save it as custom instructions.
  3. Pick one recurring task, such as replying to enquiries, and build a prompt you can reuse for it.
  4. Time yourself before and after. Keep what saves time and drop what does not.

AI training for small business owners

If you would like help, there are two routes. The Practical AI Workflows course is a seven-session live course designed around exactly these business uses: prompt engineering, custom assistants, marketing, customer service, spreadsheets, AI agents, automation and responsible data use. It is taught live in English, and it is not a webinar: you can ask questions at any time. Bring your own real tasks and leave with workflows you actually use. The first session is free. If you are brand new to AI, start with the beginner course instead.

If you would rather focus entirely on your own business, a private one-to-one session lets us work through your specific tasks, tools and questions together.