AI Essentials for Entrepreneurs & SMBs

AI VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS

Whether you’re a small business owner, start-up entrepreneur, or a solopreneur looking to streamline your business, if you haven’t started experimenting with AI, you’re missing out.

Nearly half (49%) of Americans said they interact with AI at least several times a week, with 22% saying they use AI “almost constantly” or several times a day, according to recent Pew Research.¹

AI can help you:

• Plan and book trips

• Create a marketing plan

• Generate social media content ideas and outlines

• Deliver better customer service

• And much more...

With so many AI tools available, it can be hard to choose the right one. That's why we share the best AI apps, tools, and services straight to your inbox.

Before picking AI tools, identify your goals: Do you need to organize your life, automate business tasks, or streamline your inbox?

AI virtual assistants can help with these and many other small business tasks, but sometimes, you may need a variety of tools to meet your objectives.

We’re here to help you discover how AI virtual assistants, chatbots, and other tools can save you time and boost productivity. Let’s dig in…

Unlock Your Potential: Transform Your Business Life with AI Virtual Assistants

A virtual assistant is a broad term for a service professional who works remotely to enhance your business operations.

Real-life VAs offer services ranging from social media management to booking travel. They might help you set appointments, transcribe meeting notes and prepare recaps, answer emails for you, or balance your books.

AI virtual assistants are similar, offering a variety of business management, marketing, and customer-facing services. The differences?

• AI VAs may cost less.

• You don’t have to worry about time differences.

• AI doesn’t need any time off, and is always there when you need it.

Of course, as with any role that can use AI, there is still a place for living, breathing VAs. Virtual assistants may even use AI to streamline the tasks they perform. Whether you’re a VA or in need of VA services, here are some of our favorite AI tools you can use to boost your productivity.

Google Gemini

If you’re reading this, you’re probably familiar with OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the leading AI chatbot, with 200+ million monthly active users worldwide and more than 77 million in the U.S.

But Google Gemini stands out for certain tasks for SMBs. In the Top AI Tools offices, we like using it for research and references since it draws information from Google in real-time and tends to be more up-to-date than other AI services.

In one analysis, Gemini outperformed ChatGPT in 30 out of 32 benchmark tests. Read more about that success story here.

What’s Gemini good for? You can use Gemini in the same ways you use ChatGPT – for research, brainstorming, practical tips, business plans, and more. But Gemini offers a few enhanced features. For instance, you can use Gemini to:

• Answer specific questions regarding content in a YouTube video

• Generate images

• Not just provide content like titles for videos or blogs, but explain why these titles may be effective

Success AI

Is your inbox out of control? Success AI can help you manage emails and also optimize your email marketing strategies. We love that this tool lets you handle multiple business email accounts, can help you craft tailored content, and even uses AI to boost your reputation, resulting in a better chance that your email will reach the primary mailbox for your recipient.

Even better: Success AI can help you craft emails that convert. You’ll find more than 700 million verified professional contacts in the database, making it ideal for your next successful campaign.

Learn more about Success AI here.

Wonderchat

More than one-quarter (28%) of busy execs said they believe chatbots and other AI-powered automated communications technology will have the largest impact on their business in coming years.

The right chatbot saves time and helps people get the answers they need, without the human interaction they might not.

Power-up perk: Wonderchat sets up in less than five minutes to deliver ChatGPT-powered services to handle customer service inquiries 24/7, with subscription prices starting as low as $50 per month.

Learn more about Wonderchat here.

Frase

Whether you’re a publisher, an e-commerce site, or a service provider, search engine optimization (SEO) is more important than ever to help the right people find you online.

Frase simplifies SEO for SMBs with these capabilities:

• Analyze search engine results pages (SERPs) to find the most effective competing content

• Generate a detailed outline for your writers

• Optimize the article as you write

All-in-one winner: With Frase, there’s no need to switch between multiple tools for AI-powered SEO research, content brief creation, and writing. It’s all there so your team can coordinate and create higher quality, optimized content quickly.

Check out Frase now.

Notion AI

In our last newsletter, we talked about how much we love Notion AI for project management. But it does so much more to streamline operations.

The Notion AI add-on allows you to ask a question directly in the platform to gain insights into workflows or project status. It can sort through your other apps and programs to provide the information you need.

You can gain assistance writing, editing or brainstorming within the app, without having to open a separate browser tab.

Time-saver ✅ : And if you’re looking at pages of data, Notion AI can sort it into a simple table for you. Talk about a valuable virtual assistant!

Enhance Your Notion capabilities here.

FOCUS:

This AI Tool Boosts Shopify Marketing Efficiency

Shopify is one of the largest e-commerce platforms available, holding more than 16% of the market share. If you're among them, you'll understand that Shopify store owners are constantly seeking ways to streamline operations, enhance visibility, and increase conversions.

Enter tinyAlbert, which takes less than two minutes to set up (really!) and costs as little as $3 per month, all the while helping you automate tasks, grow your email list, and launch promotions with a few clicks.

Whether you’re just launching your Shopify site or looking to grow, tinyAlbert is worth checking out.

SPONSOR:

Revolutionalize Your Inbox with Sanebox

If you’re like most business owners, your inbox is perpetually overflowing: informative newsletters (like this one!), requests for proposals, emails from prospective employees and recruiters, not to mention meeting invites, “quick questions” from colleagues, and social media notifications of every ilk.

SaneBox helps turn the insanity into actionable insights to help you save time and build more meaningful connections. Establish custom folders. Filter emails via AI-powered algorithms. Receive digest overviews of content you don’t want to miss but may not need right away.

In a review on Top AI Tools, CEO Brian Prince points out that SaneBox has helped revolutionize his overall approach to time management and task prioritization….

“It's an indispensable tool that every professional should consider incorporating into their workflow,” he wrote. “With SaneBox, achieving inbox zero is no longer a dream but a daily reality.” 💌