Generative AI for Common Business Operations

Abstract

Operations and management are key components of running a successful small business, but they can provide obstacles owing to limited resources and expertise. As small firms negotiate the complex landscape of management, using cutting-edge technology such as Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and design thinking offers a promising path for optimizing operations and boosting growth. The integration of Generative AI technology has the potential to transform small business management practices by providing automation, predictive analytics, and personalized insights. However, successful implementation involves a thorough understanding of consumers' wants, preferences, and pain areas. Design Thinking, a human-centered approach to innovation, provides a framework for connecting Generative AI products with the specific needs of small business owners. This study makes an effort to use empathy maps to pinpoint the issues small businesses face when integrating GenAI into their operations. Businesses can customize their approach to using or implementing Generative AI solutions to address important problems, relieve pain points, highlight gains, and provide valuable insights to their consumers by understanding the viewpoint of small business owners and stakeholders. This study's primary goal is to investigate how small organizations might use Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to boost competitiveness, foster creativity, and increase operational efficiency via the lens of Design Thinking. Using empathy maps, the study aims to assess how generative AI technologies might be used to address business difficulties, streamline procedures, and foster creativity in the creation of new products and services as well as customer interaction.

Keywords

Design Thinking, Empathy Map, Small Business, Generative AI.

Introduction

Generative AI is positioned to catalyze the upcoming surge in productivity. Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Stable Diffusion, and similar innovations have ignited the imagination of individuals worldwide. The ease of use and ability to have a conversation with the user enables it usage by wide range of stakeholders. However, the rapid pace of development in generative AI technology is adding complexity to this task.

This is just the outset of a journey to grasp the potential, depth, and capabilities of generative AI. Generative AI (GenAI) has a potential in reshaping the work process, augmenting the capabilities of individual workers through the automation of specific tasks. The value created by generative AI for the business is over and above the value created by analytics and other AI models.

1. The major benefits of GenAI for business includes:
2. Reduced need for hands-on employee involvement.
3. Assistance and quality assurance for tasks driven by employees.
4. Improved user experiences
5. Accelerated project delivery times.
6. Solutions specific to industries such as pharma, banking, manufacturing etc.

As numerous business proprietors grapple with grasping the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for their enterprises, significant proportion of small businesses have adopted AI tools, leading to substantial enhancements in efficiency and annual savings of money. There are quite a good number of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Dall-E2, Chatspot, Zoho Zia, Upmetrics, Otter etc. which can be used by small business owners to enhance their productivity, profitability, and competitiveness. The recent upsurge in the adoption of AI tools can be attributed to the tight labor market especially after COVID-19. 83% of the small business owners plan to invest in AI.

The choice of specific AI tool depends on budget, specific business requirements, ease of use, scalability, and its ability to integrate with current systems. With the continuous evolution of natural language processing models, generative AI tools are poised to become increasingly robust and precise. This technology is being embraced by a growing number of tools and is being utilized across various industries and specialized applications. Recent survey indicates that AI is not for large businesses anymore. There is a strong association between small business using AI and its success.

For solo entrepreneurs, GenAI tools have the capability to aid in tasks that are time-consuming or repetitive, such as crafting captions or product descriptions. Similarly, recording technology can be employed to capture meeting notes and generate call transcriptions. This paper tries to explore the usage of GenAI by small businesses to identify the pain points and suggest ways to promote its usage.

Theoretical Framework

Generative AI consists of subsets of artificial intelligence techniques and algorithms for generating new ideas or content based on the inputs data it was trained on. Unlike traditional AI models that are used for prediction, generative AI models focus on creating new content such as text videos, images, and audio. The models can process large and unstructured data with ease. Generative AI models can be applied to various aspects of business which can include:

1. Content generation for storytelling, art, and music.
2. Text generation for tasks
3. Image synthesis
4. Drug discovery and molecular design.
5. Designing games and virtual world generation

Generative AI can offer numerous benefits for small businesses across various industries. Here are some ways small businesses can leverage generative AI:

1. Content Creation for marketing: Small businesses can use generative AI to create engaging content for their websites, social media platforms, and marketing materials. AI-powered tools can generate blog posts, product descriptions, social media posts, and even video scripts, saving costs and time and increasing effectiveness. There exist 63 potential applications for generative AI spanning 16 business functions, with the capacity to yield total economic benefits ranging from $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually when deployed across diverse industries.

2. Design and Creativity: Generative AI can assist small businesses in generating designs for logos, branding materials, product packaging, and website layouts. These tools can help create visually appealing and unique designs tailored to the business's brand identity.

3. Customers Data Analysis: To meet the specific needs of the customer, generative AI can help small businesses personalize their products and services according to their requirements. This could include personalized recommendations, product configurations, or targeted marketing campaigns.

4. Chatbots and Customer Service: Small businesses can implement AI-powered chatbots to provide round-the-clock customer support. Generative AI can train chatbots to understand and respond to customer inquiries, resolve common issues, and provide relevant information, enhancing the overall customer experience. A greater portion of customer inquiries can be automated through Generative AI except for a few inquiries that necessitate the assistance of a human agent. Generative AI can reduce the time required for a human sales representative to respond to a customer by offering real-time assistance and suggesting subsequent actions.

5. Generative AI enables the instant translation of mass email campaigns into multiple languages for specific audiences. This, in turn, enhances customer value, conversion, and retention over the long term. The customer's preferences, behavior, and purchase history can be analyzed using GenAI to suggest suitable products and services to him. This facilitates sales of e-commerce companies through increased website conversion rates.

6. New Product Development and Prototyping: Generative AI can assist small businesses in product development by generating prototypes and design iterations based on specified criteria and constraints. This can streamline the product development process and help businesses bring new products to market more efficiently. For the industries such as life sciences and chemical industries, GenAI facilitates the process of developing new drugs and materials.

7. Data Analysis and Insights: Generative AI algorithms can analyze large datasets to identify patterns, trends, and insights that can inform business decisions. Small businesses can use these insights to optimize operations, improve marketing strategies, and identify new opportunities for growth. The recent use cases of generative AI exclude numerical and optimization applications.

8. Virtual Assistants and Administrative Tasks: Small businesses can leverage generative AI to automate administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments, managing emails, and organizing documents. Virtual assistants powered by AI can help increase productivity and efficiency within the organization. Generative AI can assist knowledge workers in scanning the corporate libraries stored in natural language for gathering information which they can fine tune to their requirements. This augmentation can help in accelerating the productivity of these workers.

9. Coding assistant: GenAI will help reduce the expenditure on software engineering to the extent of 20% to 45%. This impact could result from the time saved in routine tasks such as drafting initial code, correcting, and refactoring code, conducting root-cause analysis, and generating new system designs. There are evidences that use of Microsoft Github increased the efficiency of software developers by 56%.

10. Language Translation and Localization: For small businesses operating in global markets, generative AI offers language translation and localization services to surmount language obstacles and extend their reach to a broader audience. These tools can help translate content accurately and efficiently, enabling businesses to expand their reach internationally.

Thus, generative AI presents numerous opportunities for small businesses to improve efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation across various aspects of their operations (for details see Table 1). By leveraging these technologies effectively, small businesses can gain a competitive edge in today's dynamic marketplace.

Source: Vani Aggarwal, Manpreet Kaur, Parvathy Padmaja, and Faraz Ahmad, https://www.abacademies.org/articles/exploring-the-generative-ai-for-small-business-a-design-thinking-approach-17204.html
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.