20 Must-Have AI Tools for Small Business Leaders

Small businesses aren’t really so small; in fact, they make up around 90 percent of industry and generate close to 50 percent of global GDP. This means that while superscale giants like Amazon and Google may make headlines developing and selling AI tools, it’s often the global network of innovators, entrepreneurs and dreamers running small businesses that will create real value with these tools.

The Potential of AI for Small Businesses

If that’s you, then AI can help out with much of the heavy lifting involved in marketing, administration, compliance, customer service and more. So, here’s a rundown of some of the best AI tools that make it easy for any business owner, sole trader, or self-employed tradesperson to join the AI revolution.

Five Of The Best AI Tools

1. Adobe Express: Express is like a cut-down version of the full Adobe suite of productivity tools, powered by genAI and Adobe’s proprietary Firefly AI engine. It is primarily aimed at helping with the creation of marketing materials and assets, including videos. A key selling point of Adobe’s genAI offerings is that they are entirely trained on data that Adobe actually owns, heading off any problems that might appear further down the line with changes to regulations around AI and copyrighted works.
2. Descript: Probably the simplest way to start creating and editing video content for business marketing, with the ability to create, cut and rearrange videos simply by editing the transcript. Generative AI is used to power automatic transcriptions, as well as powerful functions like overdubbing with cloned AI voiceovers, virtual green-screen backgrounds and removal of filler words and clumsy-sounding “uhms” and “errs” from recorded speech. A fantastic tool that can hugely reduce the cost and need for technical expertise when creating business videos.
3. Freshdesk Freddy AI Copilot: AI helpdesk agent that can answer customer questions, escalate them when human intervention is needed, and autonomously take action, such as issuing refunds. Customer service is quickly becoming one of the hot use cases for generative AI, with its ability to provide instant 24/7 help and become more efficient as it learns about your customers’ common pain points. Freddy analyses the sentiment of customer communications to draft knowledge-based articles and FAQs.
4. Salesforce Agentforce Assistant: Customer data holds all sorts of clues to business success—imagine if you could just talk to it and ask it questions. Well, that’s the idea behind Salesforce’s genAI CRM assistant, formerly known as Einstein Copilot but now part of the Agentforce agentic AI suite. It can dive into your customer data to answer in-depth questions and identify new business opportunities.
5. Microsoft 365 Copilot: What makes this great is that it essentially adds AI assistance to the popular Office tools that have long been the backbone of small business productivity. Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and more all benefit from the integration of Copilot, meaning that everything from drafting emails and web copy to creating presentations and analyzing data can be automated and managed with natural language prompts.

More Great Small Business Generative AI Tools

If none of those tick all the boxes you need, take a look at some of these options:

• Buffer: Designed to help small businesses build their social audience, with a generous free tier that provides access to its AI assistant features.
• Canva Magic Studio: Creates everything from branded social media graphics to animated marketing videos from simple prompts.
• Grammarly: The great thing about this genAI grammar and writing tool is that it integrates with just about everything from Word to your web browser, meaning advice and content suggestions are available across all your tools.
• Jasper: Copywriting tool optimized for creating business marketing copy and blogs.
• LiveChat: Set up and run automated chatbots to talk to your website visitors and convert them into subscribers or customers.
• Mailchimp: Email marketing is still a great way to get your business noticed and start generating repeat customers, and Mailchimp’s generative AI functionality lets you automate the process as well as quickly generate branded, optimized content for your campaigns.
• Monday: Monday is a project management and collaborative working platform, and now you can chat with it in real time to get live insights into your projects and workflows, as well as automated decision-making.
• Otter: Otter is an automated meeting assistant that takes notes, creates summaries and delivers action plans by analyzing the chatter during team or client online meetings.
• Sage: The popular self-service accounting package now lets business owners automate invoicing and payments. It can even answer questions about bookkeeping and provide insights into cash flow using natural language.
• Shopify Sidekick: Millions of businesses use the Shopify platform to simplify their e-commerce operations, and the new built-in Sidekick AI assistant helps out with routine tasks like drafting product descriptions as well as in-depth analytics for business insights.
• Tableau Pulse: Thanks to AI, even smaller organizations can benefit from data analytics and the insights it can surface. Pulse is a simplified, AI-powered version of the popular data analytics platform, tailored for smaller businesses and designed to be accessible to anyone, not just data science experts.
• Sprout Social: Who needs a dedicated social media manager? Sprout Social helps businesses surface trends with automated social listening and insights and then quickly drafts polished, effective posts.
• Tidio: Create and deploy automated sales and customer service agents.
• Wix AI Website Builder: The first step to getting a business off the ground is often a great website, and DIY platform Wix now features an AI assistant bot that will build it for you from simple prompts.
• Xero: Another AI-powered accounting package that has just launched a new low-price plan tailored for small business owners and sole traders who want to get started with AI.

Conclusion

The AI revolution isn’t just for large companies with big budgets. Small business owners who embrace these tools today will find themselves better positioned to compete, scale, and thrive in an increasingly digital marketplace. Whether you’re a sole trader looking to automate your first customer service bot or an entrepreneur ready to transform your entire workflow, the future of small business success lies in making AI a valuable team member.

FAQs

• Q: What percentage of global industry is made up of small businesses?
  A: Small businesses make up around 90 percent of global industry.
• Q: How much of global GDP is generated by small businesses?
  A: Small businesses generate close to 50 percent of global GDP.
• Q: What is the primary aim of Adobe Express?
  A: Adobe Express is primarily aimed at helping with the creation of marketing materials and assets, including videos.
• Q: What can Descript be used for?
  A: Descript can be used for creating and editing video content for business marketing, including automatic transcriptions and powerful functions like overdubbing with cloned AI voiceovers.
• Q: What is Freshdesk Freddy AI Copilot used for?
  A: Freshdesk Freddy AI Copilot is an AI helpdesk agent that can answer customer questions, escalate them when human intervention is needed, and autonomously take action, such as issuing refunds.
• Q: What is the main function of Salesforce Agentforce Assistant?
  A: Salesforce Agentforce Assistant can dive into your customer data to answer in-depth questions and identify new business opportunities.
• Q: How does Microsoft 365 Copilot assist small businesses?
  A: Microsoft 365 Copilot adds AI assistance to the popular Office tools, automating tasks such as drafting emails, creating presentations, and analyzing data with natural language prompts.
• Q: What other AI tools are available for small businesses?
  A: Other AI tools available include Buffer, Canva Magic Studio, Grammarly, Jasper, LiveChat, Mailchimp, Monday, Otter, Sage, Shopify Sidekick, Tableau Pulse, Sprout Social, Tidio, Wix AI Website Builder, and Xero.