The Best AI Tools For Small Businesses [Updated September 2023]

The digital age has come with its fair share of game-changers, but the influence of artificial intelligence on small businesses is shaping to be one of the most transformative. The age-old saying, "Work smarter, not harder," might as well be the unofficial tagline for AI in the world of commerce.

Right now, AI isn't just for tech giants with deep pockets anymore. Small businesses like yours are harnessing the power of AI to level up and stay competitive. The future is being written in code, and it's high time to hop on board.

And if you're scratching your head thinking, "Where the heck do I even start with AI?" – don't. Our mission with this article is to give you some solid options. Whether you need something to optimize your sales process, generate content, or just want to make your day-to-day operations a tad smoother, we've got the lowdown on the best tools on the market right now.

The Best Generative AI Tools

For small businesses, generative AI is like having a multi-talented creator on board, only without the coffee breaks and vacation days. While generative AI isn't magic, it's definitely the next best thing. As a subtype of artificial intelligence, it was created to do everything from art to text, often in eerily human-like ways.

Text Generative AI

The Best Text Generative AI Tools

Chat-GPT

The best at understanding complex nuances and creating varied content.

• Features: Advanced natural language processing, extensive language support, integration capabilities with various platforms, and robust APIs, intuitive interface.
• Pricing: OpenAI operates on a subscription model. Access to GPT-3 is free, but if you want to use their latest model, you have to pay $20 per month.
• Use Case: Ideal for advanced content creation, including blog posts, articles, and ad copies.

Chatsonic

The best at creating accurate and up-to-date content on various topics.

• Features: Factual content generation, artwork generation, voice commands, integration with external tools
• Pricing: Offers a free trial of 2,500 words/month. The pro plan starts at $19/month and the enterprise plan can be customized by contacting their sales team
• Use Case: Ideal for informative and journalistic-type content.

Agility Writer

The best at generating content in bulk.

• Features: Content generation in bulk, SEO optimization, smart outiline builder, in-depth factual data.
• Pricing: Offers a Basic, Pro, Premium, Elite and Ultimate Plan. They come in at $25, $88, $205, $475, $898 per month.
• Use Case: Perfect for small business who need to create SEO-friendly long-form content in large amounts.

CopyAI

The best at generating engaging sales content.

• Features: Text generation, translation, writing templates, integration with search engines.
• Pricing: Offers a free version with limited features. If you want access to the pro version, you’re looking to pay $36/month for up to 5 users. For the enterprise plan, you can request a demo.
• Use Case: Great with product descriptions, landing pages, web copy, and any type of sales content.

Quillbot

The best at paraphrasing, detecting plagiarism, and overhauling your content.

• Features: Paraphrase tool, plagiarism checker, grammar checker, translator, co-writer, summarizer, citation generator.
• Pricing: Offers limited free version, but you can also pay a minimum of $4.17/month for the premium version. A cheaper business version starts at $2.91/month/writer.
• Use Case: Great for people in academia (students or teachers ) who need to detect plagiarism or co-author content.

Art Generative AI

The Best Art Generative AI Tools

DALL·E

The best at creating photorealistic images.

• Features: Image generation, inpainting, outpainting, variations.
• Pricing: Each text prompt costs one credit and produces a set of four photos. Credits are $15 for 115, or $0.13 each prompt or $0.0325 per image.
• Use Case: Suited for businesses needing custom graphics and realistic images.

Midjourney

The best at producing vivid and detail-focused images.

• Features: High-quality image generation, customization options, easy-to-use interface, visible creation process, active community.
• Pricing: The basic model starts at $10/month. The standard and corporate model go for $30 and 60$ per month.
• Use Case: Amazing for both business professionals who are looking to automate their creative process and hobbyists looking to have some fun.

Stable Diffusion

The best at creating images in a wide range of styles.

• Features: Text-to-image generation, image-to-image generation, inpainting editor, face restoration, image upscaling, mobile app.
• Pricing: Offers a free version alongside three paid plans. The Basic Plan costs  $9/month, and the Standard and Premium Plans cost $49 and $149 per month.
• Use Case: Perfect for any creator who is looking for a versatile tool that can produce a wide range of images.

Generative Fill

The best at correcting and improving stand-alone images.

• Features: Content generation, seamless blending, object removal, gap filling, backround extension.
• Pricing: Offers a 7-day free trial followed by the normal Photoshop plan which starts at $20.99/month.
• Use Case: Suited for improving photos, restoring images, and speeding up your editing and creation process.

NightCafe

The best at creating vivid ( and NSFW ) imagery and fine-tuning prompts.

• Features: Image generation, active community, NSFW imagery, preset styles, style transfer method.
• Pricing: Offers credits costing anywhere between $4.79 for 100 credits to $39.99 for 1400 credits.  Depending on some factors, one image typically costs one credit.
• Use Case: Great if you're learning how to prompt for artwork generation, trying to get access to edgier art, create NFTs or NSFW imagery.

The Best Productivity AI Tools

In an age where time is often equated with money, productivity is paramount. As businesses hustle to streamline operations, AI emerges as an ally, turbocharging efficiency and ensuring every second counts. These tools, designed with precision and intelligence, have ushered in a revolution in how businesses operate daily.

While generative AI gives you content and art, productivity AI tools focus on enhancing operational efficiency. They're the unsung heroes in the background, scheduling meetings, transcribing conversations, or even sorting through the deluge of emails that flood inboxes.

By automating tasks that once consumed chunks of time, they enable professionals to focus on what truly matters: innovation and strategic decision-making.

The Best Productivity AI Tools

OtterAI

The best at transcribing real-time videos.

• Features: Speech recognition, transcription, speaker identification, summarization, voice training and personalization, integration with Google and Calendar.
• Pricing: The Basic version is free. The Pro version starts at $8.33/month, while the Business version starts at $20/month. For the Enterprise version pricing, you have to contact the sales team.
• Use Case: A great tool for anyone looking to transcribe interviews, podcasts, meetings and more.

Zapier

The best at streamlining workflows and plan projects more effectively.

• Features: Creates automated tasks, code with AI, multi-steps zaps, creates multiple paths, writes filters, creates schedules.
• Pricing: Provides a free version.  The Starter edition costs $19.99 per month, while the Professional version costs $49 per month for each user. The team version's monthly price is $399 and the company version costs $799 per month.
• Use Case: Bringing automation in marketing strategies, providing better customer support, streamlining management workflows.

TLDR

The best at summarizing anything into easy-to-digest content and planning projects more effectively.

• Features: Test summarization, ad-free reading, metadata extraction, browser extension, keyword detection.
• Pricing: Offers a free version for new users. You also have three subscription models based on how many summaries you need. The starter package comes at around $4/month, the professional one is $8/month, and the business one is $16/month.
• Use Case: Great for students who need to go through large amounts of information.

The Best Programming AI Tools

In the programming environment, AI tools stand out by offering substantial help in code completion, bug prediction, and automated testing. These tools expedite the development process, enhance code quality, and ensure robust testing.

However, you have to approach them with caution. Over-dependence on AI can erode coding skills, and these tools may not cover every programming scenario. The investment might also prove to be quite substantial. Let’s explore the detailed pros and cons to understand better the impact of AI tools on programming.

The Best Programming AI Tools

GitHub Copilot

The largest programming AI tool on the market.

• Features: Auto complete, toggle through options, code snippet improvement, code generation based on comments, debugging and improving existing code.
• Pricing: Offers a two-month free trial. Individuals pay a monthly billing of $10 per month and a yearly billing of $100 per year (approximately $8.30 per month). Businesses pay a monthly billing of 19$ per month per copilot seat. The tool is free for verified students, teachers and maintainers of popular open-source repositories on GitHub.
• Use Case: Perfect for junior programmers who want to learn, programmers who want to speed up their workflow, teams who want to onboard new people, etc.

TensorFlow

The best for building and implementing Machine Learning models.

• Features: Graph visualization, TensorBoard visualization, neural network support, open-source library, high-level APIs.
• Pricing: Free and open-source.
• Use Case: Great for natural language processing, reinforcement learning, seeing patterns at a scale, behavior prediction, generative AI, etc.

Tabnine

The best at predictive coding, while also supporting a variety of programming languages.

• Features: Code refactoring, code linting, automatic code documentation, intelligent code suggestions and completion.
• Pricing: Offers a free Basic Plan. The Pro Plan cost $12, and for the Enterprise Plan you can contact their team.
• Use Case: Great for both junior and senior editors who use multiple programming languages and need to streamline their efforts.

Codiga

The best for code reviewing.

• Features: Code review, custom instructions, security features.
• Pricing: Offers a free version. The Pro Plan is $14/month.
• Use Case: Great for professionals who quickly need to review their code.

OpenAI Codex

The best for new programmers who need to start coding right away.

• Features: Natural language prompting, easy-to-use interface, quick setup, automatic code completion.
• Pricing: Free and open source.
• Use Case: Great for beginners who are learning to code and professional programmers who need to quicken their process.

The Ethical Challenges of Using AI in Business

When it comes to doing business, it's crucial to pause and ponder the ethical dimensions intertwined with AI's integration in your specific industry. After all, it’s not just about maximizing efficiency or boosting profits. It’s also about ensuring fairness, protecting data privacy, and upholding the values that resonate with your customers and business style. Here’s how you do that:

Data Privacy

Your customer's data is not just binary bits floating in the digital ether. It's confidential information that demands respect and protection. Employing AI tools must not compromise the sanctity of this data. As a small business, emphasizing robust data protection policies while implementing AI not only secures the information but also fortifies the trust your customers place in you.

Transparency

Transparency builds trust, a cornerstone for any thriving business. Be open about your use of AI – let your customers know how AI tools are employed in your operations and how their data is being handled. This transparency not only fosters trust but also positions your business as ethically conscious and responsible.

Fairness

AI is a powerful tool, yet it mirrors the data it’s fed with, which can inadvertently perpetuate biases. It's paramount for your small business to ensure that AI tools are utilized in a manner that promotes fairness and equality. Regular audits of AI systems, sensitivity to diversity, and an inclusive approach to AI implementation can act as pillars of fairness in your AI endeavors.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to use AI tools for small businesses?

There are plenty of ways in which you can utilize AI for your small business. You can introduce it in your customer support process to ensure 24/7 assistance and immediate query resolution. Or implement it for precise sales forecasting and demand-based inventory management to cut overheads.

You can also employ AI algorithms for personalized marketing and efficient fraud detection in online transactions or optimize the hiring process by using AI to match resumes with job descriptions effectively.

What is the best AI tool to write a business plan?

Tools like Chat-GPT and Jasper offer AI-driven insights and templates for business plan creation.

What is the best AI tool for budgeting?

Pluto and PocketGuard are AI-powered budgeting tools that help users track expenses and provide insights into spending habits. For businesses specifically, AI tools integrated with accounting software like QuickBooks can provide intelligent financial forecasting.

Which AI is the best?

This is subjective and depends on the context. For general-purpose tasks and wide-ranging applications, OpenAI's GPT series is highly regarded. For image generation, tools like Midjourney and NightCafe are popular. It really depends on the specific application.

What is the smartest AI today?

OpenAI's GPT-4  is one of the most advanced in terms of natural language processing. However, "smartest" is relative—other AIs like DeepMind's AlphaFold excel in protein folding predictions, a totally different domain.

What is the best AI platform to use?

For building and training AI models, platforms like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Azure Machine Learning are popular. The "best" platform depends on the specific needs and familiarity of the user.

Is there a better AI than OpenAI?

OpenAI is an organization that has developed several AI models, including the GPT series. Other organizations, like DeepMind (acquired by Google), have also produced groundbreaking AIs like AlphaGo and AlphaFold. The notion of "better" depends on the context and the specific problem you're aiming to solve.

Which is the most powerful AI app?

"Powerful" is a broad term. If by powerful you mean versatility in general language tasks, then GPT-4 or its successors would be contenders. If by powerful you mean transformative impact on a field, then DeepMind's AlphaFold in the realm of biology might be a top pick. It all depends on the criteria for "powerful."

Bottom Line

In the intricate world of small businesses, navigating through various tasks can feel like a tightrope walk. But with the integration of AI tools, you're not only steadying the rope but also paving a smoother path forward.

From enhancing customer support with AI chatbots to making informed decisions for inventory management and sales forecasting, AI is revolutionizing each segment of business operations. It's helping in pinpointing your marketing strategies, ensuring a secure transaction environment, and even streamlining your hiring process.

Despite the undeniable boons, a thoughtful approach is essential to avoid over-dependence and other potential pitfalls. Remember to strike a balance, combining AI advancements with human insight for optimal business growth. Embrace the future, where AI tools stand as robust allies in bolstering your small business, steering it towards unprecedented heights of success and innovation.