How Austin's small businesses are using Artificial Intelligence

Creating a small business can be costly; from paying for marketing to bookkeeping.

AUSTIN (KXAN) --- Creating a small business can be costly; from paying for marketing to bookkeeping.

It has some small business owners turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI).

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, about 25% of small businesses said they are using or testing AI so they can outpace competitors.

AI lessons in Austin

Distance Learning Media partnered with the City of Austin and Texas Veterans Commission to teach small business owners different ways to grow their business and compete with larger companies by using AI.

Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Distance Learning Media, Julie Niehoff, holds classes where she teaches the advantages of using AI.

"Anything that is automated, and is making shortcuts for you, that's AI. When we hear about AI, it sounds scary," Niehoff said. "In terms of daily life and AI tools, it's not something to be afraid of."

Instead of struggling to market or create designs, Niehoff said AI makes it pretty easy.

"When you go into Chat GBT, you can say, 'Write me a social media post' or, 'Write me an outline for a class'. You can take it beyond that and say, 'Who are my likely best customers? What are their likely objections'," Niehoff said. "It will provide that information for you, or at least a starting point for you to start considering things that maybe you hadn't thought of."

In these classes, Niehoff emphasizes that AI is not used to just get the job done.

"That doesn't mean you just take that as, 'That's my audience. There you go.' It's not like that. But you can take it and it might trigger something in your brain of, 'Oh, I didn't even think of that,' and take you down another road for another opportunity for revenue," Niehoff said.

Ultimately, Niehoff said AI still needs that human touch.

"Their experience cannot be replaced by that machine," Niehoff said. "You still need to put that human layer of intelligence, human intelligence across the top."

'Opened my eyes'

Shani Montique-Ahmad has worked with Distance Learning Media to grow her south Austin business, Franklin Music Academy.

She and her husband teach customized music lessons.

"[The toolkit] really kind of opened my eyes as to how we can streamline and work faster. I think for a lot of small businesses, one of our biggest problems is keeping up with larger companies," said Montique-Ahmad.

Montique-Ahmad is using AI to help expand their business.

"You can have AI do project management, tasking, marketing, content creation," Montique-Ahmad. "It can help you build apps for your businesses."

It's helped her cut down on some of their expenses as well.

"QuickBooks has an automation where they basically learn your transactions," Montique-Ahmad said. "I do have a bookkeeper that oversees that, but we're obviously paying her bookkeeper less because AI is in the forefront of everything there."

Montique-Ahmad said its a tool she and her family plan on using to continue growing their business for years to come.

"I want to see exponential growth, not just little baby steps that we've been doing," she said.