How Business Owners Can Use AI to Achieve a Bigger Bottom Line

Looking for a COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE for your business?

Jim Zahansky, AWMA® shares how using artificial intelligence (AI) could help. 🤖

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Transcript

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Welcome to You and Your Money. Empowering you to reach your goals with tips to help you Plan Well, Invest Well and Live Well. I'm Jim Zahansky principal, managing partner, and chief goal strategist at Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors. Now on to today's topic. So small businesses looking to gain a competitive edge may want to start the new year exploring the benefits of artificial intelligence A.I. You hear about it all the time. So Jim, elaborate. How can A.I. aid small business? Well, sure. It certainly aided the markets last year because, you know, technology and Nasdaq was up that that index was up the highest ever. But but in essence, you know, whenever things change, Gary, and you're sitting here saying, well, why is this, you know, advisor talking about artificial intelligence? Well, in the end, the things that drive earnings for companies and essentially drive the stock markets are the are the things that innovate. And artificial intelligence, while it's been around for a while, is one of those ways that we believe companies will innovate and improve productivity. And when productivity is improved, whether you're a small business or a big business, you tend to do really well and improve earnings. So chat bots obviously sound really incredible. They can enhance customer service. We've heard about that. Can you provide more detail on what type of inquiry an AI chat bot could handle? Yeah, well the rate customer, I mean, so if you think of artificial intelligence, I mean one of the things that you may not even realize that is a AI, if you're having a customer experience, if you're doing an online buying and obviously online buying has increased. If you're a small business listening and you're you're selling items online, you may want to have a chat box in that customer service area. The chat box allows the experience of the buyer to at least have some service. While while you may or may not be available, it may allow them to streamline your buying process and give someone an online experience. They may differentiate. So you know, if you're listening and you're selling items online and you don't have a chat box, you may want to think about how do I implement one of those, you know, talk to a technology company, because in the end, that could improve the experience for the buyer who's buying online. All right. Are there other ways to incorporate AI into a business other than customer service? Yeah, I mean, a lot of small businesses right now, You know, having been a leader of the Chamber of Commerce over the past year, you know, you see a lot of businesses sort of absolutely trying to have a multichannel marketing approach. Right. So they may have a Facebook page, they may have a LinkedIn page, they may be doing display advertising, you know, on Google ads and those sorts of things. And I, you know, in marketing is probably the opportunity is really immense to improve productivity. And, you know, so if you're listening in, you're a small business and you're, you know, doing display advertising on on Google, are you using Google Analytics to help you decide where you should, in fact, you know, put your next display out or your next ad dollar? Right. Because of that, that sort of artificial intelligence should improve the effectiveness of your advertising by telling you who's looking at it. Where are they? How do I get them more of my message and that sort of thing from a marketing program will allow you as a business owner to tailor your message, tailor your targeting. And as an artificial intelligence to make you as a business more productive, targeting the right customer with the right message. Are there? Well, it seems like there are unlimited possibilities to benefits using AI to uncover data. But a side of aside from marketing intelligence, how else can business owners use this tool to improve the bottom line? Yeah, I mean, so even like, you know, we have a pretty big manufacturing base in this area, you know, tools that are being used about inventory tracking sales orders and orders management, right. I mean, the whole concept of online buying and manufacturers using AI tools that allow them to understand who's buying what, where and where it's going are all tools that will allow better inventory control, which means, you know, sort of less cost to the business and then more efficient and fast delivery of products. So, you know, if you're a manufacturing company listening to this, you know, what tools are you using to track inventory and what sort of AI tools is telling you where that next order is coming from. All of that can help improve productivity in the manufacturing and distribution centers, as well as improved productivity of the workforce. All right. So we talked about a lot of the benefits, and that's pretty obvious. Let's switch gears. How about potential drawbacks? AI is one of those things that obviously has the benefits, but the pitfalls seem to be less clear. Could you shed light on potential drawbacks of integrating AI into your business operation? Yeah, I mean, so there's there's still a need for some human interaction of it, right? So, I mean if you're if you are, if you've used chat GPT to help write a paper, if you're a student listening of course you'd never do that. No. And schools are starting to monitor it. But if you have I mean just if you go to chat GPT and you put in some sort of topic to write about like what do we expect the stock market to do this year? And it it's going to those, the sort of chat behind the scenes are going to bring together a thesis that will garner much of the world's data. Some of it may not pertain to you, your market, your business, but it could give you a basis of what's going on. So it might have some inaccuracies without human oversight. And therefore, as the human oversight or the business owner, if you're using this for your business, you have to adapt it to your needs. But it's certainly a great baseline to start, and you just have to watch for the inaccuracies that don't pertain to you, your business or the needs for your business. What about losing a personal touch, too? We're concerned about that. Absolutely. I mean, going back to where we started, which which is the customer service angle of this, you know, I mean, ultimately, if you're just depending on that chat box to sell your products online, you're probably not giving the buying experience that people expect. You really using it maybe as a determinant of what people might want or expect or want more of, or maybe as a follow up on a survey basis, is a good way to understand how you could provide better service. But if you take away the human element of it, the buying experience that people would expect is not fully there. I thought you might say that because I'm familiar with you and your team at WHZ and you really focus on the client experience. That's really the core of everything you do right now. It is. I mean, we've we've taken an approach by using data, whether it's about, you know, monitoring portfolios or understanding what our clients need from a financial planning point of view. But in the end, you know, the insights driven from the data have to be interpreted by people and they have to be delivered in a in a human way. And I isn't quite there yet. So it's good thing that they'll still need our intelligence as well. Occasionally. That's right. Occasionally they'll need us. Good stuff here today and a great discussion. And I thank you for joining us. And thanks to Jim for sharing valuable insights on artificial intelligence. We appreciate that Jim. Jim Carrey Thanks for having me. So if you or your business would like to start off the New Year strong and create a strategic plan that fosters financial efficiency and growth, you can request a complimentary consultation on the Weiss, Hale and Zahansky website at whzwealth.com or call them at 860-928-2341. And until next time, Jim, Take care. Thank you. Thank you Gary. Gary That's it for today. thanks for listening to you and your money. find even more episodes, videos and other resources at our website whzwealth.com. Be sure to come back next week for more tips to help you live fearlessly and pursue your financial and life goals. Until then, live well. Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors offer securities and advisory services through Commonwealth Financial Network member FINRA/SIPC, a registered investment advisor, fixed insurance products and services offered through CES Insurance Agency. They practice at 697 Pomfret Street, Pomfret Center, Connecticut 06259 and can be reached at 860-928-2341. Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors do not provide legal or tax advice. The tenured financial services team strive to support clients in achieving their financial life goals. For more information regarding wealth management and customized financial planning with Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors, please visit www.whzwealth.com.