AI for content creation? Most businesses and creators use it to some extent - no matter how original their content is.
It’s readily available, great at research, faster than Google, and helps make content creation incredibly streamlined. The conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) in general has been almost entirely on content - from writing, to video creation, and of course, imagery.
For businesses, it could be a gamechanger. Businesses use AI to write emails, create social media posts, transcribe and summarize meetings, and produce marketing copy in seconds. For many organizations, these AI content creation tools have saved countless hours – and they're some of the smallest opportunities that AI has to offer. The greatest ROI for AI isn’t faster content creation, it’s in AI for business operations, business process automation, and efficient operations.
AI for Business Operations
What systems does your business use? Likely dozens of platforms: a website, social media, email marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), accounting, project management tools, inventory systems, human resources software, and countless spreadsheets, sometimes in tandem with each one. Every one of these platforms works well when they’re siloed and specific to one area, but they often fail to communicate effectively with each other. This lack of business systems integration is one of the biggest barriers to operational efficiency.
Disconnected Systems Create Inefficient Operations
You’ve probably been here: Employees enter the same information multiple times in multiple places. Teams work from different core places of ‘truth’ resulting in miscommunication. Reports take days, sometimes weeks, to be generated - and they could be instantly available. Every small mistake becomes another expensive problem because information falls in the holes between disconnected systems.
AI Workflow can Improve Business Efficiency
Operational inefficiencies aren't always obvious, but they consume hundreds of hours every year. This is where our friend, AI, can be potentially extremely valuable. When combined with workflow automation and business process optimization, AI can eliminate many of these operational bottlenecks.
Paired with well-developed business processes, AI can streamline operations in ways humans simply can't. AI can reduce manual work, spot and unblock bottlenecks, deliver actionable insights from large volumes of data quickly, and automate repetitive tasks, removing the human time and effort. This type of AI workflow automation allows businesses to improve productivity while reducing operational costs.
An Example of AI Efficency
Let’s imagine something most businesses have: a customer submitting a website form. Rather than sending an email, AI can categorize the inquiry, extract key information, create a customer record, assign the request to the appropriate team member, recommend next steps based on previous projects, schedule follow-up reminders, and generate a summary for management - before anyone manually touches the request. This is a practical example of AI business automation improving customer service and internal operations simultaneously.
AI Can’t Fix a Bad Business Process
The same idea can apply across every other business process - if the process is created with efficiency in mind. If you layer AI over inefficient processes or a poorly documented process that is dependent on manual intervention, AI will simply automate inefficiency. And that's a nightmare no business needs.
The question businesses should be asking: Where does our team spend time on work that technology could reliably support?
The most likely answer is in repetitive administrative tasks, disconnected software, duplicate data entry, reporting, approvals, and information management, not in writing another social media caption. The underlying requirement? The business must understand every aspect of their own operations.
How does information move through the business? Where do business delays occur? Where are errors are introduced? And which of those processes create the greatest friction for employees and customers alike?
With that full understanding of operations, only then can AI strategically be used to improve speed, consistency, and decision-making. Successful digital transformation begins with understanding business processes before implementing AI automation tools.
AI Content Creation is the Beginning
Content creation will continue to be an important application of artificial intelligence, and for many businesses it is an accessible and useful place to begin. Let’s just not end the conversation there.
You won't gain competitive advantage from publishing the most AI-generated content. But if you can use AI to build your business to be more connected, more efficient, and better equipped for growth? Then you're already ahead. Businesses that invest in AI for operational efficiency often realize greater long-term value than those focused solely on AI-generated marketing content.
As AI continues to change, so will the ways we use it. The companies that treat AI as an operational strategy, not a marketing tool, might find that its greatest value has very little to do with writing at all.
If you're interested in making your business processes more efficient, connect with me at jointeffort.ca.