Many one-person business owners know that change brings opportunity, but with technology such as AI already disrupting many industries, it can be stressful to consider questions like “Is AI going to eliminate the need for my business?”
As the World Economic Forum (WEF) pointed out in its recently released Future of Jobs Report, 40% of companies plan workforce reductions due to AI automation. The fastest-growing jobs will be big data specialists, fintech engineers, and AI and machine-learning specialists. However, some small-business-friendly careers such as accounting and graphic design will be in decline, according to the WEF’s data.
For insight on how one-person-business owners can position themselves for success as businesses adopt AI in greater numbers, I spoke recently with Tracy Heatley, founder of the U.K.-based strategy, marketing and networking firm Better Marketing with Tracy Heatley and the podcast Be Better with Tracy Heatley.
Accepting that AI is here to stay with enthusiasm, she became one of the first 150 marketers to be certified in AI marketing through the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the U.K., passing the required exam. The AI program covers how to use specific tools, data analysis, social media monitoring, marketing automation, voice and visual search optimization, the customer experience and ethics. “Anyone who is sitting on the fence about AI needs to embrace it,” she says.
While AI can be a game-changer in saving time, it’s not a panacea, according to Heatley. “Having studied AI, I truly believe that while it is advancing, it should only be used to assist, not replace,” says Heatley. “I don’t think it should be relied upon 100 percent. You still have to be an expert in your field and know whether it is right or wrong.”
Here is her advice for one-person-business owners who want to make sure their businesses stay relevant.
Don’t be intimidated. Many people think AI tools like chatGPT or Gemini will be hard to use—until they try it. “Essentially, it’s software,” says Heatley. “It’s coding that’s been around for a long, long time. There are platforms we used to refer to as software—now they’re ‘AI.’”
Treat oncoming changes as an opportunity. Pay attention to the skills that will be needed in the future and look for ways to master them—even if it’s just one critical skill—and help your customers tap into them. Heatley realized after getting her certification in AI marketing that her clients could benefit from what she was learning. So she expanded her signature Strategy Cycle Program, in which her students create their own marketing strategies, extending it from six weeks to seven to incorporate some of what she was learning about AI. “By the time they use the AI, they will know what to ask it and how to use it properly,” she says.
Understand the value of your expertise. No matter what AI tools you use, clients are paying you for your knowledge and judgment, not just the task you may perform or the project you deliver. “Anyone providing a service has to be marketing the value and the impact it has on the client,” she says.
Ultimately, what you are selling is knowledge, she notes. “It’s the time and experience people are paying for.”
Consider what you want to get from AI. AI can be a powerful research tool. “You can put into AI, ‘Give me a marketing plan for this type of business,’” she says. “That doesn’t mean it’s going to give me what I would do or what another marketing consultant would do but it will give you the basic principles. You have to specify the bits in between.”
Fine-tune your prompts. It’s important to take the time to put useful inputs into AI tools, or you won’t get the results you want, she notes. “It’s that old thing about data—garbage in, garbage out,” she says. “If you don’t know what to ask it in the first place, you’re not going to get what you want.”
Help AI evolve. “It’s learning all the time,” says Heatley. “So one of the things I’m doing is training people to train their AI, because it will do what you want it to do.” It’s similar to training a dog, she says. “You have to tell it specifically what you want to do and give it feedback.”
Know when to keep mum. Be careful about what you input to AI. “What you put in, it knows,” says Heatley. “So be careful about the specifics of what you put in. Do you want it to know the intricacies of your business, or would you prefer to keep that to yourself? If you put it in, it could bring it up elsewhere.”
Ultimately, AI can be a useful tool for many small businesses—but you have to learn how to make it work for you.
This post was originally published on here
