How To Use AI To Save Time, Money, And Effort In Your Marketing
August 26, 2025 - 6 minutes read
Every small business owner knows that you have to wear a lot of hats when you’re running your business. There’s administrative work, marketing, customer service, and doing the actual work you started your business for. Making your to-do list can feel never-ending.
Fortunately, new artificial intelligence tools can help business owners streamline their operations. In fact, 71% of marketers expect that generative AI programs will help save them time by automating tedious tasks.
While AI can’t run your entire business for you, there are ways it can help automate some of your processes, reduce your workload, and help you refocus on the tasks that matter to your bottom line. Let’s take a look at how you can start using AI better as a tool to help lighten your workload.
WHAT BUSINESS AUTOMATION MEANS
Let’s be clear, when we’re talking about automation, we’re not talking about developing complex systems that only one highly-skilled person on your team knows how to operate and fix when there’s a problem.
Automation is about creating simple processes that reduce the amount of repetitive work you and your team have to do to free up your time. These are tiny efficiencies that add up to big time savings!
AI is at coming up with ideas and is at its best when it has clear rules to follow, making it great for things like:
- Generating ideas and outlines
- Creating summaries
- Automating reports
- Writing first drafts
- Responding to common questions
SAVE MONEY, EFFORT, AND TIME
Think about things you do every day or every week: writing/responding to emails, generating reports, or brainstorming social media post ideas. This is exactly the kind of work that AI excels at (things like strategy and building long-term relationships with your audience are best left to people). In fact, 43% of marketers say that AI helps them with creating content just like this!
The great news is that many programs you’re likely already using (like Google Docs, Canva, and Microsoft 365) have slowly been rolling out AI tools for use in their applications. Look at the tasks you’re doing in these applications and see if there’s an AI feature you haven’t noticed that could be saving you time!
AI can help you summarize transcripts from recorded meetings, turn the text from a blog into a script for a video for social media, or respond to frequently asked questions on your website with a chatbot. It can also help you with website projects, like streamlining and clarifying product details and building a blog content plan (and even creating an outline for you to follow!).
Because AI tools aren’t complex systems, they can often be implemented into your workflow with reasonable costs.
Consider the cost of outsourcing some of the work that you do to freelancers. While it may feel like the easiest way to complete the work, it’s also an easy way to stretch or go over your budget on projects.
For example, a credit union could use AI to do the heavy lifting of creating a script and outlining short, engaging videos about opening an account or applying for a loan with them. A construction company could use AI to update hundreds of their bulk product listings, updating their descriptions and saving days of manual entry work.
WHERE TO BEGIN
The number one tip for beginning with AI is to start small. Pick one or two low-stakes tasks of your business that you can easily automate, like summarizing meeting notes or coming up with answers to customer FAQs.
Research beginner-friendly AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Otter.ai, Perplexity.ai, and Canva to see which will work best for your needs.
You don’t need to be a tech wiz or an expert to get started using AI tools in your workflow. Realistically, small and simple changes are the best way to get started. Keep the mindset of AI as an assistant and a tool, not as a replacement.
Look for bottlenecks in your current workflow and ask yourself if AI could help release the pressure and speed things up.
It’s also important to keep your goals realistic with AI, too. Your expectation shouldn’t be that AI will help you write Pulitzer Prize-winning content. It’s a tool that excels at creating first-draft material that’s meant to be polished by you and your team.
Remember to test the tools and track whether they are actually saving you time (don’t just rely on a “feeling!). Some marketers have said AI has helped them save as much as three hours per piece of content and up to 2.5 hours of work a day!
AI doesn’t have to be intimidating — it’s not coming to replace you and the work that you do. Whether you need help efficiently responding to emails, drafting blog outlines, or automating repetitive tasks, the right AI tool can help give you valuable time and mental energy.