AI for Beginners: A Simple Guide for Business Owners

You’ve probably experimented with ChatGPT or heard others raving about the time they saved by using AI. And no wonder – one study found that small businesses using AI save an average of 15 hours per week.

But there’s another side to the story; 74% of companies struggle to achieve real value from AI implementation. The difference isn’t better technology – it’s having the expertise to make AI actually work.

Although you could introduce new AI workflows into your business by yourself, if you’re like many other small business owners, you may not have the time to do so effectively. Partnering with an experienced virtual assistant can accelerate AI adoption and give you a level of consistency that’s otherwise difficult to achieve.

Start saving time today with these three AI-supported workflows

There are countless ways to use AI to work more productively. But to start you off, here are three we’ve found to be especially effective. Start with the workflow that addresses your biggest time drain. Master one completely before adding the next – remember that most successful implementations happen gradually, not all at once.

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Workflow 1 – email management

Realistic time savings: 40-60% reduction in drafting time.

Setup time: 2-3 hours initially, with ongoing optimisation.

1. Generate your drafts with AI

Share your key points and context with the AI to generate your initial draft.

2. Review and refine your drafts

It’s now time to check for accuracy. Are the facts and details in your draft correct? Make sure the tone is appropriate and add any personal touches.

3. Polish and optimise with AI

Use AI tools to check and improve grammar, clarity and professional formatting. It’s now ready to send.

Suggested tools:

• Generate drafts, refine emails – ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot
• Quality control – Grammarly

How your VA can help

Quality control – Your VA can establish quality standards, review AI outputs, and escalate priority emails.

Relationship management – An experienced VA can make sure your AI-generated emails maintain the right tone and include information that a generic AI response would miss.

 

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Workflow 2 – Meeting documentation and follow-up

Realistic time savings: 70-90% reduction in documentation time.

Setup time: 1-2 hours for system setup.

1. AI meeting transcription

Use an AI transcription tool to record and transcribe your meeting, and generate an initial summary.

2. Organise and prioritise

It’s now time to review the transcript for accuracy and organise the key decisions and strategic priorities, highlighting any relevant relationships or project context.

3. AI-led follow-ups

Use your AI to review the updated transcript and create action lists with clear owners. It can also draft follow-up communications and generate project update summaries.

4. Customise and distribute

You can now personalise emails for each attendee, adding specific instructions and deadlines, and double-checking that commitments match each person’s role.

Suggested tools:

• Transcriptions – Otteri, Fireflies, Grain, Fathom, Sybill
• Transcription analysis and follow-ups – Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot
• Task organisation – Notion, Monday, ClickUp, Trello

How your VA can help

Meeting preparation – Your VA can research attendees, prepare talking points, and create agendas that make your meetings more productive.

Follow-ups – Your VA personalises emails for each attendee, tracks action items for completion, and ensures nothing falls through the cracks while you focus on strategic work.

 

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Workflow 3 – Meeting documentation and follow-up

Realistic time savings: 50-70% reduction in content creation time.

 

Setup time: 3-4 hours for initial framework setup.

1. Message development

You define your key message, audience, and brand guidelines, together with content goals and call-to-actions. You’ll also need to provide context about current campaigns or themes.

2. AI generates content

Use your AI to generate multiple platform-specific variations, adapting them for different content lengths and formats – text, visual and video. It can also suggest hashtags and opportunities for engagement.

3. Review for brand alignment

You choose the best options for each platform and add your voice and personal insights. You can also customise your content for any specific audience segments.

Suggested tools:

• Content generation – Claude, ChatGPT
• Visual content – Canva
• Native platform tools – LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook AI features

How your VA can help

Content Strategy – Your VA can research trending topics, analyse the best content for your audience, and develop content calendars aligned with your goals.

Engagement – Your VA can use AI to help craft responses to comments and messages, letting you focus on relationship building and business development.

Performance tracking – They can analyse which content performs best and use these learnings to strengthen your future performance.

The secret to success with AI tools? Get your VA on board

While these workflows are helpful, the truth is that most business owners lack the time to implement and optimise them properly. This is where an experienced virtual assistant is worth their weight in gold.

Your VA can dedicate focused time to refining prompts and optimising workflows. Because they understand high-quality business communication, they establish consistent quality control processes that protect your professional reputation.

Unlike the “set it and forget it” approach that so many small businesses adopt, a skilled VA will continuously monitor and improve your AI workflows. They’ll ensure your workflows evolve with your business needs while providing the human oversight that prevents AI-generated mistakes reaching your clients.

Interested in understanding how we could help? Speak to us today – our team of VAs are waiting to support your business’s transition from AI-curious to AI-confident.