Here’s a practical guide to some of the most useful AI tools out there right now, and where they can make a real difference in your business workflows.
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AI is a major buzzword lately, with every major app & website implementing into their systems (looking at you, Meta!). But for most businesses the real question is: “how can AI actually help me?”
The good news is you don’t need to be a tech expert or have a huge budget to take advantage of AI. Many of the most useful tools are affordable, simple to set up, and can save you hours of time each week – especially when paired with some guidance on how to make them feel like a natural extension of your brand.
At PDC, we work with SME owners who want to get more done, improve customer experience, and cut down on admin without adding more stress. Here’s a practical guide to some of the most useful AI tools out there (as of time of writing), and where they can make a real difference.
One of the easiest and most effective ways to use AI is through a chatbot on your website or social media channels. These smart assistants can answer frequently asked questions, guide customers to the right service or product, take bookings and even capture leads for your sales team, all without you lifting a finger.
Tools like Zapier’s AI chatbot are easy to implement and can be tailored to fit your business. You can load them up with answers pulled directly from your website or FAQ page, and you can give them a tone of voice that matches your brand, whether that’s friendly and casual or more professional and to the point.
This means customers can get the help they need at any hour, while you and your team focus on the bigger stuff. And if the AI doesn’t have the answer? It simply sends the customer to your contact page or phone line, ensuring there’s always a human at the end of the process.
We all know the feeling of staring at a blank reply in our inbox, trying to find the right words. AI-powered email tools can help write replies, tidy up your grammar, or even personalise follow-ups for sales enquiries.
Mailchimp is the go-to for businesses looking to simplify their email campaigns, and their AI tools that assist with content generation and brand cohesion are a huge boost – plus they now have AI integrated into the platform to suggest the best time to send your emails and target the right audience with predictive segmentation – all designed to make your marketing more effective with less effort.
AI tools like Flowrite or Lavender are a huge helper too – they’re just two examples of smart browser extensions to make your email writing easier, faster, sound sharper, and maintain your business’s voice across all communications. Even simply adding Grammarly as an extension to your browser is a huge help, as it integrates with any site you're writing with for spell-checking and AI -powered writing assistance.
For small teams that don’t have a full-time marketing or customer service department, this can be a game-changer.
For businesses running e-commerce stores, AI is already built into some of the tools you might be using: If you have a Shopify site for instance, then their AI tool Shopify Magic can help write product descriptions and respond to customer questions. Plus, Shopify offers an automated cart tracking feature, which can send an email to users who logged in and abandoned their cart. You can tailor these emails to feel personal and on-brand too!
This kind of AI can handle support, suggest the right product to a customer, and help to increase sales while reducing manual work – making your digital storefront one that’s much smarter and better optimised to sell.
If you’re juggling meetings, client work, admin, and business strategy all at once, AI-powered assistants can help keep you on track. Tools like Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai can join your Zoom or Teams calls and automatically generate notes, highlights, and follow-up reminders.
For scheduling and daily planning, smart calendar tools like Clockwise can analyse your workload and help you structure your day more effectively. For most businesses, Copilot is the go-to if they have Outlook, since it acts as a natural extension of the Microsoft tools they’re already using daily – it functions like a virtual assistant, summarising documents, helping with research, or drafting to-do lists.
AI can also help you make better decisions based on real insights. You don’t need to be a data analyst to benefit, platforms like Zoho Analytics can connect to your existing systems and show you what’s working in your marketing, where sales are coming from, or which customers are most valuable.
Even simple “hacks” like uploading a CSV file into ChatGPT can help you quickly analyse patterns, pull out key points, and make data more understandable.
One of the most important things to understand about AI is that it’s not about replacing your voice – it’s about amplifying it. In fact, your authentic voice as a brand is quickly becoming one of your most valuable assets in our increasingly AI-saturated world – discover how to balance technology and authenticity in modern marketing here.
Whether you're using an AI chatbot, writing emails, or generating content, the best results come when you train these tools to reflect your brand’s tone, language, and style. At PDC, we help our clients set up AI tools that pull directly from their own website, FAQs, and marketing messages. We also make sure the tone is just right, because there's nothing worse than a robotic reply when your business is known for its friendly, human touch.
Still feeling a little AI-hesitant? Check out our blog on leaning into AI tools the smarter way here.
AI isn’t just for big companies or tech startups. For small to medium businesses, it can be the difference between staying on top of things or constantly playing catch-up. The key is knowing where to start and how to make it work for you.
At PDC, we help our clients find the right tools, set them up properly, and make sure they’re actually useful - not just more digital noise. Whether you’re curious about chatbots, content tools, smarter systems, or virtual assistants, we’d love to help you get the most out of what AI can offer.
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