The 3 AI tools every small business should try
No expensive software, no technical skills, no months of training. Just three tools that quietly save service businesses hours every week.
Why read this?
Most small businesses know they should be using AI, but plenty have no idea where to start.
The good news is you do not need expensive software, technical skills or months of training.
These three tools can save hours every week, and help you bring in more leads, improve customer service and cut down the admin.
ChatGPT
Best for
- Writing emails
- Creating social media posts
- Drafting proposals
- Answering customer enquiries
- Brainstorming ideas
- Summarising documents
Example
Instead of spending 30 minutes writing a customer follow up, you type:
"Write a professional follow-up email to a customer who requested a quote for office cleaning services."
You will have a polished draft in seconds.
Perplexity
Best for
- Market research
- Competitor analysis
- Finding industry trends
- Researching suppliers
- Fact-checking information
Example
Ask:
"What are the latest marketing trends for UK estate agents in 2026?"
Perplexity searches the web and gives you an answer with its sources, replacing hours of manual digging.
Claude
Best for
- Reviewing contracts
- Analysing PDFs
- Creating reports
- Processing large documents
- Summarising meeting notes
Example
Upload a 50-page document and ask:
"Summarise the key points and highlight any risks."
Claude can work through long documents in minutes rather than an afternoon.
The simple AI stack
If you are just getting started, this is all you need.
Together, these three cover most of the tasks that quietly eat time in a small business.
What happens next?
Most business owners stop here, using AI as a clever chatbot and nothing more.
The real opportunity is using AI to automate the things that come round again and again:
Businesses that put these systems in early often save dozens of hours every month.