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Specific tasks, grouped by business function and sector, with notes on what the AI uses as input and what a person still checks.
Where the value is
Where AI tends to help: routine work that takes time
AI can help a small business with drafting content, summarising documents, answering routine questions and processing data. The tool works from an input such as a brief, a document or an enquiry, and a person checks the output before it is used or sent.
The most useful examples are often ordinary: first drafts, document summaries, answers to repeated questions, data entry and routine messages. These tasks take regular time each week and can usually be checked quickly by someone who knows the work.
Before choosing a tool, identify the specific task, how long it takes now and who would check the output. That gives you something to measure the result against.
By business function
Examples by business function
- Draft blog posts, social captions and email campaigns from a short brief, for an editor to check
- Adapt existing content for different channels
- Draft variations of ad copy for a person to choose from and test
- Produce consistent product descriptions from your product data
- Draft personalised outreach from notes about each prospect, for a salesperson to edit
- Prepare draft proposals and quotes from a template and job details
- Sort incoming enquiries before they reach your team
- Summarise background on a prospect before a call
- Summarise long reports, contracts and meeting notes
- Extract data from forms and documents for entry into other systems
- Answer internal questions from your own policies and documents
- Draft job adverts, onboarding materials and internal updates
- Answer routine enquiries outside office hours, with a route to a person
- Sort and route support tickets
- Draft responses to complaints for a person to review
- Set up an FAQ assistant configured with your approved answers and support history
- Extract data from invoices and receipts for reconciliation and checking
- Summarise financial reports in everyday language for colleagues outside finance
- Flag unusual entries in large data sets for someone to investigate
- Prepare routine reports and dashboard updates
By industry
Examples by sector
Summarising tender documents and site reports, and drafting messages to subcontractors for a manager to check.
First-pass contract review for a qualified person to check, client briefing summaries, research notes and first drafts of documents.
Drafting patient messages, handling appointment requests and summarising notes, with the relevant rules identified and checks agreed before anything goes live.
Drafting delivery updates for customers and messages to suppliers from the data in your systems.
Product description drafts, personalised email campaigns and handling routine returns enquiries.
Realistic expectations
What the first few months can look like
A short list of tasks worth testing, with an estimate of the effort for each and an agreed first task.
The first tool or automation tested on real work, with the time taken and corrections needed compared with the current process.
A decision based on the test: keep using it, change the approach, try a second task or stop.
Common questions
Questions about these examples
Does AI work for businesses with no tech background?
Many AI tools need no technical skill to use day to day. The harder part is choosing the right task and agreeing who checks the output. Setting up accounts, access and any connections between systems still needs someone to own it, inside the business or outside.
How quickly could we see results?
For simple uses such as drafting or summarising with an off-the-shelf tool, you can try it straight away and judge the output yourself. For built tools and automations, the timing depends on the systems involved and is agreed when the work is scoped.
What if AI gets things wrong?
It will sometimes. That is why the examples on this page include a person checking the output. Once you have tested a task for a while and know where errors occur, you can decide how much checking that task needs.
Do we need to change how we work?
Usually a little. Most of the examples here add a step to an existing process, such as reviewing a draft. We scope each project to keep disruption low and explain any changes before you decide.
Can AI help with the specific software we already use?
Often. Many business tools, such as CRMs, project management platforms and email systems, include AI features or offer integrations, though some need a particular plan. Where they do not, a custom connection may be possible, depending on the access the software allows.
Is there anything AI can't help with?
AI is less useful for tasks that need physical presence, specialist professional judgement such as legal or medical advice, or fast decisions in unpredictable situations. For some repetitive tasks, ordinary automation or your current process will do the job well enough.
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