Behind the Blog: How Small Businesses Can Use AI Tools

Posted September 15, 2025 by Prairie Wife -

There are hundreds of AI (artificial intelligence) tools available for small businesses, and it can be intimidating to decide which AI tools for small businesses will actually help you save time or boost productivity!

I know I personally felt, as a writer and content creator, that it would be cheating to use AI. And for certain things, I have to be honest, I still feel that way…

I am a writer. I make my living by sharing my unique perspective and views about the world around me. Both here on the blog with articles, and with social media posts.

I have been blogging for almost 11 years…which means there is a lot of content that AI can pull from to recreate my voice in new content.

I do not feel that it is ethical for me to type into ChatGPT “write a blog post about parenting tweens in the style of Prairie Wife” and then pass it off as my own original work.

I write because it’s how I connect with others, it’s how I process the hard things in my life, it’s how I ensure I will never forget the good days, it’s a record of who I was and a way to dream about who I want to be.

To allow AI to do that for me would be impossible…and pointless.

As a writer and content creator, I originally had a lot of fear about AI.

I was terrified that it would be used to create inauthentic and possibly even harmful content for my readers and clients, and eventually replace me and my voice.

Thankfully, I took time to educate myself and attended several in-person workshops about using AI. I also took time to chat with my good friend Laura Baker from CyberWyoming, who was happy to educate me and directly address my concerns.

I’ve learned that there were lots of ways I was already using AI without knowing it, which helped ease my fear a little bit. And hearing from experts about some hard and fast rules of appropriate and ethical AI use helped me feel comfortable navigating this new technology as well.

Now that we have that out of the way, how DO I use AI tools to help me and my small business?

One of my favorite AI tools I use is Grammarly.

You may not think of this spell-check type program as AI, but it absolutely is! I have it set to proofread my blog posts, social media comments, emails, and even as a backup spell check on documents I type up in Word. As a business owner, it’s worth paying for the premium version of this program because I use it multiple times a day.

One of my favorite tools as a blogger is Canva, and it uses AI!

While the platform itself isn’t AI, a lot of the tools it offers are. I use this site to create graphics for my blog (like the featured image on this post) and to make unique posts for social media. It also helps me create chic-looking PowerPoint presentations for my workshops. You can also use it to design a newsletter, announcements for an upcoming event, fancy email signatures…the options are endless!

Did you know that the auto-caption feature on video content is AI?

Most social media apps have this feature built in (as well as the ability to edit the captions), and most editing software also offers this option. I love this tool, and it saves me a tremendous amount of time. I DO want to encourage you to ALWAYS read through the autocaptions created for you at least once to catch any mistakes. I find no one minds an error in your captions here and there…but too many of them will make you seem unprofessional and unreliable.

Now, let’s talk about ChatGPT the daddy of all AI!

If you‘re unfamiliar with ChatGPT or want to learn more, I encourage you to read this article.

I already mentioned above that I don’t use AI to write my blog posts or social media content. That doesn’t mean that YOU can’t. I have lots of small business owners who struggle with creating written content, and for them, ChatGPT has been incredibly helpful. When small business owners come to me with their concerns, I encourage them to use ChatGPT as a thought starter rather than copying and pasting everything word for word. I recommend they go in and change the language used to make it more personal and authentic. If you are consistently copying and pasting what ChatGPT gives you (especially for longer written content), your customers/readers/clients are going to recognize quickly that it’s not your authentic voice as soon as they begin to interact with the real you.

So how DO I use ChatGPT?

Creating summaries of my long-form content
- Forming a one-page synopsis from multiple pages of work
- Developing timelines
- Taking a written speech and turning it into bullet points
Writing blog titles with good SEO
- Helping develop strong keywords and phrases for content
Restructuring a poorly written sentence
Suggestions for trending social media topics/prompts
Developing form emails that are clear and concise

I feel like most of us can detect when someone is using AI.

There is often a certain rhythm or cadence that is a bit off in the writing…or with video and pictures, it’s “too perfect” or the opposite…several details are obviously wrong!

But is there a sure-fire way to tell if someone is using it?

Grammarly has an AI detector where you can copy and paste the text and get a score based on how much of the text appears to be AI-generated.

This article shares some ways to determine if an image is generated by AI or not.

I know that I just gave you a ton of information, and you might be feeling more than a bit overwhelmed right now!

Ultimately, I want you to remember that AI tools for small businesses aren’t about replacing you; they’re about saving time so you can focus on what truly matters: running and growing your business!

Now it’s your turn to educate ME! How do YOU use AI as a small business owner?

If you’re looking for more ways to learn about AI and protect your business, I encourage you to take advantage of CyberWyoming’s no-cost education programs and support for Wyoming Small Businesses by following this link! And yes, they also support out-of-state businesses.

Photo Credit: Amanda Jo Photography

Behind the Blog: How Small Businesses Can Use AI Tools

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