AI is the newest hot topic on the Internet, and it’s taking everything by storm. And you may be wondering how to leverage it for your business. But be warned, you need to know what AI is and what it can do, and to understand how it works so you are using it properly. I use AI almost every day for a myriad of things, from helping me with these blog posts that I’ve been pushing out, to writing code, composing emails, and more. But AI isn’t always right or the right choice. So understanding when to use it is going to be the difference between whether you will benefit from it or not.
What is AI?
In this post, I’m mostly talking about the AI we are all using, like Chat GPT, Gemini, and Claude, etc. ChatGPT and Gemini are examples of Generative AI (GenAI) and are specifically built using Large Language Models (LLMs).
Generative AI (GenAI)
Generative AI is a category of artificial intelligence that can create new content—like text, images, audio, and code—rather than just classifying or analyzing existing data. It learns the patterns and structure of its training data and then generates novel outputs that resemble the original data but are not identical copies.
Large Language Models (LLMs)
LLMs are the engine that powers the text-based capabilities of tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. They are a specific type of Generative AI model that is:
- Large: They contain billions or even trillions of parameters (the values the model learns during training) and are trained on a massive dataset of text from the internet, books, and other sources.
- Trained for Language: They learn the statistical relationships between words and sentences. When you give them a prompt, they essentially predict the most probable and coherent sequence of words to generate a relevant response, whether it’s an answer to a question, a summary, a story, or computer code.
In short: ChatGPT (which runs on OpenAI’s GPT models) and Gemini (which runs on Google’s Gemini models) are conversational interfaces built on top of powerful LLMs that fall under the umbrella of Generative AI.
(FYI, I used Gemini to generate these definitions.)
How I use AI in my business
Like I said in the intro, I use AI practically daily. When I’m writing new blog posts, I use it like I did in the above section, to give me definitions, step-by-step directions, add some technical definitions, etc to blog posts. I use it to generate new blog post ideas, new social media ideas, and to generate meta titles and descriptions for blog posts as well.
I often use it to write code if there’s a function I need that I’m not sure how to do. Sometimes I’ve fed it my own code and asked it to fix it for me when I’m stuck, or when I don’t want to spend my time writing CSS to make something look better, AI can do a pretty good job at that.
Sometimes I use it to do math for me because I’m 49 and my brain doesn’t remember high school math.
Just recently I fed it an email that I’d written that I felt like was coming off passive aggressive and asked it to rewrite it so that it wouldn’t be, and I got a much better version of the email that was not passive aggressive. So that was a big win.
When creating proposals, I will often use it to create introductions or summarize things, or rewrite text that may be too technical so non-technical clients can understand it.
There are lots and lots of good uses for AI.
How I don’t use AI
I never use AI as a search engine, and here’s why. An AI response is designed to give you the answer you WANT. That sounds like a great deal, right? What do I want? Give it to me! But the answer you want may not always be the right answer. In fact, sometimes AI lies to give you the answer you want.
I would never ask AI to make decisions for me if I can’t make up my mind. I wouldn’t ask it to generate content that I wasn’t able to verify accuracy on. I wouldn’t use it for legal advice or fact-checking.
I would never ask AI to give me content that I couldn’t verify myself.
Ways you can use AI to benefit your business
Generating Content
One of the primary ways I encourage people who are looking to use AI is to use it to generate content for their business. New clients getting new websites often struggle with what to write about their business, and depending on the type of business you have, you can get some decent content to get you started.
DO: Write in-depth descriptive prompts to help it understand who you are and what you need.
Example: “Write two paragraphs of content that will go on a business website for a business named Landscapers Plus. This content will go on the weekly lawncare service page and should include information about mowing, edging, and trimming. Weekly service starts in March and lasts through November and costs $150 a month.”
Notice how detailed my prompt is? Using this much information will make it much more likely I’ll get text that is usable and accurate.
Important Note: No matter what text is generated, you MUST read it and verify that it’s accurate for you. So many people end up in an uncomfortable situation because they didn’t read the content they got, and they didn’t verify it for accuracy. Including government agencies. You must must must read and verify.
Bonus Tip: Take the content it generates and add your own spin. Often times AI doesn’t know you well enough to know your tone, so changing words to words you use, adding in an introductory sentence of your own, or adjusting the arrangement will make the text more accurate for you. For example, AI uses the word crucial in a lot of the content it generates for me, and that is a word I almost never use. I find it a red flag that the content is AI generated, so I always change it. Additionally, a lot of content I generate ends up starting with “In today’s digital world…” which is a dead giveaway.
Composing Emails
Ever find yourself struggling to find the right words in an email? AI is great for that. I will often feed an existing email into an AI prompt with instructions to rewrite it to make it more formal, less formal, less passive aggressive, or more professional.
Another great task is to use it to write canned emails you can reuse over and over. Ever have to answer the same question over and over? Feed what you need into AI, and use it to generate a canned response you can save and pull up whenever you need. Bonus points for setting up something like Alfred so you can paste in the email with a keyboard shortcut.
Learning how to use technology
As a member of Generation X, I have grown up with technology, from writing code on my brother’s Commodore 64, learning HTML in college to code my own websites, to making websites now. But not everyone has the same experiences. Want to set up a business email and not sure how? Need step by step instructions on entering DNS records? Want to learn how to add a plugin to WordPress or resize a photo? You can generally find pretty good step-by-step instructions and tutorials for doing these tasks if you write good prompts.
Brainstorming Social Media Ideas
Not sure what to write about on social media? It can be hard! Asking AI to come with ideas for content you can post on social media is a great use. Here are some example prompts:
Prompt 1 Example: “Create ten social media posts that my business, a web design company, can post on X about current web design trends.”
Prompt 2 Example: “Generate a list of the top 10 questions that people have about web design that my business, Sumy Designs, can use on our Facebook page to engage our audience about topics involving WordPress.”
Creating Automation Systems
Automation is one of my favorite things to do, and finding ways to eliminate repetitive tasks, lesson my workload, and streamline my business has been one of the most beneficial things I’ve done. You can use AI to ask for advice and ways to streamline things for your own business as well. Got a situation that takes longer than you think it should and you’d like to find a way to minimize the time you spend on that task? Explain the situation in your prompt, specifically, and ask for ways to automate. You may be surprised with some of the ideas you get.
Once you figure out if any of the automations may be beneficial, you can even use AI to help you create the automations, like explaining how to set up Zapier or other software programs you may need for automation.
Key Takeaways
AI is a tool you can use to enhance and to reduce the work you need to do, but it isn’t a replacement for the work you need to do. Use it with care and caution.
The wording of your prompts is the key to success. The more vague and less detailed it is, the less accurate or usable the response is going to be.
Amy Masson
Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.