Like the rest of the world, you're probably dipping your corporate toes into artificial intelligence (AI) to see how it can give your service-based business an operational edge. There's no doubt that AI takes the drudgery out of day-to-day work and can help companies trim hours from their marketing communications, sales outreach, customer service, and lead generation tasks.
Plus, early adopters can move to the inside lane in the race for new clients, shortening the time and resources it takes to complete tasks and serve clients before your competitors are using it to do the same.
But using AI to trim workflows isn't without caveats, so you'll need to research the appropriate tools and learn how to use them efficiently to see measurable benefits. For starters, you should know AI's limitations and possible trip-wires.
Caveats to consider before using AI in your business
Before you start deploying bots throughout every corner of your operations, consider these points and proceed with caution:
Customer data protection: It's tempting to start using AI agents to mine your data and find opportunities for data enrichment, but data privacy laws still prevent you from running customer data through many AI tools. Check with your AI software vendors to find out how they ensure GDPR compliance.
Protecting proprietary data sets: Your data is your secret sauce, and there's a real risk that if you pump data into AI tools, they'll use it to train models for competitors. Before you purchase AI software, ask yourself if you're comfortable with the business implications of using it.
AI can still present inaccuracies: It's easy to assume AI is fool-proof, but even the best AI agents make up facts and go off-script. Don't assume everything produced by AI is gold – take the time to review and edit before going live with AI content.
Risk of sounding generic and forgettable: If you start to rely too heavily on AI tools for your marketing and content, your brand will be indistinguishable from your competitors. Be careful to review everything written by AI for tone of voice and to add a human touch. Your AI content might be accurate, but if it sounds like everyone else's, it won't interest your readers.
Best ways to use AI for professional services firms
Despite the risks, AI has powerful potential for professional services – especially if you use specialty AI tools that cater to specific needs. Here's how firms are using AI to streamline their procedures:
Operations
Smaller firms can use AI to make themselves more competitive in their space, doing more with smaller budgets and making up for staffing shortages with smarter tools.
AI task automation takes the burden out of simple jobs like scheduling, data entry, and reporting. AI also helps project managers take charge of their projects with predictive analytics that flag bottlenecks and resource misallocation before they derail projects.
Knowledge and document management software let you create internal wikis where you can easily find the data you're looking for. When you need to ensure you're compliant in your industry, or you want to double-check your contracts are airtight, AI tools can review documentation to find holes or inconsistencies.
Generative AI agents can handle heavy data analytics tasks, too. Financial modeling and business planning applications let you pinpoint your fastest-growing client segment or spot opportunities to fine-tune your service offerings in seconds.
Sales
With AI, lead generation has never been easier or more efficient. AI tools import your contact data, and automate nurture email series that are hyper-personalized – without having to respond to each email by hand. Website leads are automatically scrutinized by the software and graded on their potential, so not only can you ink more deals, you can secure ideal-fit clients that are more likely to renew.
Your sales team can also analyze the market and pinpoint best-fit opportunities with AI. These tools scour your CRM to determine the ideal contacts to turn into profitable leads. Plus, they can crunch your pipeline numbers to see which deals are likely to renew or churn, offering insights on how and when to intervene to maximize renewals.
Customer services
Today's chat bots recognize buyer intent and respond to tricky questions with amazing flexibility. More and more professional services firms are using them on their websites as a first port-of-call for visitors who have questions about their services.
But more advanced bots give you advanced benefits, like lead qualification on your website, automated support ticket categorization and replies, and client-facing assistants that streamline onboarding, FAQs, and SOP access.
Marketing
From go-to-market strategies to ongoing digital campaigns, AI can help you make a deeper impression on your target audience. It's never been easier to generate content at a lower cost, and the time-savings potential of using AI for content marketing is exponential. Not only can AI tools write blogs, ebooks, and social posts, they can analyze your current content to find ways to optimize it for search.
AI tools help with marketing strategy and decision-making, too. AI research highlights keywords and content areas you haven't considered and automatically tracks the success of each campaign – complete with easy-to-understand dashboards and reports so you can interpret them at a glance.
Need more than AI for your professional services firm?
AI agents are perfect for low-level, remedial tasks and can give you back time in your schedule to get more done. These tools might be cutting edge today, but the very near future will see their widespread adoption, and if you haven't learned to use them, you risk putting your company behind the curve.
But ultimately, complex brand or rebranding projects take the finesse only a human can offer. If you need nuance and expertise, you’ll need a real, human marketing firm – like BRIXBranding!