One of the big questions over the past year of AI excitement and investment is where the technology applies. This is a common learning curve with emerging tech. In early days, hype-driven narratives proclaim that it’s a silver bullet for everything… before a narrower set of killer apps are refined.
That learning curve necessitates time and a feeling-out process, just like in the early days of the smartphone era. But even in those early days, there’s some intuition around the areas where the tech will shine. With generative AI for example, it’s clear that it has applicability in marketing workflows.
The question that flows from that is what AI will mean to SMBs. To pepper in some more historical context, SMBs generally trail behind brand marketers in their tech adoption. So the feeling-out process and trickle-down adoption cycles take even longer. Some companies are accelerating that process.
Enter vcita, the SMB-focused SaaS player is already devising AI tools meant to alleviate longstanding pain points. For example, SMB marketing workflows include several tedious and rote components that they often dread, such as writing copy for website pages or email marketing campaigns.
Proactive & Contextual
vcita addresses these SMB pain points in its BizAI tool. Its hallmark isn’t just automating marketing tasks but doing so intelligently. That last part may seem redundant when talking about AI, but it’s often missed in the broader generative-AI discussion. The point is to know a given business on intimate levels.
BizAI accomplishes this by plugging into several business SaaS functions that vcita provides (or has access to). This gives it a targeted set of training data to get to know a business, which is contrasted with ChatGPT’s generalized knowledge that isn’t effective with company-specific marketing tasks.
With that deeper contextual knowledge of a business and its sector, BizAI can then fulfill marketing tasks in more relevant ways. For example, it can devise campaigns that are strategically sound and make sense for the SMB in question. In a broader sense, it can aid strategic positioning such as product pricing.
For all the above reasons, vcita founder and CEO Itzik Levy positions BizAI as an advisory tool. This frames AI in a more proactive role than its co-pilot function that everyone seems to be playing up. To be fair, a marketing co-pilot is a valuable role, but a more proactive advisory function could resonate more.
Show Rather than Tell
As for how these product principles play out in reality, Levy isn’t afraid to show rather than tell. At the recent L24 event, he demonstrated BizAI’s efficacy through a few data points and case studies. For example, 43 percent of SMB operators returned to use BizAI within a week from their first usage.
More notable is how they’re using it – often transcending marketing tasks to include broader business strategy. 63 percent of SMBs used BizAI to seek business advice such as how to position and price their services. 27 percent asked it to draft content such as email campaigns or messages to customers.
Coming full circle to AI use cases and killer apps, Levy theorizes that the technology can find several more functions that resonate with SMBs, beyond marketing workflows. For example, it can help sales reps get smarter in real time, such as on-the-fly answers to challenging questions about their products.
In a broader sense, AI can apply pattern recognition for yield optimization. For example, it could identify upsell opportunities when they emerge, or signals that a customer is likely to churn. Considering those common and longstanding SMB pain points, these functions could genuinely represent killer apps.
