Where AI actually helps a small business

Start with the writing you already avoid

Quotes, follow-up emails, job adverts, standard operating procedures, a policy for the staff handbook. These are jobs where a decent first draft in thirty seconds beats a perfect document you never write. You are the expert; the AI is the typist who never gets tired.

Use it to explain things to you, not to decide things for you

Asking what a clause in a lease means, or what a term on your financial statements refers to, is a good use. Asking whether to sign the lease is not. The first is explanation, which it does well; the second is judgement about your circumstances, which it cannot have.

Turn long documents into something you will actually read

A 40-page supplier contract, a municipal notice, a long policy document. Ask for a summary and the three things that could hurt you. Then read those parts properly yourself.

Use it as a sounding board before a decision, not instead of one

Ask it to argue against your plan. 'Here is what I am thinking of doing. Give me the five strongest reasons this fails.' It is genuinely useful for finding the hole you have talked yourself past.

Know the three places it costs you money

One: arithmetic and anything involving your actual figures — it will produce a number that looks right and is not. Two: current South African tax rates, thresholds and deadlines — these change with the Budget and the model may be working from old information. Three: anything you send to a client or SARS without reading it properly, because the mistakes are fluent and confident, which is exactly what makes them easy to miss.

Before you do this

• An AI answer about SARS rules may be a year out of date and will never say so. Confirm anything with a deadline or a rand figure attached.
• It cannot see your books. If it quotes a figure about your business, it made it up.