- Business Growth & Optimisation
A Guide to AI for Small Business: 3 Essential Tools and How to Use Them
By Team ZellerIf you’re a business owner, who is open to the idea of embracing new technology, but haven’t yet entered the chat with artificial intelligence, this article is for you. Here, we outline the best AI tools for small business, and how you can use them to save time – and money – in your day-to-day operations.
Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a staple tool for business owners who want to save time and work more efficiently. According to the Australian Government, 41% of small and medium-sized enterprises are already using it. While there are a growing number of highly sophisticated paid platforms that can do everything from automating complex workflows (think Zapier, Make, and Power Automate) to integrating AI agents to respond to social comments or customer queries (Manychat, Tidio, and Intercom), and automate inventory operations (Zoho and Cin7), not every business needs these advanced tools. AI for small businesses with fewer resources and smaller budgets looks a little different. Read on to discover the best free AI tools and how best to use them for your small business.
But first, what is AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems that can perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence – like understanding language, recognising images, or making decisions. By analysing large amounts of data and learning from patterns, AI tools can generate insights, create content, and improve their performance over time.
What are AI tools?
AI tools are applications that use artificial intelligence to carry out specific tasks – such as writing text, designing images, analysing data, or answering questions. They take the complex capabilities of AI and package them into easy-to-use software that anyone can access, often for free or at a low cost. Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Canva AI, are three such tools, which we will discuss in more detail below. The best AI tools for small businesses are those that simplify and reduce the time spent on essential but time-consuming tasks – like copywriting, marketing, branding, customer service, or design – freeing you up to focus on the core aspects of your business.
Top three AI tools for small businesses:
1. Perplexity
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity AI is an AI-powered search and answer engine that combines natural language understanding with real-time web research. It retrieves factual information with citations for its answers, and continuously updates from the internet, providing current and trustworthy data.
What it’s great for: doing research and generating concise, factual answers.
What it’s not great for: creative content generation or conversational dialogue.
How to use Perplexity AI for small businesses
Example prompts
Market research and industry trends
If you have noticed a softer month of sales, but aren’t sure why, you could use Perplexity to help you understand whether this is a universal trend across your region, or whether it’s unique to your business. Or, if you’re looking to open a new venue but are not sure where, use Perplexity to find trends or opportunities.
“What are the monthly retail sales growth rates for Melbourne in 2025? "
“List wine bars opened and closed each month in Brisbane 2025."
Blog and article research
Gather factual information and data points to support your blog content. If you are writing an article about the benefits of your product, use Perplexity to summarise the benefits with research-backed evidence.
“What research is there to support the health benefits of turmeric?”
“What research links the benefits of yoga for people with arthritis?”
Regulatory research
Summarize regulations or compliance requirements relevant to your business. If you are planning to expand your cafe to include the service of alcohol, for example, or if you’re starting a business in a new city with state-specific requirements.
“What are the main liquor licence types and who issues them in South Australia?”
“What licenses do you need to run a food truck in Melbourne?”
Learning new tools or techniques
Summarize tutorials, guides, or best practices for anything you don’t know. This could be related to your accounting, or related to a new piece of hardware or software, for example.
“How do you submit a BAS statement?”
“How do you integrate an EFTPOS terminal with a POS system?”
Decision support
Gather pros and cons and research to inform your choices. This is especially helpful for deciding between service providers.
“What is the best EFTPOS terminal provider in Australia?”
“What are the advantages and disadvantages of using delivery platforms like Uber Eats or DoorDash?”
2. ChatGPT
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot that understands and generates human-like text by analysing language patterns from vast amounts of data, enabling it to deliver natural, helpful responses. It can answer questions, write and edit content, brainstorm ideas, and simplify complex topics.
What it’s great for: creative and conversational tasks like writing, brainstorming, and coding.
What it’s not great for: doing research, as it can produce inaccurate or outdated information.
How to use ChatGPT for small businesses
Example prompts
Write website copy, blog articles, newsletters, and social media captions
Start by giving ChatGPT all the context it needs. It does a great job of reorganising messy thoughts or information, so you could also provide it with all the unique selling points of your product, and ask it to generate a succinct and cohesive product description or email newsletter. Giving ChatGPT the factual and contextual information it needs is key in getting the most out of this tool.
“I own a running footwear business and want to write a blog article about the best running trails in Perth. I will give you a list of the trails, could you then help me generate an article?”
“My Chinese medicine practice specialises in the following areas: [list]. Can you write four engaging social media posts to promote these services?”
Brainstorm marketing and business ideas
Use it to help you develop campaign concepts, promotional ideas, new products or services, and ways to attract more customers.
“Can you think of five marketing ideas to help promote my homemade juice business over summer?”
“I am hosting a jazz night at my restaurant, what should I do to promote it?”
“What complementary services should a nail salon offer?”
Draft customer emails or FAQ content
Save time by getting it to help you write professional responses to customer inquiries. If you already have an FAQ page on your website, start by sharing that information with ChatGPT so it can tailor accurate replies. If not, simply provide the key details about your products or services, and it will help you create helpful, well-written responses.
“Using the information I have provided, please write a polite response to the following customer query.”
Write job ads or interview questions
Provide it with details about the role you’re hiring for, the key responsibilities, the type of person who would be a great fit, and a brief overview of your business.
“With the information I provide you, can you please help me write 10 interview questions for hiring a duty manager for my restaurant?”
“Can you write a job description for a senior stylist at my hair salon?”
Summarise information, reword, or proofread
Paste in notes, articles, or transcripts to get a concise summary, or ask it to improve the tone, clarity, or grammar of your communications. When creating content for your website or marketing materials, it can help refine your messaging. You can even upload customer feedback survey responses and ask ChatGPT to summarise key themes or insights.
“How would you improve this sentence to make it more impactful?”
“Is this sentence grammatically correct?”
“Summarise the main themes and most common complaints or compliments.”
Looking for more ways to save time and money in your business?
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3. Canva AI
What is Canva AI?
Canva AI is an artificial intelligence tool built into Canva that helps users quickly create professional-looking designs. It can generate images, illustrations, social media graphics, templates, and other visual content from simple prompts, saving time and making design accessible even for non-designers.
What it’s great for: creating professional-looking, simple designs and visuals for digital use.
What it’s not great for: creating highly customised or complex designs, or anything that will be used for large-format printing.
How to use Canva AI for small businesses
Example prompts
Create social media posts and assets
Canva generates ready-to-edit post layouts, meaning that the images will be perfectly scaled to whatever post you are creating. Simply select ‘Design’ > ‘Social media’ then choose a format from the list. Once you’ve generated your visual, you can enter your own text and play around with different colour combinations.
“Create a Facebook cover photo featuring a pastel colour palette and botanicals.”
“Create an Instagram story with a minimalist aesthetic, featuring fine black lines and a central text box.”
Create logo, product label, packaging, or gift voucher concepts
Before hiring a professional graphic designer, use Canva AI to visualise your ideas. Once you have a few concepts you like, share them with a designer, who can refine the designs and ensure they’re fit for printing.
“Create a juice bottle label with a minimalist, fresh design”
“Clean, modern logo for a juice company: strawberry illustration, fine black lines, minimalist aesthetic.”
Generate background images or screensavers
Select ‘Image’, then pick a style from the list, and choose an aspect ratio, then enter your prompt. If you’d like to add a custom screensaver to your Zeller EFTPOS Terminal, select the 9:16 aspect ratio.
“Tropical leaves”
“Coffee beans”
“Abstract pattern”
Design business cards, flyers, or posters
Select ‘Design’ > ‘Marketing’ then choose from the available formats and enter your prompt. Once the visual has been generated, you will be able to edit the written details and replace the images with your own photos.
“Poster promoting 20% off manicures”
“Flyer for a vintage clothing pop-up shop”
Build templates
Ask Canva to generate templates which you can use again and again to maintain consistency across your marketing communications.
“Email header templates for beauty salon”
“Instagram carousel for bike maintenance tips”
A word of warning when using AI for small businesses
While AI tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Canva AI can save time and inspire creative ideas, they aren’t perfect. Always double-check facts, verify sources, and review content for accuracy before using it to make business decisions. Similarly, AI-generated designs can be great, but the imagery may not always be 100% accurate – it’s not unusual for a hand to have an extra finger, or for objects to be floating in midair! So ensure you always inspect the images closely before using them. Also, AI-generated designs can resemble stock images or copyrighted styles and will lack the resolution required for printing, so if you are going to be sharing the assets widely (for example in a paid advertising campaign or printed on a product label), it’s important to involve the expertise of a professional graphic designer. Always remember to treat AI as a helpful assistant – not a replacement for your judgment or expertise.
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