Small Business Owners Eager to Try ChatGPT

Small business owners are eager to try out new technology, especially if it has the potential to save them money. According to Alignable’s ChatGPT Sentiment Study, 57 percent of small business owners have at least tried the new AI tool, and 26 percent of those in the U.S. have already embraced it as a new way to enhance their businesses.

These statistics reveal a high degree of early acceptance and hope for this new technology, especially considering that ChatGPT was just released at the end of last year and remains a somewhat mysterious new tech tool for many small business owners. 

“We started experimenting with it, then really got into it, and now it’s a part of our marketing automation platform,” a survey participant told Alignable. “By integrating the GPT capabilities, we’ve freed up all kinds of time. Things that used to take hours now take minutes, giving us room to focus on the work we truly love that will bring in more money. It doesn’t replace the human touch as many fear. It actually gives us more time for it. This genie is not going back in the bottle.”

The majority of small business owners have been working against challenging conditions to bounce back from a 3-year-long economic slump. ChatGPT offers the hope for a change.

To put current economic conditions in their proper perspective, Alignable’s June and July surveys show that 61 percent of small businesses have yet to fully recover financially from the Covid-19 era. That means only 39 percent report making as much or more revenue monthly as they did prior to the pandemic. 

ChatGPT can help small businesses run better and more efficiently, ultimately maximizing owners’ time to improve their chances for recovery and growth. “It’s a business tool that cannot be overlooked much the same as the first desktop computer,” one participant said.

Here’s a breakdown of how the 57 percent of small business owners who’ve tried ChatGPT are using it:

• 31 percent are creating more marketing content.
• 13 percent are tapping it to help with customer interactions. 
• 7 percent are experimenting with it to tackle a variety of business functions.
• 3 percent are uncovering long-term, general trends in their industries.
• 2 percent are using it for scheduling.
• 1 percent are tasking ChatGPT with tech support.