A new survey from Intuit QuickBooks shows that many small business owners are eager to turn to AI tools to help run and streamline parts of their business. The driver behind this willingness to turn to AI is a lack of time, with 35% of small businesses saying that as their business grows, they find themselves lacking enough time to complete important tasks.
To help with the time crunch, small businesses polled say they want to most automate the following tasks:
- Expense management (69% of respondents)
- Invoicing (68%)
- Completing payroll (51%)
- Running financial health reports (47%)
- Conducting customer communications (30%)
When asked what kind of AI tools the small businesses plan to adopt within the next 12 months, generative AI tools for marketing and content creation topped the list, followed by AI tools to help analyze consumer trends and behaviors, and then AI tools to help assist with customer service.
As for what the small businesses said they would do with the time AI tools freed up, 43% of small businesses said they would use the extra time to develop better customer relationships, while 36% of respondents said they would use the extra time to develop services and products.
Intuit QuickBooks worked with Wakefield Research to conduct the survey, which polled 1,000 small businesses with up to 200 employees each. The survey was conducted between May 1 and May 10.
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