5 Essential AI Tools Every Singapore SME Should Use

For those business owners who choose to use AI, they’ll soon see how it helps them optimise operations, spur growth, and refine the customer experience.

In this article, we’ll delve into five ways artificial intelligence tools can revolutionise your SME's approach to initiating, cultivating, and scaling your enterprise. We’ll also hear from Ben Alistor, a successful Amazon FBA entrepreneur, on how he uses AI for his ecommerce venture.

Why SMEs Need To Get On Board the AI Train

AI might appear to be a tool reserved for large corporations with deep pockets, but the reality is, AI is equally capable of liberating SME owners from monotonous tasks and minimising unnecessary expenses.

Maximise your hours

AI offers a major advantage by automating repetitive tasks and reducing the time needed to accomplish them. The payoff? You and your team can concentrate on strategic tasks.

Ben shares,

“Efficiency is essential, and time is of the essence. With AI, tasks that used to take us 30 minutes can be completed in just 10. It's a monumental shift."

However, it’s more than just time-saving. What you do with the time saved will provide the competitive edge. Ben believes that reimagining this AI approach is what sets solo entrepreneurs on the path to success.

“For me, it has allowed me to cut down the time spent on tasks. So rather than researching one product a week, I can now manage three.” — Ben Alistor

The hazards of ignoring AI

Ben emphasises the importance of staying abreast of evolving times. He likens it to the transition from physical stores to online platforms, saying,

"Businesses that didn't believe in online shopping found themselves outpaced during the pandemic. If you fail to move with the times, you'll be grappling with diminished productivity, compromised efficiency, ballooning costs, and intense competition from businesses employing AI."

Embarking on the AI journey

We understand — determining where to begin with AI can seem daunting. But Ben’s advice is straightforward:

“Educate yourself as much as possible. Dedicate time each week, even if it's just an hour or two, to pondering how AI can enhance productivity and efficiency. Start with education, and then find practical applications to put it to the test.”

5 Ways AI Tools Can Propel Your Business Forward

Now, let's outline five ways AI tools can benefit every entrepreneur, and suggest a few of the best AI tools for marketing and business operations to help you get started.

1. Create Engaging Product Imagery

Crafting distinguished product imagery has become more manageable — and cost-effective. AI tools provide image editing features like automatic adjustments to lighting, colours, and backgrounds.

This means time-saving through automation of the editing process, or cost reduction by not having to outsource. They even allow you to eliminate the necessity for comprehensive styled photo shoots.

Recommended tools

• Pebblely: Minimise the need for lifestyle or creator-generated imagery. Pebblely enables you to use standard product photos shot against a clean backdrop, and insert them into AI-produced lifestyle scenes. Use it to experiment with various settings for organic social media, advertising materials or paid media.
• CreatorKit: As a comprehensive asset generation tool, CreatorKit has got your back on photos, videos, and advertising assets alike. Their AI Ads feature can even produce video ads with a simple click, by analysing and extracting the existing assets on your Shopify site. Welcome to the future.

2. Design a Website in Half a Minute

The next generation of effortless website development has arrived. The days of shelling out a fortune to build a website are over. With AI, you can eliminate the need to outsource a significant part of the website construction process. From drafting SEO-optimised content to image selection, design, and development, these tools will have you up and running in no time.

Recommended tools

• Durable.co: An AI website builder with an enticing proposition: Create a fully designed website, complete with copy, images, and a contact form, all in just 30 seconds. With user-friendly editing tools, multiple pages, and a free custom domain, customise your site without any coding. Durable also offers AI-powered marketing automation, CRM, invoicing, and analytical tools in one package.
• 10web.io: This AI website builder lets you rapidly create or replicate any website using AI power. With its intuitive drag and drop editor and premium widgets, you can easily personalise every design element of your site. Plus, enhance your website's performance with automated hosting and page speed optimisation.

3. Free Yourself From Financial Administration

AI-enabled accounting software can automate data entry, extract data from invoices and receipts, and categorise transactions, saving time and minimising errors. The outcome? More time for you to focus on core operations and strategic decision-making.

Recommended tools

• Osome: Two aspects are most vital in accounting: timeliness and precision. Osome is an accounting and financial management platform equipped with AI and Machine Learning (ML) technology. What does this imply? Simply, reduced manual data entry, quicker document processing and bookkeeping, and improved accuracy. However, the real benefit for founders is letting the software shoulder the heavy lifting, allowing your Osome accountant to offer a more personalised service.

4. Develop Persuasive Sales Material

Looking to enhance your digital marketing and sales materials on a tight budget? AI marketing tools could be your solution. With a range of tools, you can create customised emails in your brand’s tone, professional presentations, and automate sales processes. These will assist founders who want to lightly test marketing ideas, or generate improved sales resources without outsourcing.

Recommended tools

• SuperReply: A quick and clever AI email solution that removes the stress from professional communication, helping you secure more deals. SuperReply offers tone-matching email suggestions and smart responses, making it easy to reply to emails with confidence. All emails and replies are also encrypted, ensuring your privacy and safety.
• Tome: Sometimes in sales, you need to narrate a captivating story. Tome assists with that. With its interactive canvas and AI storytelling partner, you can generate presentations, outlines, and stories with just a prompt. The creation experience is seamless, supported by inbuilt themes, responsive layouts and platform integrations.
• Reply.io: Described as an AI-powered sales engagement platform, Reply.io aids in driving revenue growth by automating communication and streamlining the sales process. Hero features include AI-driven sales engagement, intelligent response handling, and meeting scheduling.

5. Accomplish Product Research in a Blink

AI tools like chatbots aren't just for answering queries. They can also produce human-like responses, giving you a deep understanding of customer needs. Or, they can provide advanced search functionalities and data analysis, allowing you to gather market data, customer sentiments, and identify trends effortlessly.

How best to utilise this? Ben provides some insight:

“Rather than manually combing through customer reviews or scouring the web, I can swiftly summarise the last 50 reviews using ChatGPT. Then, I can pose specific questions to the chatbot or any other AI tool about what customers seek when purchasing a product, like a yoga mat. This gives me insights beyond what I might have contemplated, such as factors like slipperiness and size, which are crucial when dealing with suppliers.”

Recommended tools

• ChatGPT: An intuitive chatbot tool that can generate human-like responses and engage in meaningful dialogues. It can assist you in understanding customer preferences, gathering feedback, and uncovering insights to refine your product offerings.
• Google Trends: Google Trends offers data on search interest over time by analysing search data from millions of users. It assists in identifying emerging trends, popular keywords, and consumer interests related to your products.

Let AI Keep an Eye on Your Financial Admin

Leave those spreadsheets where they belong — in the past. Osome’s AI-backed software automates your routine financial and accounting tasks, while our expert accountants provide the support needed to grow your business.

Further Reading

• 10 Ways To Gain a Competitive Edge on a Budget With ChatGPT
• Scaling Your Business to New Heights: Tips from Entrepreneurs
• The Benefits of an All-in-One Accounting Dashboard for Business Owners
• 25 Best Side Hustle Ideas in Singapore for Generating Extra Cash