If you’ve ever wanted more control or peace of mind over your AI, the solution might be right under your nose: hosting AI models locally. Yes, on your own hardware and under your own roof (physical or virtual). It’s kind of like deciding to cook your favorite dish at home instead of ordering takeout. You know exactly what goes into it; you fine-tune the recipe, and you can eat anytime you want — no depending on anyone else to get it right.

In this guide, we’ll break down why local AI hosting could transform the way you work, what hardware and software you need, how to do it step by step, and best practices to keep everything running smoothly. Let’s dive in and give you the power to run AI on your own terms.

What Is Locally Hosted AI (and Why You Should Care)

Locally hosted AI means running machine learning models directly on equipment you own or fully control. You can use a home workstation with a decent GPU, a dedicated server in your office, or even a rented bare-metal machine, if that suits you better.

Why does this matter? A few important reasons…

• Privacy and data control: No shipping sensitive information off to third-party servers. You hold the keys.
• Faster response times: Your data never leaves your network, so you skip the round-trip to the cloud.
• Customization: Tweak, fine-tune, or even re-architect your models however you see fit.
• Reliability: Avoid downtime or usage limits that cloud AI providers impose.

Of course, hosting AI yourself means you’ll manage your own infrastructure, updates, and potential fixes. But if you want to make sure your AI is truly yours, local hosting is a game-changer.

Assessing Hardware Requirements

Getting your physical setup right is one of the biggest steps toward successful local AI hosting. You don’t want to invest time (and money) into configuring an AI model, only to discover your GPU can’t handle the load or your server overheats. 

So, before you dive into the details of installation and model fine-tuning, it’s worth mapping out exactly what sort of hardware you’ll need.

Why Hardware Matters for Local AI

When you’re hosting AI locally, performance largely boils down to how powerful (and compatible) your hardware is. A robust CPU can manage simpler tasks or smaller machine learning models, but deeper models often need GPU acceleration to handle the intense parallel computations. If your hardware is underpowered, you’ll see slow inference times, choppy performance, or you might fail to load large models altogether.

That doesn’t mean you need a supercomputer. Many modern mid-range GPUs can handle medium-scale AI tasks — it’s all about matching your model’s demands to your budget and usage patterns.

Key Considerations

1. CPU vs. GPU

Some AI operations (like basic classification or smaller language model queries) can run on a solid CPU alone. However, if you want real-time chat interfaces, text generation, or image synthesis, a GPU is a near-must.

2. Memory (RAM) and Storage

Large language models can easily consume tens of gigabytes. Aim for 16GB or 32GB system RAM for moderate usage. If you plan to load multiple models or train new ones, 64GB+ might be beneficial.

An SSD is also strongly recommended — loading models from spinning HDDs slow everything down. A 512GB SSD or larger is common, depending on how many model checkpoints you store.

3. Server vs. Workstation

If you’re just experimenting or only need AI occasionally, a powerful desktop might do the job. Plug in a mid-range GPU and you’re set. For 24/7 uptime, consider a dedicated server with proper cooling, redundant power supplies, and possibly ECC (error-correcting) RAM for stability.

4. Hybrid Cloud Approach

Not everyone has the physical space or desire to manage a noisy GPU rig. You can still “go local” by renting or purchasing a dedicated server from a hosting provider that supports GPU hardware. That way, you get full control over your environment without physically maintaining the box.

Pulling It All Together

Think about how heavily you’ll use AI. If you see your model constantly in action (like a full-time chatbot or daily image generation for marketing), invest in a robust GPU and enough RAM to keep everything running smoothly. If your needs are more exploratory or light usage, a mid-tier GPU card in a standard workstation can deliver decent performance without destroying your budget.

Ultimately, hardware shapes your AI experience. It’s easier to plan carefully up front than to juggle endless system upgrades once you realize your model requires more juice. Even if you start small, keep an eye on your next step: if your local user base or model complexity grows, you’ll want headroom to scale.

Choosing the Right Model (and Software)

Picking an open-source AI model to run locally might feel like staring at a massive menu (like that phonebook they call a menu at Cheesecake Factory). You’ve got endless options, each with its own flavors and best-use scenarios. While variety is the spice of life, it can also be overwhelming. 

The key is to nail down what exactly you need from your AI tools: text generation, image synthesis, domain-specific predictions, or something else altogether.

Your use case drastically narrows the search for the right model. For example, if you want to generate marketing copy, you’d explore language models like LLaMA derivatives. For visual tasks, you’d look at image-based models such as Stable Diffusion or flux.

Popular Open-Source Models

Depending on your needs, you should check out the following.

Language Models

• LLaMA/ Alpaca / Vicuna: All well-known projects for local hosting. They can handle chat-like interactions or text completion. Check how much VRAM they require (some variants need only ~8GB).
• GPT-J / GPT-NeoX: Good for pure text generation, though they can be more demanding on your hardware.

Image Models

• Stable Diffusion: A go-to for generating art, product images, or concept designs. It’s widely used and has a massive community offering tutorials, add-ons, and creative expansions.

Domain-Specific Models

• Browse Hugging Face for specialized models (e.g., finance, healthcare, legal). You might find a smaller, domain-tuned model that’s easier to run than a general-purpose giant.

Open Source Frameworks

You’ll need to load and interact with your chosen model using a framework. Two industry standards dominate:

• PyTorch: Renowned for user-friendly debugging and a huge community. Most new open-source models appear in PyTorch first.
• TensorFlow: Backed by Google, stable for production environments, though the learning curve can be steeper in some areas.

Where To Find Models

• Hugging Face Hub: A massive repository of open-source models. Read community reviews, usage notes, and watch for how actively a model is maintained.
• GitHub: Many labs or indie devs post custom AI solutions. Just verify the model’s license and confirm it’s stable enough for your use case.

Once you pick your model and framework, take a moment to read the official docs or any example scripts. If your model is super fresh (like a newly released LLaMA variant), be prepared for some potential bugs or incomplete instructions. 

The more you understand your model’s nuances, the better you’ll be at deploying, optimizing, and maintaining it in a local environment.

Step-by-Step Guide: How To Run AI Models Locally

Now you’ve chosen suitable hardware and zeroed in on a model or two. Below is a detailed walkthrough that should get you from a blank server (or workstation) to a functioning AI model you can play with.

Step 1: Prepare Your System

1. Install Python 3.8+

 Virtually all open-source AI runs on Python these days. On Linux, you might do:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3 python3-venv python3-pip

On Windows or macOS, download from python.org or use a package manager like Homebrew.

2. GPU drivers and toolkit

If you have an NVIDIA GPU, install the latest drivers from the official site or your distro’s repository. Then add the CUDA toolkit (matching your GPU’s computation capability) if you want GPU-accelerated PyTorch or TensorFlow.

3. Optional: Docker or Venv

If you prefer containerization, set up Docker or Docker Compose. If you like environment managers, use Python venv to isolate your AI dependencies.

Step 2: Set Up a Virtual Environment

Virtual environments create isolated environments where you can install or remove libraries and change Python version without affecting your system’s default Python setup.

This saves you headaches down the line when you have multiple projects running on your computer.

Here is how you can create a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv localAI
source localAI/bin/activate

You’ll notice the localAI prefix to your terminal prompt. That means you are inside the virtual environment and any changes that you make here will not affect your system environment.

Step 3: Install Required Libraries

Depending on the model’s framework, you’ll want:

• PyTorch

pip3 install torch torchvision torchaudio

Or if you need GPU acceleration:

pip3 install torch torchvision torchaudio --extra-index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu118

• TensorFlow

pip3 install tensorflow

For GPU usage, make sure you have the right “tensorflow-gpu” or relevant version.

Step 4: Download and Prepare Your Model

Let’s say you’re using a language model from Hugging Face.

1. Clone or download:

Now you might want to install, git large file systems (LFS) before you proceed since the huggingface repositories will pull in large model files.

sudo apt install git-lfs
git clone https://huggingface.co/your-model

TinyLlama repository is a small local LLM repository you can clone by running the below command.

git clone https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen2-0.5B

2. Folder organization:

Place model weights in a directory like “~/models/<model-name>” Keep them distinct from your environment so you don’t accidentally delete them during environment changes.

Step 5: Load and Verify Your Model

Here is an example script that you can run directly. Just make sure that you change the model_path to match the directory of the cloned repository.

import torch
from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForCausalLM
import logging

# Suppress warnings
logging.getLogger("transformers").setLevel(logging.ERROR)

# Use local model path
model_path = "/Users/dreamhost/path/to/cloned/directory"

print(f"Loading model from: {model_path}")

# Load model and tokenizer
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_path)
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
    model_path, 
    torch_dtype=torch.float16,
    device_map="auto"
)

# Input prompt
prompt = "Tell me something interesting about DreamHost:"
print("n" + "="*50)
print("INPUT:")
print(prompt)
print("="*50)

# Generate response
inputs = tokenizer(prompt, return_tensors="pt").to(model.device)
output_sequences = model.generate(
    **inputs,
    max_new_tokens=100,
    do_sample=True,
    temperature=0.7
)

# Extract just the generated part, not including input
input_length = inputs.input_ids.shape[1]
response = tokenizer.decode(output_sequences[0][input_length:], skip_special_tokens=True

# Print output
print("n" + "="*50)
print("OUTPUT:")
print(response)
print("="*50)

If you see similar output, you are all set to use your local model in your application scripts.

Make sure you:

1. Check for warnings: If you see warnings about missing keys or mismatches, ensure your model is compatible with the library version.
2. Test output: If you get a coherent paragraph back, you’re golden!

Step 6: Tune for Performance

1. Quantization: Some models support int8 or int4 variants, drastically reducing VRAM needs and inference time.
2. Precision: Float16 can be significantly faster than float32 on many GPUs. Check your model’s doc to enable half-precision.
3. Batch size: If you’re running multiple queries, experiment with a small batch size so you don’t overload your memory.
4. Caching and pipeline: Transformers offer caching for repeated tokens; helpful if you run many step-by-step text prompts.

Step 7: Monitor Resource Usage

Run “nvidia-smi” or your OS’s performance monitor to see GPU utilization, memory usage, and temperature. If you see your GPU pinned at 100% or VRAM maxed out, consider a smaller model or extra optimization.

Step 8: Scale Up (if Needed)

If you need to scale up, you can! Check out the following options.

1. Upgrade your hardware: Insert a second GPU or move to a more powerful card.
2. Use multi-GPU clusters: If your business workflow demands it, you can orchestrate multiple GPUs for bigger models or concurrency.
3. Move to dedicated hosting: If your home/office environment isn’t cutting it, consider a data center or specialized hosting with guaranteed GPU resources.

Running AI locally might feel like a lot of steps, but once you’ve done it once or twice, the process is straightforward. You install dependencies, load a model, and run a quick test to make sure everything is functioning like it should. After that, it’s all about fine-tuning: tweaking your hardware usage, exploring new models, and continually refining your AI’s capabilities to fit your small business or personal project goals.

Best Practices from AI Pros

As you run your own AI models, keep these best practices in mind:

Ethical and Legal Considerations

• Carefully handle private data in line with regulations (GDPR, HIPAA if relevant).
• Evaluate your model’s training set or usage patterns to avoid introducing bias or generating problematic content.

Version Control and Documentation

• Maintain code, model weights, and environment configs in Git or a similar system.
• Tag or label model versions so you can roll back if the latest build misbehaves.

Model Updates and Fine-Tuning

• Periodically check for improved model releases from the community.
• If you have domain-specific data, consider fine-tuning or training further to boost accuracy.

Observe Resource Usage

• If you see GPU memory frequently maxed, you might need to add more VRAM or reduce the model size.
• For CPU-based setups, watch out for thermal throttling.

Security

• If you expose an API endpoint externally, secure it with SSL, authentication tokens, or IP restrictions.
• Keep your OS and libraries up to date to patch vulnerabilities.

Your AI Toolkit: Further Learning and Resources

Learn more about:

• Mastering customer relationships with AI
• Boosting productivity with AI
• 100 best WordPress plugins
• Getting the most out of Claude AI
• How to use Midjourney
• How to use Otter.ai

For library-level frameworks and advanced user-driven code, PyTorch or TensorFlow documentation is your best friend. The Hugging Face documentation is also excellent for exploring more model loading tips, pipeline examples, and community-driven improvements.

It’s Time To Take Your AI In-House

Hosting your own AI models locally can feel intimidating at first, but it’s a move that pays off in spades: tighter control over your data, faster response times, and the freedom to experiment. By choosing a model that fits your hardware, and running through a few Python commands, you’re on your way to an AI solution that’s truly your own.

AI Business Advisor

Get Personalized Expert AI Guidance at Your Fingertips.

Ready to take your business to the next level? See how DreamHost’s AI Business Advisor can help with everyday tasks like content creation and planning, giving you more time to focus on what really matters. Give it a try and watch your business grow.

Learn More

The post Everything You Need To Know To Start Hosting Your Own AI Models Locally appeared first on DreamHost Blog.

In fact, it almost seems too good to be true…

The truth is, AI can definitely assist your content marketing and social media efforts, but it’s essential to know when it can be helpful, and when to stick with a human touch.

In this guide, we’ll take a glimpse into the world of AI writing — and explore how to use your resources at peak efficiency.

Let’s get to work!

Why AI Content Changes the Game for Small Businesses

Let’s set two things straight:

• Current AI cannot replace you, or your staff.
• However, it can make your entire team more productive.

Think of using AI as like hiring a smart apprentice — not the most skilled or experienced person on your team, but they have boundless energy and they’re eager to impress. Plus, they’re great at using the latest tech and finding answers online.

By integrating tools like ChatGPT into your content creation process, you can save time on boring-but-necessary tasks.

That means you have more time and energy to invest in coming up with great ideas, promoting your work, and other areas of your business.

Not convinced? Nielsen recently analyzed three separate studies and found that people using AI for business improved productivity by 66%.

Think how much more you could get done in a week with an upgrade like that!

Quick Wins: How AI Can Improve Your Content Workflow Right Now

You might be wondering, “What kind of tasks can I automate with AI?”

There are many possible answers here. If you’re looking for some quick wins, here’s the lowest-hanging fruit:

• Brainstorming: If you’re stuck for inspiration, you can ask your AI assistant to spitball some ideas.
• Drafting: AI writing tools can create long-form content in seconds, allowing you to focus on fact-checking and making tweaks.
• Translating: While AI isn’t as accurate as a human translator, it can certainly help translate foreign text to your native language.
• Editing: Tools like Grammarly can be your personal human proofreader and English Lit professor in one.

We will take a closer look at these techniques and other AI use cases later.

Guardrails for AI Content: Preserving the Personal Touch

Wow, this AI stuff seems cool. Maybe you can get it to do everything and then spend your days relaxing on a Caribbean beach lounger?

Well, we hate to break it to you…

Artificial intelligence is very impressive, yes — but it’s not faultless. In fact, it sometimes makes mistakes that would make the average six-year-old ashamed.

Just last year, McDonald’s had to suspend using AI to take drive-thru orders after the system added a total of 260 Chicken McNuggets to the order of one perplexed customer.

That customer wasn’t ridiculously hungry – They actually pleaded with the AI to stop adding McNuggets to the order.

Similarly, Air Canada had to pay compensation to one flyer who had been misinformed by the company chatbot about refunds on bereavement fares.

To avoid AI disasters like these, it’s important to follow these best practices:

• Always use human oversight: It’s not a good idea to publish any AI-powered content without checking it for errors.
• Provide information for the AI to reference: Many errors occur when AI has to guess or fill in the gaps. Most tools allow you to upload PDFs and data; use this feature to educate your chosen AI content generator.
• Have clear policies on AI usage: It’s not only the AI that needs guidance. Make sure your team knows when it’s appropriate to use AI, and when to avoid it.

AI Content Marketing Masterclass: 7 Use Cases To Try

We’ve lectured you enough about the potential benefits and pitfalls. It’s time to fire up your favorite AI tool and see what this (very intelligent) baby can do.

Here’s a blueprint for supercharging your entire content marketing workflow:

1. Brainstorming Content Ideas

Coming up with an endless list of fresh and interesting content ideas can be draining. Tools like ChatGPT can take some of the creative burden off your shoulders by making suggestions.

Simply type in:

• What type of content you want
• Who you’re aiming to reach
• Which topics you want to cover
• Any formatting requirements

And your chosen AI-powered tool should deliver the goods.

The results are rarely perfect, but it should give you something to work with — a launchpad for your creative spaceship ? (to use a forced analogy).

Pro Tip: If you want to make these ideas fit your brand character a little better, you can input some previous examples.

⭐️ Bonus Pro Tip: Like the rest of us, AI models can be lazy. Specify the exact number of suggestions you want, to make sure you’re not short-changed!

Recommended tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, DreamHost Business Advisor AI.

Example prompt:
I need to create some SEO blog posts. My audience is 18 to 35-year-old water-skiers who live in Alaska. I would like to write some posts on ice breaking, first aid, and the most insulated wetsuits in the world. These posts should be around 1,000–2,000 words long, with catchy titles. Please give me 10 ideas for blog posts.

2. Creating Rough Drafts

AI content creation tools are way faster at writing than you or me. Getting your AI assistant to rustle up a fast draft of blog posts, social media posts, and other types of content is a great way to save time.

The process is very similar to the ideation workflow above:

1. Input your requirements: Choose your content type, audience, topics, and format. 
2. Add an outline: Give the AI some idea of what you want to cover. You can always get the same tool to make an outline for you!
3. Paste in an example post as reference material: Upload a style guide or your branding guidelines if you have them.
4. Thoroughly check the output and make adjustments: You can also ask the AI to change the direction or tone of the outline as you see fit.

Pro Tip: If you’re creating a long-form article, try splitting it into sections. Most AI tools perform better when you give them one small task at a time.

Recommended tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, Jasper, Writer, Grammarly.

Example prompt:
I need to write a report about people who go waterskiing in stupid places. The article is aimed at 35 to 50-year-old people who are interested in learning from bad decisions. Please use this to outline a post and mimic the style and tone of the writing example given below.
Writing example: [EXAMPLE]

3. AI Image and Video Generation

Writing isn’t the only talent that AI brings to the table. Visual content is also a strong suit, from blog post headers to head-turning video content.

You can create images with ChatGPT using DALL-E, a specialized model that is built into the platform. Many content creators already use this tool to generate simple social media photos.

If you want a bit more polish, it’s worth experimenting with dedicated tools like MidJourney and Pika. If you’re interested in learning more about moving images, check out our comprehensive guide to AI video generators.

Recommended tools: DALL-E (available via ChatGPT), MidJourney, Pika, Veo 2.

Example prompt:
Create an image that shows a person in a hospital waiting room with broken waterskis resting on a chair next to them.

4. AI-Powered Social Media Management

Posting to multiple social media platforms every day and replying to endless comments can be a real chore. Thankfully, AI is really good at being social — online.

Apps like Ocoya and FeedHive have built-in AI writing tools, allowing you to generate and schedule posts in a flash. Other platforms have similar text-to-image models.

Meanwhile, Brand24 uses AI to analyze what people are saying about your business online. This is really helpful for figuring out what most people feel about your brand.

As with other AI use cases, the key here is to use AI as a tool — not a replacement for your social media team.

Pro Tip: Use analytics features to track which posts perform best. This way, you can refine your strategy and keep your audience engaged!

Recommended tools: Ocoya, FeedHive, Predis.ai, Publer, Brand24.

5. Translate Your Content to Different Languages

English might be the lingua franca of the Internet, but plenty of people on this planet aren’t too familiar with the language.

To reach customers who speak other languages, you can leverage AI tools for high-quality content translation.

This might seem like a specialized task, but ChatGPT and Claude are as powerful as any dedicated software. Here are a couple of things to remember:

• AI translation works best in the most popular languages: This is because there’s simply more content to learn from.
• These apps factor in context: Whereas Google Translate is more like a translation dictionary, generative AI models look for the meaning of your writing.
• You should probably get the translations checked: Just as you shouldn’t publish AI-generated content without a check, you shouldn’t rely on AI to get translations spot on. We don’t want any diplomatic incidents…

Pro Tip: In your prompt, tell the AI what type of content you’re trying to translate. This context helps the model to deliver a more accurate result.

Recommended tools: DeepL, Google Cloud Translation AI, Lokalise, Language Tool.

Example prompt:
Translate this English SEO blog post about Alaskan waterskiers into French.
[PASTED POST]

6. Repurposing Existing Content

Talking about a familiar subject is much easier than writing about it. But written content is still king of the online realm.

The solution? Get AI to turn your spoken words into written ones. AI transcription apps such as Otter.ai are impressively fast and accurate.

Similarly, not everyone wants to dive into a 10,000-word report. Using free AI tools, you can quickly extract bitesize chunks to share on your socials.

Repurposing is actually one of the best AI use cases right now. It’s a 2-for-1 deal: you get extra mileage for your existing content, and it takes less time than usual.

Pro Tip: If you record videos for marketing, try using Descript. This AI-powered platform can chop full videos into snippets, edit the audio for sharing in a podcast, and even create a written transcription!

Recommended tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Otter.ai, Descript.

Example prompt:
Using extracts from this report on waterskiing safety, give me five short quotes I can post in an Instagram carousel, highlighting the dangers of sliding across the frozen sea.

7. Reviewing Your Work

While machines can make mistakes, so can we.

When you don’t have a second pair of eyes to check over your work, you can ask AI to take a look instead.

It might sound counterintuitive, given all the talk about oversight, but AI is actually a great proofreader. It can pick up potential errors in grammar, suggest improvements to your writing, and even point out factual errors.

Grammarly is the leader in this niche. This popular grammar checker now has AI features that analyze the tone of your writing and highlight ugly writing.

Pro Tip: Before you publish your next blog post, paste the text into ChatGPT and ask the AI to find any mistakes. You might be surprised!

Recommended tools: Grammarly, Wordtune, ProWritingAid, Hemingway Editor.

Example prompt:
Check this blog post about armor-plated wetsuits for grammatical and factual errors.
[PASTED POST]

Best Practices for Working With AI-Generated Content

Generating content is an exciting use case for AI. But it also demands the most caution.

If you want to create content without causing havoc, follow these best practices:

• Don’t aggravate search engines: Pumping out content using AI might seem like a smart SEO play, but search engines will mark you down heavily if that content is generic and low quality.
• Put resources into quality control: It only takes one silly mistake to tarnish your brand, so it’s vital to review and refine AI content.
• Think about brand consistency: If you don’t have brand guidelines, make them now. AI tools need this information to match your tone.

Most of all, dedicate some time to experimenting with AI. This is by far the best way to figure out exactly how technology can help your business!

Start Creating Better Content Today

TL;DR: AI is not a replacement for the human touch. It’s a tool that can enhance your work.

No matter what’s on the horizon in the near future, your business will benefit from being an early adopter. And the good news is, you don’t have to break the bank to get started!

Popular tools like ChatGPT and Claude offer limited free access, and DreamHost customers get unlimited access to our Business Advisor AI.

Sign up today to give it a try and unlock 100% guaranteed uptime for your business website at the same time!

The post How To Scale Blog and Social Media Content With AI While Keeping It Credible appeared first on DreamHost Blog.

Your hand aches from writing, and your notebook tells the story — scattered arrows, half-finished thoughts, action items that no longer make sense, and the occasional doodle from when someone had technical difficulties…

While you focused on capturing words, you missed the subtle nods, the concerns, and other moments where real connections happen.

You’re not alone in this. Every day, 11 million meetings are hosted in the US. Teams spend five hours weekly in these sessions, yet 71% produce no meaningful outcomes.

The majority of the surveyed employees state that most meetings could have been an email.

And the cost? $37 billion in lost productivity annually.

For small business owners, the math doesn’t work. Every minute spent scribbling notes is a minute not spent building relationships, making strategic decisions, or growing your business.

That’s where AI can help. Tools like Otter.ai capture every word, generate clear summaries, and track action items automatically. And you can stay focused on what humans do best: leading conversations, building trust, and making informed decisions.

Let’s understand meeting summaries and how you can make the most of your meetings with tools like Otter.

First, Do You Really Need AI Meeting Summaries?

Let’s think of meeting notes and summaries like raw footage versus a movie trailer.

Notes capture everything: from everything Kate said about her trip to LA, a random comment someone made, side conversations, and off-track thoughts said out loud. It’s a transcription of the entire meeting, but the thing is, you’ll rarely use meeting notes after the meeting is done.

Summaries, on the other hand, distill what matters — the decisions made, tasks assigned, and next steps planned — to save you a lot of time.

82% of Otter users say they’d use the time saved to get more work done outside of meetings.

Small business owners who are still taking notes in the traditional way face a trade-off in every meeting: either be present and engaged or take accurate notes. I’ve rarely met someone who can handle both.

AI meeting summary tools like Otter.ai help you skip the manual note-taking and fully engage.

Otter captures everything and creates a good meeting summary, including these four essential things:

1. What did we decide?
2. Who’s doing what by when?
3. What problems did we solve?
4. What happens next?

These summaries also help team members stay aligned and accountable. No more “I thought you were handling that!” moments.

Meeting summaries help keep it simple, clear, and, most importantly, actionable for everyone involved.

Getting Started With Otter.ai: Building Your Meeting Intelligence System

The journey from scattered notes to streamlined meetings begins with a single step. Let me walk you through transforming how you capture, process, and activate meeting intelligence.

Setting Up Your AI Assistant in 5 Simple Steps

Changing how you handle meetings begins with a simple setup process. Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Create Your Account

Sign up to Otter.ai with your email — preferably your work email — to access workspace features like collaboration and analytics.

Once registered, confirm your email to activate your account. If the confirmation email doesn’t appear, check your spam folder and add Otter.ai as a contact.

Step 2: Connect Your Calendar

Link Otter to your calendar to streamline meeting management.

Once connected, Otter will automatically join scheduled meetings, record conversations, and generate summaries without manual intervention.

Step 3: Download the Mobile App

Additionally, you can download the Otter mobile app. It syncs across devices, letting you record, transcribe, and access conversations wherever you are.

Step 4: Train Otter for Tagging and Vocabulary

Teach Otter to recognize speakers by tagging voices and adding custom vocabulary. For teams, you can also add shared vocabulary to boost transcription accuracy for specialized terms and names.

Step 5: Integrate Tools You Already Use

Otter integrates with a wide range of tools that you may already use. You can boost productivity by connecting it to apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Dropbox, and your favorite calendars.

These integrations simplify workflows and improve collaboration.

Core Features for Online Meetings

Think of Otter as a skilled executive assistant, but one that never misses a beat.

Here are some core features we absolutely love:

• Live transcription: This one is the most important considering we need (almost) every word to be captured accurately. Otter captures every word with 98% accuracy, identifying speakers automatically and marking key moments as they happen.
• Automated summaries: After each meeting, Otter distills discussions into clear, actionable highlights. It creates a summary and a checklist of action items that you can pass on to your team members.
• Collaborative intelligence: AI doesn’t have the context of your company, so your team members can go back to the transcript and highlight additional key moments, add comments, and build on ideas — turning static transcripts into living documents that evolve with your projects. 

That’s pretty much all you need from meeting transcription software. Now, the question is, is it worth investing in this tool?

Is Otter Worth the Investment?

The answer depends on how meetings fit into your workflow. Otter.ai is, however, well worth it if you regularly attend meetings.

It automates tasks that consume time and focus, such as taking notes and summarizing discussions. The time you save within just a few meetings pays for the tool itself.

Here’s what the pricing plans look like:

For those just starting, the Free plan is an excellent way to explore what Otter.ai can offer.

It includes 300 transcription minutes per month, live meeting summaries, and real-time collaboration features. For individuals attending a few meetings, this plan already adds significant value — capturing discussions, summarizing decisions, and helping you stay focused.

If your needs grow, the Pro plan at $8.33/user per month (billed annually) offers unlimited meetings and AI summaries. Just one hour saved each month covers more than the cost!

The Business plan at $20/user per month (billed annually) is great for teams.

You get:

• Enterprise-grade security.
• Custom vocabulary training to add.
• Advanced team management.
• Priority support.

Small businesses often find this plan redirects hundreds of hours annually to high-impact work.

Beyond Basic Meeting Recording

Otter.ai is ready to impress, by doing so much more than just notes.

For example:

• Automatically generates action items.
• Creates searchable archives of institutional knowledge.
• Enables async collaboration through shared annotations.
• Tracks meeting patterns and participation metrics.

62% of Otter users report saving at least 4 hours weekly.

Make the Best of Otter.ai for Business Growth

Efficient use of Otter.ai can do more than just simplify your meetings; it can help your business grow by saving time, improving collaboration, and driving actionable outcomes.

Here’s how to make the most of its features:

Improve Meeting Transcripts

Start every meeting prepared. Make sure your microphone captures audio clearly and place it centrally if you’re in a room.

When joining virtual meetings, configure Otter.ai to auto-join and begin transcription. This hands-off approach lets you focus entirely on the discussion without worrying about missed details.

Encourage participants to speak clearly and identify themselves during conversations. Otter’s speaker identification feature works best when voices are distinct. For recurring meetings, leverage the platform’s ability to refine speaker tags over time for better accuracy.

Customize and Edit Summaries

Otter’s AI-generated summaries are highly accurate, but every business has nuances. It makes sense to review your summaries after meetings to make sure they align with your goals.

Re-check the key decisions, edit action items, and make sure deadlines are clear immediately after the meeting has ended.

Use custom tags for speakers, projects, or tasks. For instance, tagging a “Client Proposal” action item makes sure it shows up when you search for this meeting later.

Personalizing summaries in this way makes follow-ups easier and keeps everyone accountable.

Use Collaboration Features

Otter lets you edit meeting notes like shared living documents. Team members can annotate transcripts, add comments, and highlight moments that matter most.

Generally, businesses can use these tools to refine ideas, assign tasks, and clarify responsibilities together in an async fashion.

Collaborative editing also helps align teams across the board.

For example, after a product launch discussion, you can highlight customer feedback and assign specific follow-ups to your marketing and product teams within the transcript itself.

The team has the full context of the comment as it’s now attached to a specific timestamp in the meeting transcript.

Share Notes and Follow-Ups Automatically

Share transcripts and summaries immediately after meetings to ensure everyone is in agreement.

Otter.ai allows you to share private links with relevant team members or export notes in formats like PDF or doc.x for external stakeholders.

You can also set Otter to automatically send an email with the summary and transcript link to all those who were part of the meeting.

This helps everyone on the team (those who attended and those who didn’t) know:

• What was covered
• What was the gist of the outcome of the meeting
• The action items

Other Time-Saving Tools To Enhance Meeting Workflows

Integrating Otter.ai with complementary tools can further enhance your productivity and meeting efficiency. Here are some solutions:

• Krisp: Background noise disrupts meetings and can affect transcription accuracy. Krisp’s AI-powered noise cancellation ensures clear communication during virtual meetings. This free tool can be paired with Otter.ai to enhance the quality of your recordings, resulting in more precise transcriptions.
• Calendly: Simplify scheduling with Calendly. This tool syncs your availability with invitees, ensuring seamless booking. When linked with Otter.ai, your meetings are automatically prepared for transcription, saving you the hassle of manual setup.
• Zapier: Automate repetitive tasks by connecting Otter.ai with Zapier. For instance, set up workflows where Otter.ai transcripts are automatically saved to a designated Google Drive folder or emailed to team members after every meeting.
• Trello: After generating action items with Otter.ai, use Trello to organize them into project boards. Assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress to ensure that every action item from your meetings is addressed efficiently.
• Grammarly: For polished meeting summaries, Grammarly can be used to further refine Otter.ai’s transcriptions and notes. It also helps your follow-up emails and shared documents maintain a professional tone, improving communication with clients and stakeholders.

With the workflows now set up, let’s look at a few simple templates you can use to share the meeting notes and summaries with your team so they can be efficiently actioned.

Simple Templates for Meeting Notes and Summaries

How you communicate outcomes can make the difference between a great meeting and great results.

Here are some meeting summary templates that you can share with the team after every meeting. And honestly, you’re welcome. ?

Executive Summary Template

Subject: Meeting Summary: [Project Name] Discussion – [Date]

Hey team,

Here’s a focused recap of our discussion on [Project]:

Key Decisions:

• [Major decision 1] – Impact: [Brief description]
• [Major decision 2] – Impact: [Brief description]

Action Items:

1. [Task] – Owner: [@Name] – Due: [Date]
2. [Task] – Owner: [@Name] – Due: [Date]

Next Steps: [Brief paragraph about immediate priorities]

Full meeting notes: [Otter.ai Link]

Project Update Format Template

[Project Status: Green/Yellow/Red]

Progress Update:

• What we’ve accomplished
• Where we stand now
• Immediate priorities

Blockers & Solutions:

• [Blocker 1] → [Solution/Next Step]
• [Blocker 2] → [Solution/Next Step]

Client Meeting Follow-Up Template

Dear [Client Name],

Thank you for our productive discussion today. To ensure we’re aligned:

Your Goals:

1. [Primary objective]
2. [Secondary objective(s)]

Our Commitments:

• [Deliverable 1] by [Date]
• [Deliverable 2] by [Date]

Timeline: [Week 1]: [Milestone] [Week 2]: [Milestone]

Next meeting: [Date/Time]

Get Your Time Back with Otter.ai

Every meeting has the potential to create clarity, spark ideas, and drive meaningful action — only if the details don’t get lost in the shuffle.

Otter.ai makes sure you never miss a moment, turning your discussions into summaries and actionable plans.

With less stress and more focus, you can approach your next meeting knowing that the important work of capturing, summarizing, and sharing is already taken care of.

Otter.ai makes meetings smarter, simpler, and significantly more productive for everyone involved.

The post Turn Long Meetings Into Actionable Summaries With Otter.ai appeared first on DreamHost Blog.

But more customer queries are coming in, and they need answering. Oh, and there are returns to process. And more orders to ship out. And your website needs updating. And fine-tuning your marketing plan —that’s been on your to-do list, but customers have to come first!

When you own a business, you want to give every single person who interacts with your brand a genuine, helpful experience, but there are only so many hours in the day. If you’ve ever wished you had an extra set of hands to help build and maintain customer relationships, you’re not alone. But what if you don’t need extra hands —just an extra…neural network?

Artificial intelligence (AI) might be just what you need to help bolster your customer relationships and free up more of your valuable time for strategic thinking and growing your business. Contrary to what you might have heard, AI isn’t here to replace you. Instead, it can handle repetitive tasks, sift through data to find hidden insights, and free you up to focus on the human side of your business: connecting with your audience in a meaningful way.

Why Customer Relationships Matter More Than Ever

There’s a big difference between customer service (which typically focuses on handling immediate problems or questions) — and customer relationships, which encompass an ongoing, long-term connection. Customer service is about being responsive; customer relationships are about fostering trust and loyalty over time.

Customer relationships are proactive, not just reactive. They involve nurturing, engaging, and consistently adding value to your customers.

And while that may sound like a lot of effort, it’s well worth it. According to Forbes, it costs 5x more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.

The math clearly supports building loyalty. You save money while giving yourself a better chance at long-term profitability.

For a large company, customer relationships can sometimes feel transactional — throw some marketing dollars at a campaign and hope for the best. But for small businesses, building rapport and trust can be a powerful differentiator. You often have a more personal brand, and you know your customers by name. When someone feels seen and valued, they’re more likely to stick around, refer friends, and become brand advocates.

The catch? Small businesses are resource-constrained. That’s where AI can step in, helping you streamline and enhance your relationships, and letting you offer big-brand service on a small-business budget.

The takeaway: Customer relationships aren’t just a feel-good exercise; they’re a smart strategy that fuels growth. By emphasizing loyalty and retention, you can keep your operations sustainable and your customers happy.

How AI Can Help Strengthen Customer Relationships

There are many ways AI can help you on the road to better customer relationships.Here are a few to consider:

Personalization at Scale

One of AI’s superpowers is analyzing vast amounts of data to uncover patterns a human might miss. This data crunching allows for better personalization. For example, sending marketing emails that recommend products based on someone’s past purchases or customizing your website’s landing page to match a returning customer’s interests.

Say you have an online boutique that sells handmade clothes. AI can keep track of a customer’s style preferences and shopping habits to suggest new arrivals they’ll actually want, rather than blasting a mass email with the same promo to everyone on your email list.

That personal touch can feel like a concierge service, even when you’re managing hundreds or thousands of customers.

Proactive Problem-Solving

Have you ever wanted to know which customers might be on the verge of canceling a subscription or which products are about to skyrocket in demand? Predictive analytics can help with that. They use AI to look at historical data, identify trends, and even anticipate future challenges.

For example, advanced chatbots can spot common questions that lead to refunds and proactively offer solutions before a customer even thinks to ask. This kind of proactive support can keep small issues from turning into full-blown crises.

Round-the-Clock Accessibility

These days, the world is always on. It’s not unusual for customers to ask questions at 2 a.m. — or during your busiest days when you have zero time to answer them immediately. AI-driven tools like chatbots can jump in with 24/7 availability, offering instant responses to frequently asked questions and basic troubleshooting.

According to IBM, chatbots can reduce customer service costs by up to 30%. This suggests that a chatbot doing front-line work can make life easier for both you and your customers.

Balancing Scale With Authenticity

Don’t worry: leaning on AI doesn’t mean your business will lose its personal charm. AI takes care of repetitive tasks, freeing up more time for you (or your team) to engage in genuine, human conversations. Tools like chatbots and conversational AI are excellent for handling common customer inquiries, directing users to relevant resources, and even detecting sentiment to guide responses.

However, skepticism toward AI in customer service is widespread, and for good reason. Many users have experienced poorly implemented chatbots, impersonal responses, and a lack of meaningful engagement. Oversight and authenticity are crucial in overcoming these challenges. It’s not about replacing humans but equipping them with the tools to provide faster, more personalized service while maintaining the warmth that makes a lasting impression.

This sentiment is echoed in customer discussions, like this Reddit comment from a business owner:

Comment
byu/ticaragua from discussion
inshopify

Statements like this highlight the need to balance automation with a personal touch. AI should enhance your customer service efforts, not undermine them. By using AI as a supportive tool rather than a full replacement, businesses can scale efficiently while keeping their relationships authentic and meaningful.

Great AI Tools for Enhancing Customer Relationships

Not all AI solutions are created equal. Below, we’ve broken down some of the most common tool categories and how they can help your business —but not every business needs all (or even any) of these tools.

Think about your specific challenges first: is it customer support? Data organization? Social media feedback? Then, match them with the right AI tool.

Chatbots and Conversational AI

Chatbots take on immediate customer inquiries, direct customers to relevant resources, and even process orders. More advanced conversational AI can recognize context, detect sentiment, and seamlessly switch customers to a human rep when necessary.

Instant response times mean happier customers. Plus, your team is freed from repetitive tasks like answering “Where is my order?” for the tenth time that day.

Popular Tools To Try:

• Zendesk Chat: Integrates neatly with existing Zendesk support systems and offers multilingual support for global audiences.
• Intercom: Known for its user-friendly interface and robust customer data platform, helping you manage chats and email campaigns together.

Tips:

• Start with a simple chatbot focused on FAQs or order tracking. A low-risk approach helps you test the waters.
• Regularly review chatbot transcripts to make sure the AI “voice” aligns with your brand’s tone. Look for a chatbot you can train with your brand’s marketing materials, so it sounds just like you.

AI-Powered CRM Platforms

CRMs infused with AI can automate data entry, create smart customer segments, and offer insights about upcoming sales opportunities. They help you organize customer data more efficiently than a jumble of spreadsheets ever could.

Better data organization via a CRM means you never lose track of who’s who. AI-driven analytics can highlight your most valuable leads and automate drip campaigns, so you can nurture relationships without manually hitting “send” for each email.

Popular Tools To Try:

• HubSpot: Offers a free CRM tier and includes AI tools like lead scoring to show you where to focus your efforts.
• Zoho CRM: Provides sales forecasting, workflow automation, and analytics to uncover hidden relationship-building opportunities.

Tips:

• Integrate your CRM with your e-commerce platform or website to store all customer data in one place.
• Update your CRM fields regularly (e.g., product interests, or subscription status) to ensure that data-driven insights remain relevant.

Social Listening and Sentiment Analysis

These tools track online conversations about your brand across social media and the broader web, then gauge the tone of the mentions people make. AI can detect if the chatter is mainly positive, negative, or neutral, alerting you to potential PR headaches or glowing testimonials you can spotlight.

Gathering real-time insights allows you to address issues faster. If customers have a complaint, you can proactively address it. Similarly, if you see customers raving about a new product, you can harness that positive energy in your marketing.

Popular Tools To Try:

• Sprout Social: Delivers in-depth reports on sentiment trends and helps you engage with fans (or critics) effectively.
• Brandwatch: Allows you to set up alerts for specific keywords (like your brand name) and detect spikes in mentions.

Tips:

• Configure keywords that include your brand name, product names, and common misspellings so you don’t miss anything.
• Engage quickly with both praise and complaints; a prompt, sincere reply shows your audience you’re paying attention.

Predictive Analytics and Recommendation Engines

By analyzing historical data, these AI tools can predict future customer behaviors — such as which products a customer is most likely to buy or which subscribers might cancel soon. They’re also used for personalized recommendation engines. Think Netflix or Amazon suggestions.

Predictive analytics help you market more effectively. This is the tool you use in that example we mentioned where, instead of sending everyone the same email blast, you can tailor offers to specific groups. Taking a targeted approach often leads to higher conversions and happier customers.

Popular Tools To Try:

• Salesforce Einstein: Built into Salesforce, this tool offers lead scoring, next-best-action prompts, and tailored marketing journeys.
• Adobe Sensei: Powers personalization across channels, analyzing user behavior to suggest optimized content or product recommendations.

Tips:

• Start with a small, measurable project (for example, predicting which customers might not renew a subscription) so you can understand how the tool’s insights affect real-world outcomes.
• Combine AI insights with your own intuition. Numbers can tell a story, but human judgment refines it.

The Human Touch (or: When Not To Use AI)

AI is incredible at multitasking and gleaning insights from data, but it can’t replace human warmth.

There are times when your AI tools won’t be the most effective way to build customer relationships. Use it to handle the busywork, and invest your renewed time in forming meaningful connections. A hybrid strategy gives you the best of both worlds:

• AI handles routine inquiries like “What’s your return policy?”
• Humans jump in for higher-level issues, personalized recommendations, and especially delicate customer concerns.

This setup prevents you (and your employees) from getting overwhelmed. At the same time, your customers don’t feel like they’re chatting with a cold, impersonal machine.

Below, find some examples of when you should leave AI on the bench and have a real person take the lead:

When You Need Emotional Nuance

AI has come a long way, but it’s not perfect at picking up on the subtleties of human emotion — especially in sensitive situations. Let’s say a customer’s dog just passed away, and you run a pet supplies store. That’s a moment requiring empathy and compassion, not just a scripted response.

To Make Sure Your Brand Voice Stays Consistent

Have you ever tried to use a chatbot that sounded like it was churning out lines from a 1980s instruction manual? Yeah, not great.

Modern AI tools let you tweak the language style, so be sure to set guidelines that reflect your brand’s personality. Still, check in on the chatbot’s performance every now and then to ensure it’s staying on message.

When Data Privacy Is a Concern

Some small business owners worry about giving customer data to AI tools. That’s understandable. Look for solutions that comply with regulations like GDPR (for EU customers) or CCPA (for California residents). Reputable platforms will offer clear data protection features so you can assure your customers that their information is safe.

Build Better Customer Relationships With AI and DreamHost

As you work on customer relationships, AI can be a useful tool, but it’s important not to go from 0 to 60. Which area seems like your biggest headache right now? Customer support, data management, or staying on top of social media? Choose a single tool (like a chatbot or a basic AI-powered CRM) and start a free trial.

And as you explore ways AI can help you build and maintain customer relationships, be sure to set clear goals to work toward. Identify a specific outcome (like reducing your average response time by 50%) so you can measure the impact of your new AI initiatives.

Some more tips:

• Plan a gradual rollout for any new tools you incorporate into your strategy. Don’t try to automate everything at once. Focus on the tasks you dislike the most or that bog you down most often.
• As you track your results, you may need to pivot your strategy. AI tools are only as good as the data they receive, so monitor analytics, and adjust your approach as needed.

Yes, AI can seem intimidating, but think of it as a friendly team member who loves routine tasks and never sleeps. Handing over mundane processes to AI means you can be more present where it counts — chatting with your customers, testing new products, or just catching your breath once in a while.

Keep in mind that AI isn’t the only way to build better customer relationships. It’ll only work if you have a solid foundation — like reliable web hosting that keeps your site fast, secure, and online when customers need it. For that, check out DreamHost’s shared and managed hosting plans.

At the end of the day, customers want genuine connections. AI is there to streamline processes and free you up to deliver personal touches that keep people coming back for more. With the right blend of automation and authenticity, you can master customer relationships without feeling overwhelmed. And that’s a win-win for everyone.

AI Business Adivosr

Ready to Supercharge Your Business with AI?

Unlock the power of AI for your business with DreamHost’s AI Business Advisor. Included free with your hosting plan, this advanced tool provides personalized guidance on SEO, content creation, and website optimization. Start leveraging AI to drive growth and stay ahead of the competition today!

Get Started with AI Business Advisor

The post Mastering Customer Relationships With AI: From Personalization to Problem-Solving appeared first on DreamHost Blog.

Wouldn’t it be nice to take something off your plate?

Well, that’s what smart entrepreneurs are doing right now. Their secret is AI.

We’ll not suggest that artificial intelligence can automate your whole workday or replace staff, but there’s no doubt that the technology can boost your productivity at work.

To help you unlock these benefits, we made an actionable guide to AI-powered productivity.

Ready to jump in? Let’s roll!

How AI Can Enhance Your Productivity

AI is having a moment right now. You’ve probably heard people say the technology will “disrupt every industry” and “replace everyone with robots.”

That remains to be seen. We aren’t really at that point yet.

AI is more like a really smart intern. You probably shouldn’t let it do anything unsupervised. But with the right instructions, it can handle a range of tasks and support your own work.

Just as importantly, most AI tools are much easier to use than traditional software. You simply type in what you need and wait for the response. If the first answer isn’t quite right, you just ask for revisions.

What AI Can (and Can’t) Do for Your Business

Let’s take a minute to cut through the hype. Here are some examples of how AI can help with business productivity:

• Automating simple admin
• Running data analysis
• Enhancing customer support
• Diving into research
• Helping with creative support

On the flip side, you should be very cautious about using AI to complete tasks such as:

• Writing full drafts
• Finding accurate, up-to-date information
• Working on HR and legal matters
• Financial decision-making
• Automating creativity

Current AI tools are unreliable, so it’s best to avoid using AI when mistakes matter.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that large language models don’t have new ideas — they just remix concepts they’ve come across before. For this reason, we recommend maintaining control over your creative workflow and using AI as an assistant or partner.

12 Effective Ways To Boost Productivity With AI

Enough with the vague rules of thumb; if you’re serious about using AI to increase productivity, we have a whole heap of ideas ready to go!

1. Automate Your To-Do List and Prioritize Tasks

As a small-time entrepreneur, you probably don’t have a private secretary. Task management is your own domain.

And boy, do you have a lot of to-dos. Just keeping the list updated is a part-time job.

If you prefer to spend more time getting things done, you could try using the AI tools baked into platforms like Notion, ClickUp, and Todoist. These tools help to organize your workload by automatically prioritizing tasks, setting reminders, and even suggesting workflows based on your goals.

Imagine you have a chaotic list of tasks for the week. AI can categorize them (e.g., “urgent,” “low priority,” etc.) automatically and then create a daily schedule that balances your workload, ensuring you focus on what matters most.

Pro Tip: Integrate your project management tool with your calendar app to see your to-dos within your schedule.

2. Reply to Emails Faster

If you could describe anything in business as a necessary evil, email probably comes the closest.

The average American employee spends almost 11 hours per week typing up emails. You can bet that figure is higher for founders.

The good news is that it’s possible to cut this time dramatically using artificial intelligence.

Superhuman, superReply, and Gmail’s very own Smart Compose all use AI to craft email drafts in seconds. They can even “read” previous messages in the conversation and write a reply that matches the context. Some allow you to choose the tone you want, as well.

Pro Tip: Use ChatGPT for composing emails! Just be sure to upload an example of your writing style so the AI hits the right tone.

3. Upgrade Your Time Management

When you’re focusing on something, it’s easy to forget time is passing. This is fine on high-priority tasks, but you can spend an entire week thinking up profound thoughts to post on LinkedIn. Not very productive.

To make sure you’re using your precious time wisely, it’s a good idea to track your work. Tools like RescueTime TimeSheets and Timely use AI to monitor exactly how you spend your time, identify inefficiencies, and suggest ways to optimize your schedule. They can also help you set realistic goals and track your progress.

Pro Tip: Check the weekly reports provided by smart time-tracking tools to identify patterns in your productivity, and adjust your work habits accordingly.

4. Block Out Distractions

Spending time on the wrong task isn’t the only productivity killer.

Any interruption during an important task can easily destroy your focus. It only takes one notification to send you down the path to procrastination. And if you work from home, there are plenty more potential distractions to avoid!

Thankfully, help is at hand. A new generation of AI-powered apps is emerging, offering smart filters that block websites and apps that look unproductive — social media, news sites, YouTube, and so on. Two frontrunners are FocusTug and Hedge.

Whereas traditional distraction blockers rely on simple filters, these browser extensions vet every page to make sure you’re not drifting off the job. With Hedge, you can actually tell the app what you want to work on, and it will help you stay on task.

Pro Tip: Hedge also includes a timer for the Pomodoro technique, meaning you can lock in for a set amount of time.

5. Schedule Smarter With AI-Powered Calendars

Like task management, scheduling can have a pretty big impact on your overall productivity.

Take meetings as an example. After a morning stacked with video calls, your burnt-out brain isn’t going to get much done in the afternoon.

Equally, certain tasks take a specific amount of time. Fitting these jigsaw pieces together in your calendar can be a time-consuming puzzle.

AI can shortcut this process. Tools like Motion and Clockwise can whip up a draft schedule in minutes, and help you to identify suitable gaps for new meetings and tasks. Motion can even intervene when you’re about to stretch yourself too far.

If only there were something similar for dessert menus.

Pro Tip: Most AI calendar tools allow you to share your calendar with your staff so they can schedule a time that works for them. If you need to move things around later, the app can reach out and rearrange the event for you.

6. Speed Up Content Creation

Of course, social media isn’t always a distraction. As a business owner, you might be in charge of posting to the company accounts. You could be the person who creates email newsletters and blog posts, too.

While AI can fully automate these tasks, the results can be underwhelming. Instead, it’s worth using AI as your creative partner.

You can use popular platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity to research topics, develop engaging angles, and even optimize content for SEO. ChatGPT and image generators, like Pika, can produce visual content from written instructions, and dedicated AI models can even create short videos. It’s all much quicker and easier than working from scratch.

To get a better understanding of the workflow, imagine you own a business selling solar panels. You could open up ChatGPT and ask for content ideas that would suit your target market. You could then pick out your favorites, and ask the AI to create a bullet-point outline or a prompt for generating visual content.

Once you’ve made the draft, you can plug it back into the AI and ask for feedback.

Pro Tip: Specialized content tools usually produce more impressive results. For written content, consider using Write or Jasper. For visuals, try Pika, Descript, or Canva.

7. Work With a Brainstorming Buddy

Content is not the only area where AI can act as your collaborator.

Say you’re thinking of launching a new product. What should you call it? What would be a suitable price point? What does the competition look like?

These are all questions that tools like ChatGPT and DreamHost’s very own AI Business Advisor can help you with. The answers may not be perfectly accurate, but this should give you a starting point for extra research and brainstorming.

You can also ask AI to help you solve specific problems within your business. The more detailed your prompt, the more personalized the answer will be.

Pro Tip: Remember, AI is your assistant. Use the responses as a starting point, pick out the options that make the most sense, and build on them using your own knowledge and experience.

8. Get Perfect Notes From Every Meeting

Note-taking is an essential admin task, but there’s no way you can concentrate on a meeting while keeping a comprehensive record of the key points. Not unless you use AI, that is.

Tools like Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai turn a recording of your meeting into a full transcription. You can then add the names of the people speaking, and generate a summarized version of the discussion. These tools can even extract action items from the conversation and analyze the emotional tone of the chatter, meaning no context is left out.

As a busy entrepreneur, being able to remind yourself of the key talking points from a client meeting three months ago is super useful.

Pro Tip: Always spend a few minutes reviewing AI-generated notes to make sure that the details have been captured accurately, especially for high-stakes meetings.

9. Build Presentations and Slide Decks Faster

Delivering a great presentation, and backing it up with a slide deck, is a proven way to win over big clients. The problem is, that preparing all those slides takes a ridiculous amount of time.

AI presentation tools are changing the game here. With the likes of Tome and Beautiful.ai, it’s now possible to build polished, professional slideshows in minutes.

These intelligent platforms handle the visual side, selecting layouts to suit your content and inserting relevant graphics. Some can even generate a script, or extract bullet points from an existing pitch.

Of all the use cases for AI, this has to be one of the biggest time savers.

Pro Tip: AI can provide a great starting point for your slideshow. Nonetheless, you should always tailor the content to your brand voice and audience requirements.

10. Run Advanced Data Analysis in Seconds

Data analysis is an important first step to improving processes in your business. The problem is that few small business owners have the time or resources to devote to a deep dive. Maybe once a year, but definitely not every month.

Perhaps that would change if you had a full-time data professional on hand? It sounds expensive until we tell you that this expert goes by the name of ChatGPT.

The world’s favorite AI is actually an accomplished data analyst — capable of extracting key insights from large data sets and producing impressive visualizations. All you have to do is upload the raw data (a CSV file will do) and ask for anything you want to know.

You could even go one step further and upload a year’s worth of sales data, customer interactions, and market trends. The AI should generate a comprehensive report showing correlations between product performance, customer demographics, seasonal variations, and potential future opportunities.

If that’s not a worthwhile productivity boost, we don’t know what is!

Pro Tip: Remember that AI data analysis is about gathering information. While this process might reveal powerful insights, your professional judgment should drive the decision-making process.

11. Get a Summary of Any Document

Oh boy. An 80-page document just landed on your desk, and you need to know all the key takeaways by the end of the week.

You could spend the next three business days reading every word…or you could just get AI to pick out the most important points and then continue with your task list.

We reckon the second option is probably more efficient.

Again, ChatGPT and Claude are your buddies here. Upload the document you need to scrutinize, and then ask the AI to summarize the text. Alternatively, you can ask specific questions and have the AI answer by picking out verbatim quotes.

While we wouldn’t recommend this technique for really important stuff (like legal documents), it can definitely save you time in catching up with internal reports and the like.

Pro Tip: Instead of only reading the summary, you can ask the AI to highlight relevant areas of the text, and then study those sections yourself in full.

12. Take Basic Customer Support off Your Plate

Unless your business is big enough to have a full-time support agent, you probably still handle a lot of incoming queries. And to be brutally honest, some of them are really pointless — like questions that have already been answered in your FAQs.

The good news is that you don’t need to spend half of your workweek handling these requests. You can get an AI support bot to do it instead.

Solutions like Zendesk and Help Scout allow you to set up AI-powered chatbots that can provide 24/7 support for customers via your website. These bots can interpret incoming requests, direct users toward relevant resources, and collect information about more complex support tickets.

Pro Tip: Keep your AI customer support system updated with new product information, common customer queries, and brand guidelines to make sure the responses are always up to snuff.

Improve Productivity Throughout Your Business

As this guide proves, AI has the potential to improve multiple areas of your workflow as an entrepreneur — from speeding up everyday chores to enhancing your creativity. It can even help you multitask more effectively.

The key is not to rely on AI too much. The current generation of tools is powerful, but you should still have your hands firmly on the steering wheel.

If you want to experiment, try our AI Business Advisor. It’s designed to help you tackle common business tasks, and it’s completely free for DreamHost customers!

And if you feel like updating your online presence, head over to our Liftoff AI Website Builder. Type in what you need, and it will create a fresh, ready-to-publish design in just 60 seconds.

Sign up for one of our hosting plans today to unlock these awesome tools!

AI Website Builder

Build Your Vision

From idea to reality in under a minute — experience the ultimate freedom and performance with AI-powered website creation.

Get Started Today

The post 12 Smart Ways To Boost Your Productivity With AI appeared first on DreamHost Blog.

Forget Hollywood budgets and film crews; anyone can make good video content using generative AI. Yes, that includes small business owners like you!

Of course, there’s still a learning curve. Writing good text prompts is a skill, and AI video makers vary widely in features, style, usability, and price.

Navigating this world can seem daunting if you’re not a creative professional. That’s why we decided to compile an accessible guide.

Stick with us for the next few minutes to learn about the benefits of AI-generated video, and find out how we rank the best AI video generators in 2024.

You ready, Spielberg? Let’s dive in!

How Small Businesses Can Benefit From AI Video Generation

One of the biggest challenges for small businesses is being seen. While multinationals can throw millions at content and ads, smaller brands have to find cost-efficient ways to stand out.

In some ways, AI video tools are helping to close the gap.

With relatively little investment, business owners and marketers can now —

• Turn text prompts into short video clips: Text-to-video AI models can magic up content based on your written requests, meaning you don’t need the help of creative professionals to produce simple videos.
• Convert images into videos: Adding motion to an existing photo is a great way to catch the eye of potential customers.
• Extend and edit existing videos: Many AI tools can extend an existing clip or assist you with intelligent video editing. In both cases, you’re likely to save time.
• Build AI avatars: Don’t have time to record an endless list of videos in front of a camera? With some AI video creation tools, you can build a controllable avatar by uploading one short clip. It’s kinda like turning yourself into a game character!

Put together, these AI features open up a wide range of use cases. Here are some examples of video content you can create using AI:

• Product demos: Showcase your products in action, with engaging visuals and snappy descriptions.
• Explainer videos: Simplify complex concepts or services with easy-to-understand animations and voiceovers.
• Video tutorials: Guide your audience through a process, like using your product or troubleshooting a common issue.
• Promotional videos: Highlight special offers, discounts, or new product launches to drive sales.
• Social media content: Create short, eye-catching videos optimized for different platforms like TikTok or Instagram.
• Training videos: Onboard new employees or educate customers with concise and informative video guides.
• Video content for ads: Create compelling video ads for various platforms, capturing attention and driving conversions.

The benefits of using AI to generate videos like these are pretty obvious. Hiring an experienced employee or an agency to produce video can be costly for most small business owners. And spending hours learning video editing yourself requires time — let’s be honest — you don’t have. With AI, you can simply type in a few words and watch the magic happen.

And because you can produce more content in less time, you’re likely to see a positive effect on your marketing efforts. In one recent survey, 87% of marketers said video has directly contributed to increased sales and leads. That’s a big number you can’t ignore!

Choosing the Right AI Video Creator

The hardest part of the video creation process with AI is knowing which tool to use.

Right now, we’re seeing an explosion of video models entering the market. Each offers something a little different, so it’s essential to find a platform that matches your specific needs.

Here are the key ingredients to look for as a small business owner:

• Usability: While most AI video makers are designed to be user-friendly, some hit this mark better than others.
• Style: Every AI model is trained on different data, so you can expect different video outputs. For instance, some models are better at photorealistic videos, while others are better at animation.
• Features: While traditional video editors share the same basic set of tools, AI studios all offer something a little different. For this reason, you might need to switch between apps for different video projects.
• Speed: Creating AI videos from scratch can last seconds, minutes, or hours, depending on the model you’re using, and the length of the clip you’re trying to create. 
• Price: Generating video with AI takes plenty of computing power, so it does come at a cost. It’s worth taking a closer look at how much usage you get with each tool.

Test Driving the Best AI Video Generators

To help narrow down the field, we decided to take the top five AI video generators for a test drive.

Our testing method was to identify key use cases for small businesses, and try them out on each platform. You can see some of the best outputs under each app.

Let’s see what these hotrods can do!

1. Klingai

Billed as a general-purpose video generation model, Klingai is a creative tool that focuses on text-to-video.

The app is relatively simple, with a dark interface that’s easy to navigate.

You can choose between two models: Kling 1.5 is the newer version, aimed at delivering cinematic results; and while the older Kling 1.0 might be rougher around the edges, it has a Motion Brush feature that allows you to draw a path for characters and objects to follow across the frame.

In both cases, you can enter text, set your preference between creativity and relevance, and create prompts to exclude elements. You can also choose between three aspect ratios, and even take manual control of camera movement.

In terms of real-world use cases, Klingai is better suited to creating eye-catching clips rather than detailed tutorials and explainer videos. From our testing, it produces better results with detailed, prescriptive prompts.

Highlights:

• Simple interface.
• Motion Brush tool for creative control.
• Free to try and cheap upgrades.

Best for: Eye-catching social media and promo videos.

Pricing: Free to try. Paid plans start at $120 a year, which covers 66 standard videos per month.

2. Runway

Runway is considered one of the leading lights in AI video. This platform offers a suite of tools that have caught the attention of content creators and businesses alike.

The latest addition to the Runway toolbox is Act-One, a model that can convert a simple video from a camera into an animated short. It’s essentially like creating a Pixar version of yourself, although it doesn’t necessarily have to be cartoon-like — Runway has some very realistic avatars to choose from. The results are impressive.

You can also generate videos from text, although Runway encourages you to upload some reference imagery as a starting point. In addition, the platform provides a library of example prompts to give you a sense of what’s possible.

The AI video generation interface is slick and clean, with a limited array of controls to keep things simple. Once you’ve created your first cut, you can open your videos in Runway’s full video editing suite.

This area offers an impressive selection of tools. 3D Object Capture allows you to create dynamic scenes based on the real world; Super-Slow Motion can turn any video into a smooth action replay; and Motion Tracking allows you to add graphics that stick to any element within an existing video.

Because Runway is a complete video production studio rather than a standalone AI tool, the platform is well suited to creating polished video content for professional use cases. It can handle AI image generation, as well.

Highlights:

• High-quality output.
• Extensive suite of creative tools.
• Strong community and learning resources.

Best for: Using AI content as part of professional video production.

Pricing: Free tier available. Pro plans start at $15/month for individuals, with team and enterprise options available for larger operations.

3. Luma Labs Dream Machine

Some of the most viral AI-made clips on social media were created with Luma Labs Dream Machine. This platform definitely leans into the creative side of video production, with a model that morphs characters and creates dreamy transitions.

Creating a video using the Dream Machine is very simple because there’s only one control: a text box. Here is where you type in your prompts and use commands to take control of camera motion.

Compared with some other AI tools, the Dream Machine can produce good results with very little input. Just a one-line prompt is enough to deliver something you would consider sharing on social media. If you like what you see, you can also extend videos with a tap.

As an overall theme, Luma Labs has opted for simplicity and ease of use over manual control. For busy marketers and business owners, that might make it an attractive option.

Highlights:

• Very easy to use.
• Delivers good videos from short prompts.
• Camera motion commands.

Best for: Creating social media content, product launch previews, and fun introductions.

Pricing: Free to try, although your tasks may end up on a waitlist. Paid plans are based on credits, starting at $7.99 per month for up to 70 videos.

4. Pika

Looking for something whimsical and creative? Time to check out Pika.

This platform is based around fun visual effects, like eyes popping out and objects being crushed under a vice. You can apply these templates to your own creations using text prompts.

After a brief wait, Pika spits out short, colorful clips with audio to match.

With an emphasis on fun and creativity, Pika isn’t loaded with controls. The idea is to create videos from text, without spending too much time tweaking settings.

That said, you have six different aspect ratios to choose from. You can also keep unwanted ideas at bay using negative prompts.

While the outputs are not always faithful to the original prompt, Pika produces really good-looking videos. We didn’t come across any weird morphing or glitches in our testing.

Highlights:

• Built-in templates with fun visual effects.
• Six different aspect ratios.
• Quick to generate AI videos.

Best for: Quirky, attention-grabbing social media posts and video ads.

Pricing: Generous free AI video generator plan with 10 videos per month. Paid plans start at $8 per month for 150 videos.

5. Synthesia

And now for something completely different.

Synthesia is an AI video generator that was specifically built for business. Instead of asking you to dream up ideas to fill an empty canvas, this platform has pre-built workflows for creating business-related videos. These videos are based around AI avatars, speaking to the camera.

You start by picking which type of content you want to make — a product launch video, sales training, a case study, and so on. Synthesia then asks you to explain what the video is about; you can paste in any URL or file as a reference here. The platform also asks you to name the areas of focus for your video.

Next, you get a preview, which includes an AI-generated script. This is usually pretty good off the bat, but you can wade in to make adjustments if you want. Equally, Synthesia’s editor allows you to tweak any part of the video — from the on-screen text to the placement of the avatar.

The output videos are polished, and Synthesia supports much longer runtimes than most other AI models. For easy sharing, the platform also provides video hosting and embedding.

Highlights:

• Over 230 AI avatars.
• Guided workflow for creating videos.
• Large range of editable video templates. 

Best for: Sales, training, customer support, and marketing videos.

Pricing: Free AI video plans with limited avatars and video generation. Paid plans start from $18 per month, providing up to 10 minutes of video.

The Verdict: Which AI Video Generator Is Right for You?

Choosing the right AI video generator depends on your specific needs and priorities. Here’s a quick rundown to help you decide:

• If you need short, engaging videos with minimal effort: Luma Labs Dream Machine is your best bet. The simple interface and quick generation times make it ideal for busy marketers. Klingai is also a strong contender in this category, especially if you want control over character and object movement. If quirky and fun is your style, Pika is another low-effort option.
• For polished, cinematic video production: Runway stands out with its editing tools and high-quality output. While more focused on business applications, Synthesia also delivers polished results thanks to the AI avatar generator.
• If you’re primarily creating business-related videos like training, sales presentations, or customer support content: Synthesia is the one. The guided workflows really help to streamline the process of creating professional videos.
• For experimenting with ideas and getting creative: Runway and Luma Labs Dream Machine offer the most creative flexibility. Runway’s advanced features allow you to go wild with pro-level motion graphics, while Luma Labs Dream Machine excels at generating dreamy, visually captivating content. 
• On a budget? All five platforms offer free trials or free tiers. Klingai and Pika offer particularly generous free plans, making them great options for budget-conscious users.

Start Harnessing AI Today

The latest wave of AI video generators can produce some pretty impressive content. You probably won’t get it right at the first attempt — prompting is a skill that takes time to master. But with a little time (and effort) investment, you should soon be knocking out new videos like Scorsese on steroids.

Just remember, video isn’t the only arena where AI can help your business. For instance, DreamHost Liftoff is a new AI tool that can build a design for your WordPress website in just 60 seconds! Our customers also get free access to the AI Business Advisor, which can help you plan ahead and perform everyday marketing tasks.

Sign up with one of our hosting plans today to try these tools for yourself!

The post We Tested 5 of the Hottest AI Video Generators, These Were Our Result appeared first on DreamHost Blog.

Perhaps your mind goes straight to a famous example: Lévi-Strauss, Monet, Debussy, Van Damme, and so on.

Well, now you need to make room in your mental roster for another Claude: an intelligent virtual assistant.

Claude AI is one of the most powerful artificial intelligence platforms around right now. It’s as smart as ChatGPT, and capable of handling a wide variety of tasks — from data analysis to content creation.

This tool is basically rocket fuel for your business.

Want to harness that power? Stick with us for the next few minutes, and we’ll show you how to unlock the full potential of Claude.

Nice To Meet You, Claude AI

Let’s start with a proper introduction.

Claude by Anthropic is a generative AI platform that uses LLMs (large language models) to make sense of text prompts and provide intelligent replies.

You communicate with this AI assistant through a chat interface. You can also upload images and documents to provide context.

This means you can use Claude to:

• Brainstorm new ideas
• Collaborate on content creation
• Research new topics
• Automate boring admin tasks
• Analyze existing data
• Get assistance with coding

And that’s just a glimpse of what Claude is capable of. We’ll take a closer look at the real-world use cases very shortly.

At the time of writing (Q4 2024), Claude has several cutting-edge models:

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet: The brightest of the bunch. Sonnet stands up to any current model in terms of intelligence. It’s a great sales assistant and a very capable coder.
• Claude 3 Opus: The previous high water mark. Opus has now been overtaken by the latest version of Sonnet in terms of speed and intelligence, but it’s still a capable model.
• Claude 3.5 Haiku: The baby of the family is not quite as clever as the others, but it’s still a speed merchant. For basic tasks and live customer interactions, this one is probably the best fit.

Claude AI vs. ChatGPT

While the AI ecosystem is always shifting, Claude has been neck and neck with ChatGPT for some time. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, because Claude was developed by former employees of OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT.

Both platforms are very capable, but they have slightly different strengths and weaknesses. For instance, some people believe Claude tends to be more concise with answers, while ChatGPT is more thorough.

One area of strength for Claude is safety. Anthropic is a public-benefit corporation that tries to develop AI responsibly.

With this approach, known as “Constitutional AI,” the company aims to align Claude with human values, like not doing harm to others, and treating people with respect.

How Much Does Claude AI Cost?

Anyone can sign up and use Claude AI for free, including the latest models.

The downside of the free tier is that you’re restricted to around 40 short messages per day. And Claude will freeze you out completely during times of peak demand.

A Claude Pro premium subscription costs $20 per month. This extends your limits five-fold, and allows you to access the platform during peak times.

For larger businesses, the Team plan ($25 per user/month) extends usage limits further and provides early access to collaboration features. There’s also an Enterprise plan (custom pricing) for large organizations.

The other way you can access Claude is through the Anthropic API. This option lets you pay as you go, with variable pricing depending on which model you use.

The Key Benefits of Claude AI

Of course, Claude isn’t the only show in town. So, what makes this AI system better for your business than other AI or automation tools?

Here’s a quick run-through of the primary benefits:

• It’s easy to use: Unlike with many automation tools, you can tell Claude what you want to achieve in plain English (or any other language, as it stands).
• It’s pretty cost-effective: You can complete a lot of work on a fixed monthly subscription, and the pay-as-you-go prices are affordable as well.
• It’s completely scalable: If you use the API, you can buy as much usage as you need.
• It’s built for safety: One of the main motivations for founding Anthropic was to build an AI that’s safe and reliable.
• It’s improving rapidly: Claude is on the cutting edge of AI research, and new versions are released every few months, delivering significant improvements without a step up in cost.

How To Use Claude AI (Step-by-Step Walkthrough)

All of this sounds great on paper. But how do you actually start putting the AI to work?

Getting started with Claude is surprisingly easy. Ready to dive in? Just follow these steps:

Step 1: Sign Up at Claude.ai

First, you’re going to need an account.Head over to the Claude AI website and sign up using your email or via Google sign-in. If you choose the former option, Claude will ask you to verify your email address.

To complete the sign-up process, you’ll be asked to enter your phone number and date of birth.

Once you’ve verified your phone number via SMS, Claude will ask for your name and what you prefer to be called. You’ll also be asked to confirm a few details about the terms of service.

Note: You can follow a similar setup process via the Claude iOS app.

Step 2: Choose Your Settings

Claude is pretty low-maintenance when it comes to preferences. Even so, it’s worth setting up your account.

Having jumped through all the hoops, you should reach a screen like this:

Move your cursor over to the bottom left, and tap on your email.

From the drop-down menu, you can upgrade to a paid tier, change the appearance of Claude, and access your account settings.

Open Settings. Under Profile, you will find a few useful options:

• What best describes your work? Tell Claude what sector your business is in, and the app will adjust to match your needs.
• Show prompt suggestions: Claude can provide one-tap prompts related to your business. Here, you can choose whether to have them switched on or off.
• Enable artifacts: In some cases, Claude generates a Wiki-style page that contains the results from a conversation. You can share these pages publicly. If you don’t fancy doing that, you can switch it off here.

Step 3: Start Chatting

To return to the start screen, tap the big Claude logo in the top-left corner.

The big white box is where you can type instructions for Claude. You’ll also notice that there are a few suggestions below, along with buttons for attaching files and photos.

Once you’ve composed your first prompt, simply hit Enter and Claude will start cooking up a reply.

You then arrive at a chat-like interface, where you can carry on the conversation.

On the free tier, you’ll have access to Claude 3.5 Sonnet. However, if you’d like to access the other AI models, you can upgrade to a paid plan via the link at the top of the screen.

10 Ways To Power Your Business With Claude

You don’t have to use Claude for long to realize the potential of this platform. However, there’s a chance you won’t see how it fits into your workflow right away.

To speed things up, here are some tried-and-tested business use cases:

1. Write Email Drafts in Seconds

The average professional spends 42 minutes a week writing emails. And for business owners, this figure is way higher.

Rather than composing every reply from scratch, you can use Claude to whip up a first draft.

For instance, you could ask the AI to generate a response to common customer inquiries:

Generate a customer service response to the following inquiry:

Alternatively, paste in an email you’ve received, and ask Claude to write a professional reply, using a similar prompt format.

2. Get Help With Social Media Marketing

Maintaining a strong social media presence can be great for business. The tricky part is keeping your followers engaged — and being consistent week after week.

Plus, creating posts can be a time-consuming process.

Claude can help here. We can ask our trusted AI assistant to generate text posts and captions, based on a specific style, like this:

Generate a social media post for [PLATFORM] about [TOPIC].

Style Guide:
-Tone: [DESCRIBE TONE, e.g., casual, professional, humorous]
-Voice: [DESCRIBE VOICE, e.g., friendly, authoritative, quirky]
-Key elements to include: [LIST ELEMENTS, e.g., hashtags, emojis, call to action]

Brand guidelines:
-Always mention: [BRAND NAME] in the post
-Use our slogan: “[INSERT SLOGAN]”
-Avoid mentioning: [LIST ANY TOPICS TO AVOID]

Target audience: [DESCRIBE TARGET AUDIENCE]

Post purpose: [SPECIFY PURPOSE, e.g., increase engagement, promote product, share information]

3. Write Perfect Product Descriptions

In e-commerce, every product description should be a sales pitch. But for store owners with hundreds of items to list, descriptions don’t always get the TLC they deserve.

Luckily, Claude is pretty good at writing about products. All you need is the basic specifications of the product, and a prompt like this:

Product Name: [INSERT PRODUCT NAME]

Category: [INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY]

Key Features:
1. [FEATURE 1]
2. [FEATURE 2]
[ADD MORE AS NEEDED]

Target Audience: [DESCRIBE TARGET CUSTOMER]

Unique Selling Points:
1. [USP 1]
2. [USP 2]
[ADD MORE AS NEEDED]

Tone: [SPECIFY DESIRED TONE, e.g., professional, friendly, luxurious]

Et voilà! You now have an awesome introduction to your product, ready to copy and paste.

4. Dive Deeper With Your Market Research

Ugh, market research. It’s really important, but let’s face it — the process can be a grind. Digging through long documents and endless figures takes time and energy you probably don’t have.

So, why not speed things up with Claude? The platform is great at sifting through information for the key takeaways and summaries,

Simply paste in the content you’re trying to analyze (PDFs and spreadsheets work just fine), and use a prompt like this:

Please pick out the key takeaways and trends from this document. Please focus on the [AREAS OF INTEREST].

5. Get a Summary of Every Meeting

Blah blah blah…no idea what your client said the last time you spoke? Fear not. As long as you have an audio recording or transcript, Claude will be able to create a quick refresher for you.

Start by uploading the audio or text file, and use a prompt like this:

Please summarize the conversation in this meeting in bullet-point form.

6. Work With Claude To Brainstorm Ideas

From creating a brand to naming your first product, running a business always involves a certain amount of creativity. If you find yourself getting stuck, let Claude take some of the strain.

Say you’re trying to dream up a new marketing campaign. Start by giving Claude some key details about your ICPs:

• Age
• Location
• Annual income
• Interests

Then, describe your offer and ask Claude to come up with some marketing ideas:

Based on this information, provide five ideas for marketing campaigns we could run. Include a tagline and short description of each one.

7. Identify What Your Customers Are Thinking

Online reviews are a treasure trove of information for small businesses. Combing through them one by one, though? That’s hard work. Let’s shortcut the process with Claude.

The easiest way to do this is by exporting reviews and then uploading this data to Claude. You can use a prompt like this to find the recurring themes:

What are the most common positive and negative comments made by customers in these product reviews?

If you’re more technically inclined, it’s also possible to automate this process by building a Claude-based app on Amazon Bedrock.

8. Create Perfect Job Listings

Seeing growth? You might need more staff. To make sure you get the perfect person for each role, you can use AI to generate the ideal job description.

Imagine you’re hiring a new baker. First, ask Claude to help you build the job description:

I need to build a job description. Can you help me?

Then, provide some information about your bakery and the role:

My bakery is called ‘Sweet Delights’ and we specialize in artisanal pastries and cakes. We’re looking for an experienced pastry chef to join our team of five. The ideal candidate should be creative, detail-oriented, and able to work in a fast-paced environment.

Claude might then ask about specific responsibilities or requirements. You can provide these details:

The Pastry Chef will be responsible for creating new recipes, preparing a variety of pastries and desserts, managing inventory, and training junior bakers. They should have at least three years of experience, and knowledge of both traditional and modern baking techniques.

In return, you should get a full job ad — ready to go!

9. Make Your Writing Error-Free

Did you know that Claude is a great proofreader? Check your writing for errors by pasting in the text.

Say you’ve written a blog post and want to make sure you haven’t made any major slip-ups. Enter this prompt:

Please check the following text for any factual, logical, or grammatical errors.

Enter your post, and set Claude on the job!

10. Craft the Perfect Presentation Script

Writing an outline for any presentation or webinar is usually a time-consuming process. But there’s a smart way to go about this. You guessed it! We can use Claude to automate most of the process.

Begin by asking for assistance:

I need help creating an outline for a 15-minute presentation on ‘The Future of Remote Work’ for a small business networking event. Can you help me?

Claude will likely ask for more details. Feed in more information about your goals and audience:

The audience will be small business owners from various industries. I want to cover current trends; benefits and challenges of remote work; and how businesses can adapt. My goal is to provide practical insights that they can apply to their own companies.

You should get a detailed outline. If you need revisions, just ask Claude!

Expert Tips for Squeezing More out of Claude AI

You’re starting to see how Claude does things now. It’s pretty good at interpreting what you need, right?

That said, there are a few techniques you can apply to make the outputs even better.

Customize Claude To Match Your Needs

Claude has a great memory. Use this to your advantage whenever you start a new chat.

Before you get to work, specify some ground rules. For example, you could tell Claude:

• You’re knowledgeable in your industry, so any advice should be at an expert level.
• You want every answer delivered in bullet points.
• The AI should avoid using jargon.

For the rest of the conversation, Claude should remember this. If you want to be doubly sure, you can make similar requests for each prompt.

Use Highly-Specific Prompts

The key to better responses? Precision in prompting.

The more details you provide, the better Claude can tailor its responses. So, instead of asking, “How do I write a blog post?” — try “How do I write a 1,000-word blog post about sustainable gardening for beginners?”

You’d never believe the difference in quality. Like night and day!

Ask for Revisions

The current AI models rarely achieve perfection on the first try. Not to worry. Feel free to ask for a revision.

You might say, “Expand on the third point.”

Or: “Can you make this explanation simpler?”

Claude is always ready to refine its work based on your feedback. It’s like having an apprentice who is eager to impress.

Integrate Claude With Your Favorite Apps

Want to take your productivity to the next level? Try integrating Claude with your go-to apps.

You can do this using Zapier or Make. Both platforms allow you to send data to Claude, and retrieve the responses.

What does this mean? For example, you could analyze responses to Google Forms submissions and send a summary to Google Sheets. Or use Claude to run a SWOT analysis and save the results to Notion.

Use Template Prompts

If you want to maximize your time savings, make templates for your regular tasks.

For example, if you often need to write product descriptions, you could save a prompt like this:

Write a 50-word product description for [PRODUCT NAME]. Include key features, benefits, and a call to action.

Just fill in the blanks and you’re good to go. Get ready for instant, consistent results!

Always Check the Outputs

Like all AI tools, Claude makes mistakes too.

When using this platform for something really important, like a data-driven case study, for example, make sure you review the outputs thoroughly before publishing. Similarly, don’t rely on Claude as your only source of information. Like all AI tools so far, it’s been known to make things up.

In other words, treat it like a really smart human rather than an all-knowing robot genius.

Learn More About AI

Want to learn more about artificial intelligence? Here are some of our best guides:

• How To Use AI as a Small Business Owner (12 Pro Tips) 
• Get the Most out of AI With These 12 Prompting Tips 
• 39 AI Tools That Will Transform Your Workflow
• What Is DALL-E? How To Use This AI Image Generation Tool
• How To Use Midjourney: Creating AI Images For Your Website

Power Your Business With AI

There’s no doubt that artificial intelligence is going to change how we do business. In fact, it already is! So, instead of wasting valuable time on simple tasks, you can whizz through your busywork at warp speed and get on with the more important stuff — like strategy.

Claude is one such great tool for small businesses. Another is our AI Business Advisor.

Available to all DreamHost customers, this versatile app can help you navigate search engine optimization (SEO), create content, and even upgrade your website.

Speaking of upgrades — our hosting plans offer a 100% uptime guarantee, unlimited traffic, and access to our AI Website Builder tool.

Sign up today to get your small business dominating online!

AI Business Advisor

Ready to Supercharge Your Business with AI?

Unlock the power of AI for your business with DreamHost’s AI Business Advisor. Included free with your hosting plan, this advanced tool provides personalized guidance on SEO, content creation, and website optimization. Start leveraging AI to drive growth and stay ahead of the competition today!

Get Started with AI Business Advisor

The post How To Get the Most out of Claude AI appeared first on DreamHost Blog.

This is the art of AI prompt engineering.

Experts in generative AI are still figuring out exactly how to communicate with tools like ChatGPT to extract the best responses. However, the basic principles are already fairly well established.

In this concise guide, we will reveal the best practices for writing effective AI prompts — including the best language to use, how to train AI models, and tips on refining the outputs.

Sounds good? Let’s get started!

What Is an AI Prompt?

Basically, a prompt is your instructions to the AI model.

Most popular AI tools today accept text prompts, which you can submit through a chat-like interface. Some generative AI models, like Claude, can also accept images, data, and code files.

At a basic level, prompting is a way to interact with software. You’re just using text instructions rather than tapping on buttons.

The key difference is that artificial intelligence has no simple cause and effect. AI tools require guidance because they don’t truly “understand” prompts the way humans do.

Instead, these models generate responses based on probabilities and patterns they’ve learned from massive amounts of data. This means that clear and precise instructions are essential to steer the AI towards providing the most accurate and useful answers.

It’s more like an interactive game than a simple tool.

How Do AI Models Understand Prompts?

Most generative AI models today are LLMs (large language models). Using vast amounts of data, these systems have been trained to recognize patterns in language.

When you submit a prompt, the model studies every word and phrase individually, as well as within the wider context of your prompt. It then tries to evaluate the meaning of what you have written, based on all the patterns of language it has seen before.

For example, you might ask a generative AI tool to think up some “creative titles” for a book you’re writing.

What does “creative” mean in this context? The AI will consider similar uses of the word it has seen in the training data and come up with a best guess based on the probability of those associations.

How Do AI Prompts Translate Into Outputs?

Just as AI models use pattern recognition to understand your prompts, they also use a similar approach to produce output.

Imagine you studied every painting ever produced by Monet. Then, someone asked you to create a new artwork in his style.

You probably wouldn’t be able to reproduce a specific painting perfectly. But you would remember the general mood and the key elements from some pieces. It would come out like a remix.

That’s basically how generative AI works — except the remixing part is controlled by math. Most models create outputs based on probabilities, a bit like an advanced autocomplete.

How to Craft Prompts for AI (12 Essential Techniques)

Enough with the theory. You want to use AI to get things done, right?

To help you squeeze the most out of your chosen model, we have compiled a list of the best AI prompting techniques used by experts in the game.

Let’s dive straight in:

1. Be Super Specific

When you first discover AI technology, it’s tempting to believe that you can complete huge goals with very simple prompts.

Sadly, that’s not the case.

The output from current AI models largely reflects the prompt it’s fed. If you write a very basic, generic request, the AI will provide an equally vague output to match.

On the flip side, you can get very detailed, targeted outputs by writing prompts that are highly specific. The less you can leave up to interpretation, the more satisfying the results will be.

Don’t:
Write a blog post about fishing.

Do:
Write a 1,500-word blog post about salmon fishing in the UK. Compare the fly fishing and spin fishing techniques. Include a section on rod lengths and weights, and talk about how the black-bodied flying C lures are the best option.

2. Use Examples

When you work with AI, think of yourself as a teacher. Don’t just tell the model what to do; show it what you want.

Including a good example of your desired output is a great way to shape the results from pretty much any AI tool. You can use this technique to adjust the style, format, topic, and length of outputs.

This is particularly useful for maintaining a consistent style in content creation, but it also works for data formatting, setting the tone for emails, and more.

Don’t:
Write a product description for a new pair of barefoot shoes with a wider toe box.

Do:
Write a product description for a new pair of barefoot shoes with a wider toe box. Copy the tone, style, and general structure of this product description: [PASTE EXAMPLE]

3. Ask the AI Model What It Needs

Did you know you can ask AI to help you with prompting?

This technique won’t unlock perfect outputs, but it’s a great starting point for crafting good prompts.

Try asking your chosen AI tool what it needs to produce a certain outcome. And tell the model to ask clarifying questions to fine-tune the outputs.

Don’t:
Write a product description for shoes.

Do:
What specific details about these shoes do you need to be most helpful for crafting an effective product description?

4. Try Prompt Chaining

In real-world conversations, we often combine multiple queries into a single chain of thought.

This is a big no-no in AI interactions. Current models struggle to juggle different ideas.

To get the best possible results, it’s best to focus on one question or task at a time — a technique known as prompt chaining (or chain of thought prompting).

This makes it easier for the AI to understand what you want, and come up with a clear and concise answer.

Don’t:
I need to improve this document. Find any grammatical errors in the text, suggest how to fix them, and tell me how I can make the writing more concise.

Do:

1. Find grammatical errors in this text.
2. Can you suggest how to fix these errors?
3. How can I make the writing in this document more concise?

5. Define What Type of Answer You Expect 

Remember sitting for exams? Super nerve-wracking.

At least (most) exam papers are pretty clear about how you should answer each question. So, even when you’re sweating buckets, it’s hard to mess up.

AI systems don’t suffer from performance anxiety, but they still need clear instructions about how to respond.

When you write your prompts, make sure to define precisely what you’re looking for.

Don’t:
Give me some examples of news headlines in AP style.

Do:
Give me five examples of news headlines in AP style, delivered in a bullet point list.

6. You Needn’t Always Be Polite

When you’re brought up well, good manners are instinctive. When you ask for something, it’s only natural to add a “please” at the end.

Current AI systems don’t really understand courtesy, but these words can have an effect on the output you receive.

Most models will reflect your tone — so a polite, mild-mannered prompt will often unlock a similarly civil response. Plus, research suggests you are more likely to get a long, elaborate output.

In contrast, neutral prompts are usually more to the point.

The lesson? Think twice about being polite.

Don’t:
Could you provide me with a list of five words commonly used in baseball commentary, please? Thank you.

Do:
Provide a list of five words commonly used in baseball commentary.

7. Ask the AI To Play a Role

By default, most AI tools play the role of helpful assistant. They are the Dr. Watson to your Sherlock Holmes, the Robin to your Batman.

But actually, LLMs are perfectly capable of taking on any persona. You just need to ask.

This technique is particularly useful if you want to generate a certain style of writing, or tailor outputs to the right level of expertise.

You can even ask the AI to roleplay with you — simply mention who the characters are. This can be helpful when you’re preparing for an interview, or even writing fiction!

Don’t:
Please explain how KYC (know your customer) technology works.

Do:
You’re an expert in finance and insurance, specializing in fraud prevention. Explain how KYC (know your customer) technology works.

8. Use Emotion To Shape Outputs

Current AI models are nothing like the intelligent robots we see in science fiction. They have no “feelings.”

However, they do understand the impact of human emotion — at least in terms of language.

Using emotive terms in your prompts can add importance to specific instructions, and encourage a different tone in the outputs.

Don’t:
Using the data sheet provided, write an end-of-year report for my company.

Do:
Using the data sheet provided, write an end-of-year report for my company. It’s vital that you only use information from the data sheet. My career is on the line!

9. For Written Content: Describe Your Audience

Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are capable of creating content in pretty much any style. The tricky part is getting them to understand what you need.

To ensure your AI-generated content hits the mark, make sure to include details about your target audience in your prompts. Add as much detail as you can, such as demographics, interests, and other publications they might enjoy.

Don’t:
Write a LinkedIn thought leadership post about the challenges of onboarding new staff.

Do:
Write a LinkedIn thought leadership post about the challenges of onboarding new staff.
The post should be aimed at CEOs and founders in their 30s and 40s, working at growing startups with 50 employees or fewer. They enjoy reading DreamHost articles in their spare time. And playing pickleball.

10. For Visual Content: Reference Photography and Art

Generating images with AI is a little different from the usual chat-based interactions. You’re still inputting text and files, but the AI responds with visual content.

If you’re simply exploring, you can plug in anything you want and see what you get in return. But if you have something specific in mind, you’ll need to think carefully about the exact language of your prompt.

One key tip is to reference art and photography styles. Do you want a photorealistic image of a squirrel playing the banjo or are you aiming for a more comic-book style? These details matter.

You can also mention lighting, camera lens types, weather conditions, the environment, and any other details that could affect the end result.

Don’t:
Image of a surfer riding a wave.

Do:
Minimalist line drawing of a male surfer riding a barrel wave, sunlight, blue sky, pink surf shorts.

11. For Education: Turn AI Into Your Personal Tutor

Platforms like ChatGPT and Claude can provide information on any topic that has ever been written about. However, so can Google.

The real value of these platforms is that you can have a conversation on any topic.

Instead of writing prompts that look like Google searches, ask your chosen AI model to become your tutor. For instance, you could:

• Upload a textbook and tell the AI to summarize the key points.
• Ask the AI tool to test your knowledge with practice questions.
• Set up a practice conversation in a foreign language at a level you’re comfortable with.

12. For Automation: Keep Refining for Better Results

AI tools are great for automating everyday admin, such as reformatting data or composing template emails.

There’s a possibility that you might just write the perfect prompt for these tasks on your first try.

This is relatively uncommon, though. Most AI experts spend time experimenting and refining their prompts before deploying them in the wild.

If you’re trying to automate something and it doesn’t work the first time, don’t give up. Think of it like teaching a child to ride a bicycle; it’s going to take a while before they can compete in the Tour de France.

Which AI Should I Use?

The tips above apply to most popular AI tools. That said, the same prompt will elicit a different response from every model.

So, which tool should you be using for each task? Here’s a quick cheat sheet:

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it includes the most well-established tools for the most popular AI use cases.

Troubleshooting AI Problems

AI is unpredictable. You can write a perfectly good prompt, and still receive an answer that makes no sense. The model might even refuse to answer if your request doesn’t match certain criteria.

Such hiccups can be frustrating. Thankfully, there are ways to overcome these issues:

• Misinterpretation: Sometimes, AI models get the wrong end of the stick. The solution here is specificity. Be super explicit with your instructions and provide context to guide the AI.
• Irrelevant responses: Even if an AI understands you, it might cover topics or examples that aren’t really relevant to what you need. To avoid this, use clear language to narrow down the responses.
• Repetitive outputs: Current AI models tend to default to the obvious choice for any given question or prompt. If you want to mix it up, encourage creativity in your prompts. Ask the AI to produce “quirky” or “fun” results, for instance.
• AI hallucinations: At times, generative AI models just make stuff up. The best way to prevent this is by specifying the source of information that should be used when formulating answers. Be sure to fact-check outputs, as well!

Making the Most of AI

AI’s emerging world can feel like piloting a ship through uncharted waters — exciting, yet uncertain.

In part, that’s because the technology is very new. Even the experts are constantly learning about these intelligent systems.

If you want to make the most of AI right now, be prepared to play around with various tools. Use the tips above as a starting point, and try different approaches.

As a reminder, here are the key principles:

• Be specific.
• Use examples.
• Break down complex ideas into chunks.
• Define what you want.
• Think carefully about language.
• Ask the AI what it needs for more detailed outputs.

Want to start experimenting? DreamHost users get free access to our AI Business Advisor. Powered by the cutting-edge GPT-4o model, this tool helps you plan, create content, automate coding, and much more.

Plus, hosting your online presence with DreamHost should free up some time. With a 100% uptime guarantee and 24/7 support, you won’t be spending time fixing your website. Sign up today to try it for yourself!

The post Get the Most out of AI With These 12 Prompting Tips appeared first on DreamHost Blog.

Most small business owners spend the majority of their time swimming through “busywork,” such as manual data entry, rather than diving into something more valuable — like strategy, for example.

Here’s the good news: artificial intelligence can help keep you afloat. You might even be able to paddle faster than ever before.

If you understand how to use AI effectively, you can automate admin, enhance your creativity, and personalize your marketing in a fraction of the time. It’s like having the world’s most capable sidekick.

Want to know more? Well, you’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, we will be exploring the use cases of AI, tracking down the best tools, and helping you get the most out of this exciting technology. Let’s get started!

The Hype Train: Is AI Really That Great?

You have probably seen predictions that AI will soon replace humans in the workforce. Every week, one of the tech giants launches a new AI product. And billions of dollars are being invested in AI development.

The AI hype train is thundering along at top speed. So, where is the revolution?

Most experts agree that AI will change the world…eventually. But it probably won’t happen overnight.

The disconnect between the hype and the current reality has led many business owners to write off AI as a gimmick.

The truth is more nuanced.

Sure, there are many silly ways to use artificial intelligence — from generating images of jetsetting otters, to comparing your vocal talents with those of Freddie Mercury.

But other AI tools are incredibly powerful in a business context. They can genuinely improve your productivity and assist your staff.

The key is to focus on areas where the technology provides real value.

Why You Should Be Using AI

New technology tends to benefit the giant corporations before trickling down to the small folks.

Artificial intelligence is different.

The most powerful AI tools are affordable even for sole traders, and they’re pretty easy to use.

Here are some of the potential benefits of adopting the technology for your small business:

AI Can Save Time

The biggest benefit of AI is the amount of wasted time you can save.

Think about all those repetitive tasks eating up your day. AI can handle many of them, freeing you up to focus on what really matters — growing your business.

• Customer service: AI chatbots can handle basic queries 24/7. And they don’t even need coffee.
• Data entry: AI can automate that tedious administrative work. And they rarely make mistakes.
• Scheduling: AI assistants can shuffle your calendar to make the most of your available time.

AI Can Enhance Your Creativity

Feeling stuck on ideas for your next marketing campaign?

AI’s got you covered. It can:

• Generate content ideas that your audiences will love.
• Write rough drafts of blog posts.
• Create images and videos, with no graphic design skills required!

You’re still the brains behind the operation, but AI works as your creative assistant.

AI Can Help You Make Better Decisions

AI isn’t just about getting stuff done. It’s also about working smarter.

For small business owners, that means being better informed when making key decisions. You can use AI applications to:

• Crunch the numbers and spot trends you might miss, such as sales patterns.
• Predict customer behavior to help you make better choices, like following up with leads.
• Optimize your pricing strategy for maximum profit, using data from other businesses as a reference point.

It’s like having a super-smart business advisor — minus the exorbitant fees.

What Are the Best AI Tools for Businesses?

Right now, we’re seeing an explosion of new AI tools hitting the market. Some are multi-purpose, while others focus on particular use cases.

Here’s a quick look at the most popular AI tools in 2024:

• ChatGPT (Freemium): The biggest name in AI. Intelligent and highly versatile, but can be a bit verbose if you want a quick summary.
• Claude (Freemium): The main competitor to ChatGPT. Reaches similar intelligence, with slightly more concise answers.
• Gemini (Freemium): A multi-purpose AI made by Google. The paid version can’t quite match the intelligence of the tools above, but it has good access to online data.
• Perplexity (Freemium): This AI platform is made for research. It’s great for finding answers and statistics.

In addition to the tools above, we’ll also look at some more specialized ones later.

12 Smart Ways To Use AI in Your Business

You may be wondering, “If AI is so great, why isn’t everyone using it?”

Good question. In part, it’s because the technology is still emerging.

Only a couple of years have passed since the first truly impressive models came out. And many businesses simply haven’t figured out the best use cases.

If you’d like to get ahead of the curve, here are some tried-and-tested examples of how AI can power your business.

1. Generate Compelling Email Subject Lines in Seconds

Email marketing can be a really effective tool for drumming up business. The key is to write catchy subject lines that make people want to click.

With the help of AI, anyone can produce perfect subject lines in record time.

For this task, we would recommend using Claude (free with limited access). It’s probably the most talented writer among the multi-purpose AI products.

Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough:

1. Provide some context: Claude isn’t a mind reader, so you need to provide some information about your business and target audience. Let’s say:

“I run an online store selling handmade jewelry. My target customers are women aged 25–45 who appreciate unique, artisanal accessories.”

2. Ask Claude to generate email subject lines: Be specific about the goal and tone.

“Please create 5 catchy email subject lines to promote our new summer collection. They should be short, fun, and evoke a sense of exclusivity.”

3. Provide some inspiration: If you have some example subject lines that worked well in the past, paste them in.

“Here are some subject lines that previously worked well with our audience…”

4. Press Enter: Set Claude on the job!

Review Claude’s suggestions and ask for revisions if needed. You can request adjustments like:

“Can you make #4 a little more unique?”

5. Pick out your favorites and test them in your marketing campaigns: Take note of which subject lines perform well. You can use these to train Claude next time.

Pro Tip: Check your inbox with promotional emails for inspiration for great subject lines. Save these in a note, and give them to Claude as inspiration during Step 3.

2. Analyze Customer Data To Deliver Targeted Marketing

According to McKinsey, companies that use personalized marketing generate 40% more revenue. That’s too big a number to ignore.

By analyzing customer data using artificial intelligence, you can segment your audience and create content that resonates with each customer persona.

For this task, we’re going to use ChatGPT. The paid version has some awesome data analysis features.

Here’s the walkthrough:

1. Collect the data you want to analyze: This could be customer data from your CRM, website data via Google Analytics, audience information from your email marketing software, or something else.

2. Upload your data files to ChatGPT: You can do this by dragging them into the chat box or clicking on the paper clip icon.

3. Ask ChatGPT to analyze the data: Now, you can ask specific questions or instruct the AI to find trends in the data. For example:

“Which age groups in my customer base most often make repeat purchases?”

4. Build your campaign: Based on the analysis, you might decide to create a targeted email campaign. Ask ChatGPT to generate email messages that are likely to resonate with the customers highlighted in your data analysis:

“Create a promotional email for customers aged 30–45 who purchased at least twice, highlighting our new line of biodegradable dresses.”

Remember, you can ask ChatGPT to adjust the output.

Pro Tip: Want to compile a complete marketing strategy based on your customer analysis? Our Business Advisor AI tool can help. It even has built-in prompts that you can use with one click, such as:

“Act as an expert digital marketer: Question me to understand my business, products, and brand, then define five visionary, actionable marketing goals after receiving my answers.”

3. Generate Eye-Catching Images for Your Social Media Posts

Visual content always tends to perform better on social media. But where do you find all those images?

Specialized models like DALL-E and FLUX can produce pixel-perfect images, based on your text inputs. You can generate anything from impressionist art to photo-realistic scenes.

The standalone versions of these apps are a little tricky to use, but you can access DALL-E via ChatGPT.

This is what that’ll look like:

1. Describe the image you want: You can type this into the chat box, just like any other prompt. Be as specific as possible, including details of the scene, the style of the image, the color scheme, and more. Imagine you were trying to describe what you want to a human artist.

Let’s say you’re promoting a new coffee blend…

“I want you to create a cozy, inviting image of a person enjoying a morning cup in a sunlit room.”

2. Generate the first draft: Once you have written your description, hit Enter. Review the output and decide if it works for what you need.

3. Keep revising: Remember that your AI apprentice won’t run out of steam. Feel free to keep revising the original draft with new text prompts, such as:

“This is good, but can you make it darker?”

Pro Tip: As with text outputs, ChatGPT and DALL-E can learn from images you upload. If you find something similar to what you want, save a copy and upload it to the chat.

4. Build a Beautiful Website Without Code or Design Skills

Every business needs a strong website. And there are some great tools that make it easy to design your online presence.

It still takes time, though.

You can speed up the process massively, using specialized AI-powered design tools like ZipWP or Extendify.

Here’s how it works:

1. Install the ZipWP plugin on your WordPress site: It’s designed to work seamlessly within the WordPress ecosystem.

2. Describe your ideal website: The plugin works like other AI tools, allowing you to input text prompts. An example:

“I need a professional website for my design business. It should have a clean, modern design with a gallery to showcase my work.”

You can then sit back and watch as ZipWP generates a complete website based on your description. The AI selects the perfect layouts and color schemes. It can even suggest relevant content.

3. Fine-tune the results: While ZipWP does most of the heavy lifting, you can still customize the design to your liking. The plugin offers an intuitive interface for tweaking designs, fonts, and colors.

4. Add your content: ZipWP generates placeholder text and images so you know how content will appear. But you’ll want to add your own content before publishing.

Pro Tip: As with generating images, it’s important to be specific with your description. Make sure to include details of your brand, including colors and vibe. You could also mention specific elements you want, and layouts.

5. Quickly Build Blog Posts That Enhance Your SEO

Content creation is one of the best use cases for the current generation of AI tools.

Pretty much any multi-purpose AI model can handle this task. However, we’re going to focus on a specialized writing tool called Jasper, which can really speed things up.

(Jasper is a fully paid tool, but you can follow the steps below with a free trial.)

Here’s the process:

1. Set up your new post: In the Jasper dashboard, hit Create content > Create a blog post. This opens the “one-shot blog post” template.

2. Build your brief: Jasper needs a few key details before it can start writing. These include:

• Blog topic
• Tone of voice
• Intended audience
• Number of outputs
• Output language

Make your choices, and try to be as specific as possible with your instructions.

3. Generate the first draft: Hit the Generate content button, and Jasper will quickly whip up an entire article from scratch.

4. Edit and adjust: The initial output won’t always be perfect, may seem off-brand, and could be shorter than what you expected. You can fix all of this by returning to the briefing area and making some changes. Or you can open the draft in Jasper’s built-in editor and make changes yourself. The important thing is that you’re not starting from scratch each time.

Pro Tip: You can grab that initial draft, paste it into a multi-purpose tool like Claude, and ask the AI to extend the article. In your prompt, instruct the model to follow the same tone, style, and voice. You can include the details from your initial brief, as well.

6. Find Out What Your Customers Are Talking About Online

Back in the bad old days, brands had to run surveys and focus groups to find out what their customers were thinking.

Today, it’s a whole lot easier. Your customers express their thoughts all day, every day, on social media. And thanks to natural language processing, AI models can understand what they’re saying.

I suggest using Perplexity for this one.

Here’s how to identify and quantify your customers’ thoughts — a process usually known as sentiment analysis:

1. Put Perplexity in the right mode: Click on Focus underneath the chat box, and select Social as your primary source of information.

2. Craft your query: Write some clear, specific instructions for Perplexity. For example:

“What is the general sentiment toward [your product] on Reddit in the past month?”

3. Review the output: It may include:

• Overall sentiment analysis.
• Key topics and themes in discussions.
• Sources used for the analysis.

4. Explore some related questions: Below the main output, Perplexity serves up related questions. It also provides the option to ask for follow-ups. Use these features to dive deeper into specific aspects of customer sentiment.

Pro Tip: While you can use Perplexity for free, it’s worth upgrading to the Pro version ($20) during your research process for access to additional models, including ChatGPT and Claude. This subscription also unlocks file uploads, meaning you can perform sentiment analysis on any data source.

7. Provide 24/7 Customer Service With AI Chatbots

Customer service can play a major role in the success of your business — but it’s also a major expense. That’s why many companies no longer offer live support.

Instead of cutting back, you can make your resources stretch further using AI chatbots. These smart assistants can interact with customers on your website, handle basic queries, and route queries to human agents.

To set up a chatbot, you need a dedicated AI tool. Zapier Chatbots is one of the more affordable and easy-to-use solutions.

The process involves many steps, so I won’t cover them all here.

We won’t leave you hanging either, so here’s a quick overview:

1. Define the purpose of your chatbot: That could mean answering FAQs, guiding customers through purchases, or providing product recommendations. This will help you tailor the chatbot’s responses and functionality.

2. Set up the basic settings: Within the Zapier Chatbots interface, you can customize the greeting, the user input placeholder, and other settings to match your brand and customer needs.

3. Write your instructions: Next, you need to define the chatbot’s role, and the specific steps it should follow. The more detailed your instructions, the more effective and natural the chatbot’s responses will be.

4. Integrate your knowledge source:. Just like a human agent, your chatbot needs access to information. You can upload relevant company documents, FAQs, product information, and other resources.

5. Personalize and deploy: Finally, you can customize the appearance of your chatbot and set it to work on your website or within an app.

Pro Tip: Zapier has a complete walkthrough for the Chatbots feature right here.

8. Get an Instant Summary of Lengthy Reports

Sifting through lengthy reports to find the hidden gold can be time-consuming. With ChatGPT, you can generate concise summaries that capture the essential information in a fraction of the time.

Here’s how to leverage ChatGPT to quickly summarize lengthy documents:

1. Upload the document to ChatGPT: We’d recommend using PDF or Word formats.

2. Write your instructions: In the chat window, explain what you need. For example:

“I have a report that I need summarized. Can you provide a concise 1–2 paragraph summary that highlights the key points?”

And that’s it! In seconds, you’ll have the key takeaways you asked for.

Pro Tip: For longer or more complex reports, you can also ask ChatGPT to highlight the main findings and recommendations rather than generate a single-paragraph summary.

9. Generate Accurate Notes From Any Online Meeting

Automating the task of taking meeting notes can free up your team to focus on the discussion (or something else more useful, like making sales).

For this, we’ll use Otter.ai. This AI tool syncs with your preferred video conferencing apps and turns the recordings into minutes.

Here’s how to set it up:

1. Sign up for an account at Otter.ai: You can try the key features on the free plan.

2. Install the Otter.ai browser extension: It’s available on Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

3. Host your meeting as normal: Otter.ai works in the background, taking notes like a virtual secretary.

4. After the meeting, check the full transcript: You can access this via the Otter.ai dashboard. Here, you can check for errors and make any necessary edits or corrections.

Pro Tip: Otter.ai has a live captioning feature that allows everyone to follow along more easily, especially those who are hearing impaired.

10. Build Apps Faster With a Smart Coding Assistant

For small businesses in the digital space, AI tools can free up a significant chunk of the working week by assisting developers with writing and maintaining code.

ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are all capable of writing code. However, it’s probably worth investing in a dedicated tool, such as GitHub Copilot.

This AI coding assistant can help developers with:

• Generating code snippets and functions for common programming tasks.
• Writing code faster with intelligent code completions and suggestions.
• Automating repetitive coding patterns and boilerplate.
• Refactoring existing code, thanks to Copilot’s contextual understanding.

Pro Tip: Experiment with different prompts and modifiers in Copilot to get the most out of this tool. Try prompts like “explain this code,” “refactor this function,” or “generate unit tests for this module.”

11. Write Perfect Reply Emails Twice As Fast

Replying to business emails in a professional and timely manner is important. With the help of AI, you can shortcut the process and reclaim the first hour of your day.

While Gmail and Outlook have basic AI autocomplete, dedicated tools like superReply can help you save more time.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Install the Chrome extension: superReply integrates directly into Gmail and Outlook, allowing you to craft replies from your inbox.

2. Activate the AI Response feature in the compose window: Click the superReply icon, and the app will analyze the content of your emails. It then suggests contextually relevant replies.

3. Select the tone you want: Whether you want to sound formal or casual, superReply lets you set the mood music for your email draft.

4. Choose your favorite draft: The app quickly whips up some AI-generated responses, and you can choose your favorite with a click. You can then edit the draft as usual and hit send.

Pro Tip: Constantly receiving pitches for services you don’t need? The “decline politely” option lets you register your indifference without burning bridges!

12. Register Expenses With a Photo and Automate Verification

Artificial intelligence can even help you in the finance department.

Instead of keeping track of expenses and verifying every payment by hand, you can get a tool like Ramp AI to automate the process for you:

1. Begin by setting up the Ramp AI app on your device: You can hook it up with your accounting software to sync payments.

2. Capture receipts using the camera on your phone and upload the photo: Ramp AI uses OCR technology to “read” the details. It will then categorize each expense based on predefined settings, and input the details to your accounting system.

3. The next step is verification: Ramp AI reviews each entry for compliance with your financial policies, and flags any discrepancies for manual review. It can even match receipts with outgoing payments.

Pro Tip: You can adjust Ramp AI’s settings to match your specific accounting requirements and policies. If staff spend money without authorization, the app will let you know.

The Pros & Cons of Using AI

AI tools can already make a significant dent in your task list. And the technology is improving rapidly.

But let’s be real; it’s not perfect.

AI might be smart, but it still makes mistakes. On occasion, current models will even make up answers that are completely false.

These glitches are known as hallucinations, and they can be difficult to identify. Even AI developers struggle to control these strange outputs.

This is not the only challenge. AI can be tricky to implement, and the cost of multiple subscriptions can quickly add up for small businesses.

There is also the human factor to consider. Even if your chatbot is really clever, people still tend to prefer interacting with a real person.

And for tasks that involve creativity or creative thinking, AI can only provide assistance. It can’t replace human ingenuity (yet).

When To Use AI in Your Workflow

Luckily, you can mitigate most of these issues by using AI wisely.

That means:

• Starting small. Introduce one or two tools for specific tasks before expanding your horizons.
• Using AI tools that fit with your existing workflow. Don’t attempt to shoehorn AI technology into your current processes; it will only slow you down.
• Tracking the impact of automations. AI isn’t a catch-all solution. Keep an eye on operational metrics to ensure the new tech is having a positive impact.
• Maintaining some level of human oversight. Current AI tools are not perfect, so it’s important to have some quality control.

We would also recommend reading up on AI.

It’s a big topic, and new trends are emerging all the time. Here’s a reading list, prepared by our very own team of experts:

• Complete Beginner’s Guide to Generative AI
• 39 AI Tools That Will Transform Your Workflow
• How To Use Midjourney: Creating AI Images for Your Website

Explore AI Today!

Right now is an exciting time to be experimenting with AI. There are still fairly few businesses that are fully utilizing this technology; jump in today, and you’ll be ahead of the curve!

The best part is you don’t have to spend money to try most of these tools. Plus, DreamHost customers get free access to our Business Advisor AI, for example.

Play around with a few models and see what you can achieve.

AI isn’t the only area where DreamHost can help. Our hosting can provide the backbone for your online presence, with a 100% uptime guarantee.

Sign up today to try it for size!

AI Business Advisor

Get Personalized Expert AI Guidance at Your Fingertips.

Ready to take your business to the next level? See how DreamHost’s AI Business Advisor can help with everyday tasks like content creation and planning, giving you more time to focus on what really matters. Give it a try and watch your business grow.

Learn more

The post How To Use AI as a Small Business Owner (12 Pro Tips) appeared first on DreamHost Blog.