Small Businesses 🤝 AI: The Perfect Match

Happy Tuesday, everyone! It’s safe to say that the artificial intelligence (AI) hype has not died down. It’s got everyone from everyday users like us to big corporations wondering what AI can do for them. But there’s one group we can’t leave out of the conversation: small businesses.

Don’t let the name fool you - the impact of small businesses is far from “small”. In fact, there’s over 30 million of them in the US, they employ nearly half of the US workforce, and they account for over 40% of US GDP. Crazy, right?!? 

So today we’re showing them some love by breaking down a couple of ways that AI can empower small businesses and help them grow. To do that, we’re going to use an example of a small business that’s caught TikTok by storm: Cuts & Slices NYC, a black owned pizzeria in Brooklyn selling pies & slices with creative toppings like chicken-&-waffle, oxtail, and curry shrimp.

But before we dive in, we wanted to make a quick announcement. Thanks to all of your survey feedback (winners will be contacted soon!) Web3 for the Culture will be transitioning to a bi-weekly cadence. Don’t worry, you’ll still get the same content you love with a few surprises up our sleeve. So sit back, have a great July 4th weekend, and we’ll be back July 11th with our first biweekly edition!

Introducing Cuts & Slices 🍕

So there’s pizza… then there’s New York style pizza… then there’s Cuts & Slices pizza – a breed of its own. Truly. 

For the past few months, they’ve been having their moment on social media. We’ve seen everything from celebrities like Justine Skye stopping through to rave about it, to them partnering with Adidas to make a custom shoe, to everyone and their mama posting about their Sweet Chili Oxtail pizza slice on their Instagram story. 

One thing is for sure though – the founder, Randy Mcleran, did the damn thing with this Bed Stuy fave. But of course there’s always an opportunity to improve, and you know we’re coming with some recommendations for how this local favorite can improve their business with the use of emerging technologies. Let’s get into it! 

Here’s how AI can help small businesses thrive 💪🏽

While many businesses dream of getting Cuts & Slices-level hype, we can imagine it’s also created a lot of headaches for the business. For instance, the line wraps around the block, taking well over half an hour even at non-peak hours, and already steep prices for a slice ($7-9) are rising just to keep up with high ingredient costs (oxtail ain’t cheap!).   

Thankfully, we think that AI can do a lot to help Randy, his teams, and customers. Let’s dive in:

Cutting wait times by the slice

One thing we can all agree on is that waiting in line for over an hour for a slice during a hot and humid NY summer is not cute. On top of that, you’d hate to wait that long only to find out the slice you’ve seen all over your Tiktok “For You” page isn’t available that day. This is where AI comes in. Cuts & Slices can establish a database of customer transactions, including favorite slices, ticket sizes, and more, and employ AI to analyze the data and address specific customer needs. One really cool application of AI in a suite of solutions that we all know and love (kinda) is Microsoft Co-pilot. It’s available as an add-on and does all of the work to analyze trends and create professional-looking data visualizations that anyone can read in a matter of seconds. Armed with this information, Cuts & Slices can anticipate which pies will be popular and when, and even engage with customers before they arrive, significantly reducing wait times and ensuring a stock of freshly made in-demand pies. Then, as Cuts & Slices gains a deeper understanding of its customers, it can get even more creative with its pie combinations!

Creating the best designs at the click of a button

With business always booming, sometimes employees don’t have the time to dedicate solely to growing their presence on social media. While Cuts & Slices has found a way to break through the noise and generate buzz, let’s say they wanted to do a rebrand one day. In the midst of fulfilling orders and making sure their service remains top tier, they also would have to find time (and the funds!) to create a new logo, revamp the website, and more.  This is where AI comes in to make lives easier, once again. 

A simple Google search for “AI-generated websites and logos” will take you to a million and one different options. The beautiful thing about this is that creating the sites usually don’t involve any coding, can be generated within 30 seconds with the right inputs, and cost on average about 10x less than a designer. A few AI-generated website and logo sites that people having been raving about lately are:

• Wix ADI for most people and businesses

• Jimdo for a free AI website builder with affordable upgrades

• Unbounce for an AI landing page builder

• Logomaster.ai for beautifully designed yet affordable logos

Another cool marketing play is to use ChatGPT to create a content calendar for social media. It can give you ideas for what to post, when to post, and how to best target your audience in a creative way.

Keeping suppliers and contracts in check

For a small business to create these famous pie combinations, they’re ordering ingredients from a bunch of other small businesses. However, more often than not, business to business (B2B) transactions take a reeaaaallly long time to process. Why? A lot of it is manual. We’re midway through 2023 and tons of small businesses still rely on pen and paper for these transactions! 

Thankfully, AI can speed up this process and cut down the number of headaches for Cuts & Slices. Not only can AI and blockchain technology digitize this process, it can also create checks and balances. Let’s say Cuts & Slices wants to place a bulk order of waffle batter from a new vendor for its chicken & waffles pie but isn’t sure if they are trustworthy. Instead of wondering whether this vendor will follow through on time for the order, AI can pre-screen them, helping Cuts & Slices understand the risk of fraud or order fulfillment. And if there happen to be any types of delays, AI can help Cuts & Slices adjust and predict its cash flows, helping them know when to expect (or not expect) ingredients or charges from vendors. 

Using AI agents to keep the operations flowing 

Now this might be one of the most applicable use cases that comes out of AI. In the simplest terms, AI agents are models that use artificial intelligence techniques to perform tasks or make decisions autonomously. 

But of course we’ve gotta make one thing very clear –  AI doesn’t have to replace the people who have made the shop what it is in the first place! 

It would actually just be a tool to make their lives easier, especially with nonstop customers throughout the day. Think of an AI agent as an internal personal assistant that can do things such as easily transfer a customer’s order to the kitchen, create a timed cooking schedule based on incoming orders, monitor ingredient usage, and generate automated reorder notifications. Not only does the AI agent help reduce bottlenecks and increase efficiency, but it also makes decisions that creates a more positive experience for both of the employees and the customers. 

So, next time you’re in Brooklyn and have some time to spare, make sure you hit up Cuts & Slices! And in the meantime, if you’re a small business owner yourself, consider how you can  use these recommendations to make your life easier and  continue driving success in your business. We’re rooting for you and are always here to support you with the latest insights 🤝

Thanks for reading!

– Kendall & Chad