Author: Ayandola Ayanleke

Scaling a business isn’t a walk in the park, especially when you're running a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) with limited resources and big dreams. The good news, though, is that you don’t have to do it the hard way. 

With AI as one of today’s major business trends, founders should embrace these technological advancements to remain relevant. However, as powerful as AI is, it does come with challenges. Therefore, business owners must find ways to creatively combine AI and human talents. 

For businesses on a budget that means learning how SMEs can use AI and fractional teams for business scaling. It also involves understanding how to use AI for small business growth alongside expert-level support, without breaking the bank. 

If this is you, keep reading for practical ways to achieve AI and human collaboration in business.

5 Benefits of Using AI in SMEs

1. Customer Interactions

Managing customer inquiries can be a full-time job in itself. However, with AI tools like ChatGPT, Zendesk AI, or Intercom, you can effortlessly provide instant responses, address common issues, and even personalise the experience. 

Chatbots are also in the conversation to automate customer interactions - for example, AI-powered chatbots like Tidio, Freshchat, or HubSpot are some of the best AI tools for small business owners to handle customer inquiries, process orders, and even qualify leads automatically. 

2. Content Ideation

AI has finally provided a solution for being stuck staring at a blank screen, wondering what to post. Tools like Copy.ai, Jasper, or even ChatGPT can generate blog ideas, social media captions, and email subjects. They can help you structure your ideas and develop and fine-tune them.

3. Design

Visual content performs better than other forms of content, so a good design is essential. While a human designer will never run out of style or creative flair, you can try basic designing with tools like Canva Magic Design, Looka, or Adobe Firefly. You can easily generate logos, social media graphics, or even full brand kits.

4. Project Management

AI-powered project management tools help you keep your team on track even if they work remotely. Tools like ClickUp, Notion AI, or Asana help you plan, assign, and adjust tasks smartly. They can also analyse workloads, suggest priorities, and even predict bottlenecks. 

5. Automation

Perhaps, the most popular aspect of scaling a business with AI is using it to handle repetitive tasks that would otherwise eat up your time. With AI automation tools like Zapier and Make, you can connect your apps and create workflows that run automatically in the background. 

They help sort leads, send, and organise emails without you doing anything else but monitoring your automation. 

Limitations of AI Tools for Small Businesses

As we mentioned earlier, although AI-powered business growth is a major innovation, it is not without its limitations. This is where fractional teams come in to serve as a strong counterpart. Let’s look at how fractional teams can help where AI is found lacking.

1. Human Touch

AI can’t channel lived experience or tell a story that makes people feel something. If you want human insight - which you should - a fractional team becomes necessary. A human talent brings soul and storytelling to the table. 

They give you content that resonates with your audience and actually sounds like it came from a real person. And this can transform your marketing strategy and customer interactions.

2. Creative Strategy

Yes, AI can generate ideas, but creative strategy requires human instinct and experience. This is because it doesn’t know your audience like a seasoned marketer does. 

Fractional creatives can step in to create high-level campaigns, identify trends, and infuse originality that AI just can’t fake. They bring a fresh perspective and help you align creativity with your business goals to achieve real growth.

3. Brand Voice Consistency

If you want to maintain a consistent brand voice, you need a human. AI can’t offer that - one minute it can sound casual; the next, it may sound stiff.

However, a fractional team can not only keep your voice consistent, but they can also bring suggestions to help you define it. A good strategist will also make sure every message reflects it, across all channels. They give your brand that recognisable "you" factor that increases brand trust and loyalty.

4. Experience and Collaboration

AI doesn’t join team meetings, bounce ideas around, or bring past industry knowledge into the mix; fractional professionals do. A skilled professional brings experience from working on actual problems, and they collaborate in real time - you can’t get all these with AI. 

5. Data Dependency

AI is unfortunately only as good as the data it’s fed; it can’t filter through garbage. So, if the data’s messy, outdated or inaccurate, that’s what you will get. 

That’s why having a fractional data analyst or strategist is important. They can clean, interpret, and apply the data wisely, helping your AI tools actually work for you. 

So, you are better off combining AI with human teams. But if you do a fractional team vs full-time hiring comparison, you will see that the former will get you the same result at a cheaper rate.

Guide to Implement AI and Fractional Teams 

Here’s how to scale a small business with AI and a fractional team:

1. Identify Repetitive Tasks

Start by listing repetitive tasks that require little to no human input. Have AI handle tasks like customer support, scheduling, content planning, and reporting. 

2. Choose the Right AI Tools

Pick tools that align with your business goals and structure. This way, you won’t need to get your team to handle tasks AI can handle. Make sure to read reviews and maybe start with a trial before fully committing to any tool. 

3. Spot Areas with Skill Gaps

Identify what’s missing in your current team before paying for a tool or bringing a fractional team in. Do you need a data analyst, a strategist? Go for a fractional team. Do you have a scheduling problem? An AI tool can help with that. 

4. Build a Hybrid Workflow

Let AI handle the administrative work, and let your fractional team handle the creative, strategic, and collaborative side. Then, you can use a project management tool to keep everyone in sync.

5. Monitor and Adjust

The beauty of combining AI and a fractional team is flexibility; you don’t have to stick to what’s not working. So, regularly review your process, get feedback from your team - in-house and fractional - and tweak the structure to what works for you.

To conclude, using AI + fractional teams can help you scale your business with ease. You get the efficiency of AI and the expertise of fractional teams without going beyond your budget. 

For more information on how AMAKA can help your SME scale with AMAKA’s Fractional Teams, please click here.