If you’ve been paying attention to what’s happening in business and tech over the past few years, you’ll have noticed that artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly become a big deal for many businesses.

True, AI has been around for a while, but the release of ChatGPT in 2022 helped push it into mainstream use. Today, businesses in every industry use AI in one form or another to get things done.

In fact, according to McKinsey’s 2025 State of AI report, around 88% of organizations say they use AI in at least one part of their business operations. This tells you something important: AI has come to stay, and if you’ve not started using it, you have some catching up to do.

This article walks through four practical ways you can use AI for business this year, with simple examples and tools to help you get started.

Read on.

Chapters

Generative AI for Writing

Let’s start with the most obvious and most popular: Generative AI or GenAI.

If you have ever caught yourself staring at a blank page, wondering how to start a proposal or client email, that ends in 2026. GenAI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini can draft pretty much anything you write regularly. Emails to clients. Blog posts. Website content. Proposals. Internal memos. Even brainstorming session notes.

The real value is speed and momentum. You move from nothing to a workable draft in minutes, not hours.

Using GenAI tools saves time, too. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reports that workers who use GenAI saved more than 5% of their work hours. This translates to over 2 hours per week for someone working 40 hours.

Just think about what you could do in your business with that extra time every week.

AI Website Builders

Want to launch a new service or landing page this afternoon? No problem.

Just a few years ago, to build a website, you had to maybe go on Upwork to hire a developer. It also meant weeks of waiting and hundreds of dollars in costs. Not anymore. With artificial intelligence, you can have a website up and running in minutes.

AI website builders do all the work. According to Hocoos, your job is to answer a few questions about your brand and offerings. Minutes later, you have an active and professional-looking site.

Using AI for website design is a great idea if you need to go online immediately and cannot afford to go through the usual lengthy process. Even better, it means a faster time to market and less dependence on external help.

AI-Driven Graphics Design

Not every business can afford to employ a full-time graphics designer. Not every business can also afford to hire someone on Upwork, even if it’s for one project. These designers typically charge between $15 and $35 per hour. Imagine creating marketing graphics just three times a week. It can quickly impact business finances.

The good news? You don’t need a professional to handle small business graphics for you in 2026. AI-powered design tools like Canva or Adobe Firefly can help you get the job done faster and for much less. You can use any of these AI design tools to generate images, suggest layouts, and keep your branding consistent.

And it’s not just about the money you’ll save. Using AI for graphics design will save you time, too. One case study from Canva showed how a production process that used to take a business user 7 days dropped to 1.5 days. That’s time you can spend on other aspects of your business.

AI-Powered Workflow Automation

Every business has certain tasks that no one enjoys doing: copying data from one place to another, sending follow-ups, updating customer records, scheduling posts, and so on. Thanks to AI workflow automation tools like Zapier and Make, you no longer have to do these things manually again.

Maybe a new lead fills out a form on your website, AI-powered automation tools can automatically send a welcome email and update your records. You don’t even have to lift a finger.

This is a real big deal for small businesses because monotonous admin work is the silent killer of productivity. All those little tasks that eat up 30 minutes here, an hour there. Automating them gives you time back to actually grow your business.

According to a study cited by the Canadian HR Reporter, using AI like this may even shorten the standard work week to 32 hours without any loss in productivity. That means better work/ life balance and happier workplaces.

Making the Most of AI in 2026

As you can see, there are just so many things AI can help your business do better in the coming months and years. However, it’s important to point out here that the goal is not to hand over every aspect of your business to artificial intelligence. The goal is to use AI as a helpful business assistant.

So, how do you start? You start by doing things one after another. Identify an area where you have the most challenges in your business and look for an AI tool that can help. Once you see the benefits, move on to another.

Businesses that will thrive in 2026 and beyond are not businesses with the biggest budget or teams. It’s businesses that know how to use the tools at their disposal.

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