Some short-staffed small businesses turn to AI amid the holiday rush

Is your neighborhood market using ChatGPT this holiday season?

A new report from American Express found that a quarter of small businesses surveyed planned to use AI to expedite tasks like social media posts, marketing campaigns, seasonal hiring, and customer emails amid the year-end shopping rush. The survey also clocked a 7% bump in the number of business owners who said they were “generally prioritizing AI” from a similar midyear report.

Small businesses see these tools as a way to stretch limited resources and compensate for smaller staffs amid what’s often their busiest time of year, according to Brett Sussman, VP and head of marketing and sales at AmEx’s Business Blueprint and Banking.

“One of the things they consistently tell us is they always feel like they’re potentially a little bit short-staffed,” Sussman told Tech Brew. “And they’re always thinking about, ‘How can I hire and how can I retain my employees?’ And so I think they’ve really taken AI as a tool for them to become more productive with their existing staff.”

But Sussman said there’s also a sizable contingent of small business owners who are wary about tapping into AI because of risks involved. Younger small business owners tended to be more willing to take the dive; 50% of Gen Z owners and 36% of millennial owners planned to use the tech, according to the AmEx report.

“There certainly is a bifurcation that there is one group who are very excited about the productivity benefits, and there’s a second group that’s very skeptical about AI and worried about some of the data-sharing and the privacy elements of AI,” Sussman said.

Overall, the months leading up to the winter holidays tend to be a critical time for small businesses, especially in the retail sector. Two-thirds of the more than 550 small businesses AmEx surveyed said the holidays were an important time for their financial health, including 89% of those in the retail category.

Economic conditions could also lead to a more careful approach to the season this year, Sussman said.

“Small business owners still are a little bit cautious about the inflationary environment these days,” Sussman said. “And so, one of the other themes we hear is business owners looking to cut unnecessary expenses. They don’t want to overextend themselves this holiday season.”