AI Workforce: How to Transform Local Business Client Operations

When the term "AI workforce" comes up, it’s natural to feel some anxiety. Doomsday scenarios about AI replacing humans often dominate the conversation. But here’s the truth: it’s a myth! According to AI Guide for Government, AI isn’t about replacing human jobs—it’s about enhancing human performance.

If you’re already embracing AI, you might encounter another common myth: that implementing AI is hard. However, the level of complexity largely depends on the scope of your project. A straightforward way to harness the power of AI is by utilizing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) AI solutions.

As a marketing professional, embracing AI is a game-changer, empowering your agency to operate with greater efficiency and effectiveness. This blog will introduce you to the concept of the AI workforce, its benefits, and our innovative solution.

Table of Contents

• What Is an AI Workforce?
• Why Businesses Are Adopting AI Workforces
• How Do You Build an AI Workforce?
• How Are AI Workforces Going to Transform Businesses?
• How Vendasta Has Transformed the AI Workforce

What Is an AI Workforce?

AI workforce consists of artificial systems and tools that leverage machine learning (supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning) and natural language processing models to perform various tasks independently from humans. Modern AI systems are task-specific, meaning they can’t acquire the ability to execute a wide range of tasks. 

There are two types of AI employees depending on their level of autonomy:

• Human in the Loop (HITL) AI tools make decisions and just require human approval for implementation. Think data analysis.
• AI in the Loop (AITL) AI tools have less decision-making power because they merely give recommendations. A good example is Grammarly which gives recommendations on how to tweak written content.

Since AI systems are task-specific, to unleash their full potential, it’s best to assemble an AI workforce where different AI employees complement each other to execute multi-step processes. 

For example, an AI employee designed to perform customer sentiment analysis can be integrated with an AI employee who writes content. The former could feed necessary information to the AI content writer who would then write marketing content tailored to either unsatisfied or highly satisfied customers. 

Coupled with an email automation tool, these two AI employees can execute either a re-engagement email campaign or a nurturing campaign aimed at upselling and cross-selling.

But that’s not all! AI employees can also perform reputation management by answering client reviews. They also excel at customer service, giving instant answers to FAQs. AI employees can also automate some sales tasks, such as inputting leads’ contact information into sales CRM and executing cold outreach email campaigns.

Here’s a video that breaks down what AI agents are all about:

Why Businesses Are Adopting AI Workforces

According to Brookings, in 2022, around 50% of jobs in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media were AI-exposed:

Why are marketing agencies implementing AI employees so enthusiastically? Taking a look at Klarna's customer support chatbot can shed light on this trend. Klarna's chatbot managed 2.3 million customer interactions in just four weeks, which is equivalent to 700 full-time human employees. Also, the chatbot reduced repeat inquiries by 25% and performed with higher accuracy than humans.

By now, the advantages of AI employees should be evident:

• Scalability and Efficiency
• Cost Savings
• Improved Accuracy
• Faster Turnaround
• 24/7 Capabilities

Yet, as much as you may be excited about AI capabilities, one question looms, “How does one get started?”

How Do You Build an AI Workforce?

You should start by making a list of marketing tasks that you want to automate. If you are unsure, you could hire a specialist who offers AI consulting services.

Here are some common examples of processes that are easy to automate with the help of AI employees:

• Lead Generation: Capturing, nurturing, and following up with potential customers.
• Review Management: Monitoring, responding to, and generating reviews to improve online reputation.
• Social Media Content Production: Writing, scheduling, and publishing engaging social media posts across social media platforms.

Once you’ve made the checklist, your next step is to select AI employees. You have two paths: you can either add AI employees one at a time or opt for a pre-made AI-powered software that integrates a group of AI employees. 

In the former approach, you may save money in the short term, but as your agency grows, you might find yourself dealing with the headaches of needing to integrate new AI employees or replace old ones and retrain your human employees. Even later down the line, you could get bogged down with legacy solutions and unnecessary expenses. 

The latter approach, where you opt for AI software from the get-go, has the advantage of ensuring you future-proof your marketing agency. Often, AI software providers give you the flexibility of choosing only the AI employees you need at the moment. As your needs grow, you can seamlessly add more. 

How Are AI Workforces Going to Transform Businesses?

Those SMB owners who decide to leverage AI for small businesses may reap the following benefits. 

Enhanced Customer Engagement

AI employees, such as an AI reputation specialist, can equip businesses with social media intelligence. An SMB no longer needs to hire a human employee to keep track of all the trending business events, social media platforms, and competitors. Instead, an AI employee that uses natural language processing can give an SMB owner visibility into trending news and client sentiment.

For example, Salesforce’s Social Intelligence feature provides visibility into popular online conversations that SMB owners should engage with.

Competitive Advantage Through Personalization

Another benefit of AI employees is that they can deliver hyper-personalized experiences at scale. In sales, they can analyze customer data to identify what products and services are commonly bought in bundles. This analysis empowers AI employees to provide customized cross-selling and upselling recommendations to an SMB’s customers.

Take the example of Amazon. When purchasing an item on Amazon, customers see recommendations for items commonly bought together. 

AI employees can also notice similarities in buyer behaviors and carry out an SMB’s target market segmentation based on those patterns. AI employees can later leverage this segmentation to generate personalized content. 

For example, AI could segment a local bookshop’s audience based on favorite genres and send out emails that promote recent additions in the genres that appeal to each customer segment.

Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings

As you can see, AI employees are far more productive than humans because they don’t need to take breaks and they’re far more efficient at processing vast amounts of data and identifying patterns.

So, whenever an SMB wants to boost their sales or marketing without spending too much money, the AI workforce will soon become their best bet.

However, AI development hasn’t yet reached a stage where it’s a no-brainer for beginners to implement it. SMB owners are far too busy to wreak their brains about the nuts and bolts of marketing automation workflows. This is where your agency can come in and save the day.

How Vendasta Has Transformed the AI Workforce

If you don’t have enough budget to develop your own AI employees, you can opt for Vendasta’s white-label AI software that comes with pre-configured AI employees. If you need to tweak them to suit your client’s unique needs, you don’t need to be a code wizard to do that. 

Vendasta introduces a range of AI-powered employees, each tailored to specific business functions:

• Receptionist: Provides prompt, helpful responses across phone, chat, text, or connected sites, handling inquiries, promoting products, booking appointments, and managing support issues autonomously.
• Salesperson: Engages leads across multiple channels with personalized responses, effectively guiding prospects through the sales funnel. 
• Reputation Specialist: Crafts thoughtful responses to reviews and posts on behalf of the business and generates review requests to enhance feedback and manage reputation. 
• Content Writer: Drafts, schedules, and posts content for websites, blogs, and social media platforms, aiming to educate leads and drive new business. 
• Sales Coach: Transcribes, analyzes, and summarizes sales activities to capture key insights and provide actionable tips for acquiring new customers. 
• SEO Expert: Analyzes keywords and suggests improvements to boost traffic from search engines and ads. 
• Personal Assistant: Assists users in navigating the Vendasta platform efficiently. 

Together, AI employees streamline customer journeys for SMBs and comprise a wholesome AI marketing automation solution. 

Imagine that your customer, a local bookshop, has a chatbot integration on their website, optimized for local SEO with the help of an AI SEO Expert. This AI Receptionist facilitates lead capture by collecting website visitors’ contact information and uploading it into the CRM. 

From there, an AI sales rep nurtures leads by sending out personalized reminder emails or SMS written by an AI Content Writer. 

An AI Reputation Specialist remembers to send out review requests to the bookshop’s customers and post social media posts promoting any local literary events or new book arrivals.

All that you and your employees need to do is to design, oversee, and enhance the overall marketing strategy, as well as greenlight any AI-written marketing and sales materials. 

The Future of AI Workforces

While it might sound like science fiction at the moment, AI employees can transform local businesses beyond what’s currently possible. 

Imagine a local bookshop where AI employees can alter wallpapers and background music based on the preferences of customers who are currently shopping for books. 

At the same time, customers can wear VR headsets and virtually attend any literary event, regardless of where it’s taking place in the real world. 

If you are excited to hop on the train toward an AI-enhanced future, Vendasta is here to serve as your tarpaulin. Save money and time by opting for Vendasta’s AI-powered software designed specifically to cater to the needs of marketing agencies serving SMBs. Request a demo today!