Big companies had AI analyzing shopping patterns and personalizing websites years before anyone heard of ChatGPT in 2022. Since then, AI tools for small businesses have emerged that improve your operations without spending a fortune.
The accessibility of such tools means that shoppers now expect instant, accurate responses, whether they’re buying from Amazon or your store.
So, it’s time to take advantage of the affordable AI tools that are available for marketing, sales, support, CRM, and practically every element of your ecommerce operations.
This article covers 15 of the best AI tools for small businesses, plus practical examples and tips to make the most of them for your store.
Join Omnisend to use AI in your email marketing for more sales and better customer experiences
AI isn’t an absolute necessity for your business, but there are clear advantages to adopting it into some of your experiences and operations:
Work smarter: Customer service runs 24/7 with chatbot support. Your team handles complex issues while AI manages FAQs. Email tools optimize send times. Omnisend has an AI segment builder (beta), which automatically generates a custom segment for you based on a description. For example, inputting “contacts who purchased in the last two weeks and are subscribed to SMS” returns a pre-built segment:
Understand customers better: AI can reveal which products get browsed but not purchased. It flags when loyal customers stop ordering. You see drops in cart values before they become trends.
Increase revenue: Find product combinations that sell well together and identify your most valuable customer segments. Price products and bundles dynamically based on demand patterns. Turn data into sales opportunities.
Save hours daily: Generate first drafts for product descriptions. Create social posts in seconds. Automate report generation. In each of these, you can focus on editing and strategy rather than starting from scratch.
Any business can use AI. If you’re a coffee shop, you can use it to predict app revenue and compare it against POS. Have an online store? You can use it to create unique product images and improve the ROI of your ecommerce marketing.
The challenge with AI is finding the areas of your business that it can benefit. However, once you identify them, there are usually a few tools to choose from. And if there isn’t? You can use AI to code and build a solution, but that’s a topic for another day.
AI shows up differently in each part of your business. Marketing teams use it one way, customer service another. Sales and operations have their own applications. Finance and HR departments find completely different uses. The tools cost less than ever — many cost nothing at all.
Marketing applications
AI generates product descriptions and emails that match your writing style. Ad platforms identify people who buy like your existing customers do. SEO tools examine what competitors publish and point out gaps in your content.
A bakery owner could generate seasonal menu text that sounds like they wrote it themselves, or send Saturday morning messages to customers who previously bought croissants.
Omnisend brings AI tools to your email marketing efforts, including an assistant to talk strategy and content generators for the following:
Chatbots field questions about product dimensions, delivery times, and item specifications around the clock. They gather initial information before sending complicated problems to human staff. Automated messages confirm that inquiries arrived.
An online retailer’s chatbot can help shoppers find items based on their requirements, process return paperwork, and book consultation times, giving the owner time to focus on developing the business.
Sales and operational tools
AI tracks prospect behavior, monitoring which emails get opened, which pages get visited, and which documents get downloaded. Inventory systems forecast needs using historical data and calendar patterns, and CRM platforms suggest when to reconnect with leads.
A property management company can receive notifications when potential tenants browse several listings, allowing letting agents to focus on motivated inquiries.
Financial and personnel management
AI categorizes expenses, connects receipts with transactions, and assembles tax paperwork without manual input. It produces invoices, schedules payment follow-ups, and identifies irregular spending.
A boutique can monitor payment cycles, spot places to reduce costs, and keep proper records without dedicated bookkeeping staff or costly consultants.
Each business finds its own combination of AI applications. The following sections examine current AI tools for small businesses, grouped by function.
Best AI tools for small businesses in 2025
We’ve organized AI tools by business function to help you find what you need quickly. Jump to any tools that interest you below:
From writing blog posts to email marketing for small businesses, these tools handle the repetitive parts of marketing. They analyze what works, adjust campaigns automatically, and help you compete with bigger budgets.
Managing email campaigns separately from SMS and push notifications creates gaps in customer communication, making it harder to coordinate messages across channels.
Key differentiator
AI builds customer segments from plain English descriptions, writes email copy and subject lines, and learns from your brand voice to maintain consistency across campaigns.
Free forever: 250 contacts and 500 emails/month, access to all standard features
Standard: $16/month, 500 contacts, and 6,000 emails/month
Pro: $59/month, 2,500 contacts, unlimited emails, bonus SMS credits equal to the price of your monthly plan, advanced reporting
Choose this AI tool if
You run an ecommerce store and want all your owned marketing channels (email, SMS, push) working together from one dashboard.
Omnisend AI success story
SUIHE Jewelry partnered with Blue Drop Studio to migrate from Shopify Email to Omnisend. Within 30 days, email revenue jumped from $1.8K to $9.7K. Its welcome flow alone earned $6.4K, with AI content generation assisting in setup.
Writing marketing content takes hours of staring at blank screens, struggling to maintain brand consistency across campaigns and team members.
Key differentiator
Agents and AI Apps automate entire marketing workflows — from campaign briefs to social posts — while Brand Voice and Style Guide features keep everything on-brand automatically.
Pros
100+ pre-built marketing Apps
No-code App Builder for custom workflows
Brand Voice learns from your existing content
Use your Google Docs, Webflow, and Slack accounts
Multi-language support (30+ languages)
Fast copywriting
Cons
No free plan available
Expensive for solo marketers
Content output can sometimes be generic
Pricing
Pro: $69/month per seat, two Brand Voices, five Knowledge assets, three Audiences
Business: Custom pricing, unlimited Brand Voices, API access, dedicated support
Choose this AI tool if
You manage marketing teams or complex campaigns that need consistent brand messaging across multiple channels and creators.
Your content disappears on page 10 of Google despite hours of writing. Meanwhile, competitors with mediocre content rank first because they cracked the SEO code.
Key differentiator
Real-time Content Score shows what Google and AI chats want, while AI generates complete articles that rank without needing SEO expertise.
Pros
AI writes SEO-optimized articles in minutes
Tracks visibility in ChatGPT and AI search results
Content Editor shows optimization score
Works in 30+ languages
Integrates with Google Docs and WordPress
Cons
Content outputs require human editing
Limited keyword research on lower plans
AI articles cost extra after the monthly quota
Pricier than competitors and not suitable for very small budgets
Pricing
Essential: $79/month, 30 articles, five AI articles
Scale: $175/month, 100 articles, 20 AI articles
Enterprise: Custom pricing, unlimited usage, API access
Choose this AI tool if
You need content that ranks on Google and shows up in AI search results, but lack the time or SEO knowledge to optimize manually. It’s among the best AI software for small businesses wanting to dominate search results.
AI customer support tools
AI chatbots are among the most popular AI tools used by small businesses. Why? Because chatbots can answer basic questions while you sleep — keeping your customers satisfied without burning you out.. Ticket systems organize customer issues by priority, and response templates maintain consistency across your team.
Ecommerce support teams juggle Shopify orders, customer questions, and sales opportunities across disconnected tools, missing chances to turn support interactions into revenue.
Key differentiator
AI Agent built for ecommerce — it modifies Shopify orders, recommends products based on inventory, and resolves 60% of tickets while increasing conversions 2.5x.
Pros
Deep Shopify integration for order management
AI increases sales through personalized recommendations
Integrates with Omnisend
Proactive chat campaigns reduce bounce rates by a claimed 37%
You run a Shopify store and want support software that understands products, inventory, and orders. You want to turn every customer interaction into a sales opportunity.
Your support team answers, “How do I reset my password?” 50 times a day, while premium customers wait hours for help with billing issues.
Key differentiator
The only AI agent with a complete management system that lets you analyze performance, customize responses, test improvements, and deploy across channels without coding knowledge.
Pros
Claims to resolve 65%+ of customer conversations automatically
Compatible with Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot, and others
Set up in under one hour
Handles email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, phone
Improves 1% monthly through continuous optimization
Cons
$0.99 per resolution adds up for high-volume businesses
50 resolution monthly minimum
Pricing
With existing helpdesk: $0.99 per resolution (50 minimum)
With Intercom Suite: $0.99 per resolution + $29/month per seat
Copilot add-on: $35/month per agent
Choose this AI tool if
You handle repetitive customer questions across multiple channels and want an AI that learns and improves without requiring technical expertise.
Your business needs AI customer support that sounds human. Enterprise solutions cost thousands per month, and basic chatbots can’t handle the complex customer questions that are burying your team.
Key differentiator
Lyro AI achieves a claimed 67% resolution rate (the highest for SMBs), backed by a money-back guarantee if it doesn’t meet 50%, and integrates seamlessly with your existing helpdesk.
Pros
Works with Zendesk and other helpdesks
Free trial includes all features
120+ integrations available
AI Copilot helps you respond based on past conversations
You’re a small- to medium-sized business wanting enterprise-level AI performance without the complexity or cost, especially if you need proof it’ll work before committing.
AI sales and CRM tools
For small and growing businesses, closing deals often comes down to juggling too many leads and not enough hours in the day. AI-powered CRM tools solve this by automating busywork, scoring leads, and giving you predictive insights so you know exactly who to follow up with, and when.
You lose deals because critical customer details hide in old emails and forgotten conversations, leaving you unprepared when opportunities arise.
Key differentiator
AI that augments and organizes your data automatically, with Data Agent answering questions about customers by searching across emails, calls, and documents.
Pros
Free tier includes core CRM features
AI enriches data from emails and calls automatically
1,800+ app integrations available
Data Agent searches unstructured data for answers
Multiple visualization options for data
Cons
Costs multiply quickly for larger teams
Pricing
Free: Manage contacts and organize your pipeline
Starter: $15/month per seat, remove branding, data enrichment
Professional: $50/month per seat, custom layouts, duplicate detection
Enterprise: $75/month per seat, AI insights, custom objects, SSO
Choose this AI tool if
You need a CRM that connects all your business tools and uses AI to make sense of scattered customer data without complex setup or migrations.
Your business needs a way to unify custom metrics, unique workflows, and data relationships that don’t fit standard CRM templates.
Key differentiator
The only CRM with a truly flexible data model that adapts to how you work, plus native AI that executes complex tasks like prospecting and lead routing.
Pros
Adapts to any business model without custom development
An AI research agent handles prospecting automatically
Sub-50ms performance with millions of records
Syncs email/calendar instantly for quick setup
Modern interface teams actually want to use
Cons
Higher starting price than competitors
Free plan capped at three seats
Pricing
Free: Up to three seats, 50,000 records
Plus: $29/month per user, 250,000 records
Pro: $69/month per user, one million records, Call Intelligence
You need to track product usage alongside the sales pipeline, model complex partnership structures, or handle any data relationship that standard CRMs can’t accommodate.
You waste time manually checking each deal’s status and history to decide what to work on, then struggle to personalize outreach at scale.
Key differentiator
Imagine you run a boutique marketing agency with just four employees. Instead of manually tracking which prospects need follow-ups, Pipedrive AI automatically scores and highlights the hottest leads.
Pros
AI creates sales reports from natural language prompts
500+ integrations with intelligent app suggestions
AI features available on all plans
Cons
Email summarization is still in beta
No custom AI model training
Pricing
Lite: $24/month per seat, basic AI features
Growth: $49/month per seat, email automation
Premium: $79/month per seat, lead scoring, multi-email AI
Ultimate: $99/month per seat, phone enrichment, sandbox
Choose this AI tool if
Your sales process involves lots of manual email writing, and you need help remembering which deals matter most without complex automation setup.
AI operations and automation tools
Connect your inventory to your sales data. Link employee schedules to customer demand. These tools make different software talk to each other, removing the need for manual updates and duplicate entries — a huge time-saver for project managing, accounting, and scheduling.
You pay for multiple productivity tools — one for notes, another for research, a chatbot, writing assistant — each with separate logins and none talking to each other.
Key differentiator
The only AI workspace where agents can complete tasks across your entire knowledge base, not just generate ideas or answer questions.
Pros
AI agents build docs, edit content, and take action
Searches across all your apps via MCP connections
Meeting notes with AI transcription and summaries
No training on your data with enterprise security
Works where you already store documents
Cons
The free plan only provides an AI trial
Pricing
Free: AI trial only
Plus: $12/month per member, AI trial
Business: $24/month per member, full AI suite
Enterprise: Custom pricing, zero data retention
Choose this AI tool if
You’re tired of switching between tools and want AI that works inside your existing workspace, handling everything from meeting notes to research to document creation.
Every invoice takes twenty minutes between creating, sending reminders, and chasing payments. Meanwhile, your actual accounting work piles up in the background.
Key differentiator
Five specialized AI agents work together (Accounting, Payments, Customer, Finance, and Project Management), each learning your business patterns to automate workflows.
Pros
AI agents complete tasks, not just suggest them
Learns from your transactions to improve accuracy
Creates invoices from photos of notes or emails
78% of customers say it makes business easier
Optional human expert support available
Cons
Multiple agent features are still in beta
Higher-tier plans needed for advanced agents
Pricing
Simple Start: $38/month, one user, basic AI
Essentials: $75/month, three users, Accounting & Payments agents
Plus: $115/month, five users, adds Customer agent
Advanced: $275/month, 25 users, all agents
Choose this AI tool if
You already use QuickBooks and want AI that automates accounting tasks rather than just categorizing transactions or generating reports.
Work requests come through Slack, email, and meetings, then get lost because there’s no system to route them or track progress automatically.
Key differentiator
AI Teammates are collaborative agents that handle complex work autonomously, not just busywork. AI Studio lets you build custom workflows without coding.
Pros
AI Teammates take on entire roles, not just tasks
AI Studio builds workflows from plain language
Works directly in your existing projects
Smart summaries for projects, portfolios, and goals
Pre-built AI workflows for everyday use cases
Cons
Personal plan has no AI features
AI Studio requires credit purchases on lower tiers
Pricing
Personal: $0/month, no AI features
Starter: $10.99/month per user, basic AI included
Advanced: $24.99/month per user, full AI suite
Enterprise: Custom pricing, advanced AI controls
Choose this AI tool if
You want AI agents that act like actual teammates who handle entire processes, from tracking requests to managing resources to planning campaigns.
Free AI tools for small businesses
No-cost options let you experiment without financial risk. Some, such as Omnisend, include free-forever plans with access to all features, but many restrict features.
In any case, free AI tools for small businesses are perfect for testing whether AI improves your business before upgrading to paid versions.
Creating graphics means switching between design software, chart makers, and animation tools, then paying for stock photos on top of everything else.
Key differentiator
Free access to AI-powered design tools, including Magic Charts for data visualization, Mockups for product presentations, and AI Voice for video narration.
Pros
Professionally-designed templates
Some AI features are available on the free plan
Magic Charts turns data into visuals instantly
Photo and Video Animations included
5GB cloud storage
Cons
Limited AI feature access vs paid plans
Watermarks across some free materials
Choose this AI tool if
Budget constraints mean paid design software isn’t an option, but you still need polished visuals for business cards, social posts, or school projects.
Your team’s knowledge lives in scattered documents, training videos, and presentations that new hires never find and existing employees forget about.
Key differentiator
Turns your uploaded sources into an AI research assistant that provides answers with citations, plus creates Audio Overviews that turn documents into podcast-style discussions.
Pros
Free tier with full features for individuals
Audio Overviews create engaging podcasts from sources
Citations show quotes from your materials
Supports PDFs, YouTube, Google Docs, websites, and audio
Never trains on your personal data
Cons
Limited to uploaded sources, no general knowledge
Pro version needed for team collaboration
Choose this AI tool if
You’re drowning in research materials for a report or project and need AI that reads your sources instead of making things up.
Finding reliable AI help means paying $20+ monthly subscriptions when you only need occasional assistance with writing, coding, or analysis tasks.
Key feature or differentiator
Free access to GPT-4o with web search, data analysis, image generation, and custom GPTs from the store, though with usage limits every five hours.
Pros
GPT-4o is completely free
Web search for current information included
Access to thousands of custom GPTs
Upload and analyze files/images
Create images with DALL-E
Cons
Rate limits reset every five hours
Can’t create custom GPTs on the free tier
Choose this AI tool if
You need occasional help with complex tasks, such as data analysis or coding, but can’t justify a monthly subscription for sporadic use.
Choosing the right AI solutions for a small business
Thousands of AI tools compete for your attention, leaving you with one question:
Which ones matter for your situation?
Popular tools might miss the mark entirely. A viral social media scheduler accomplishes nothing when your customers find you in local directories. The newest chatbot becomes irrelevant if inventory management creates delays.
Key factors when evaluating AI tools:
Money considerations: Many capable tools cost nothing. Paid versions often add features you won’t use. Start free, upgrade when limits matter.
Learning curve: If setup takes days or requires coding knowledge, look elsewhere. Good tools work within minutes of signing up.
Growth potential: Your needs next year will differ from today. Pick tools that add features as you expand rather than forcing a platform switch.
Compatibility: New tools should connect with your current systems. Email platforms, payment processors, and customer databases need to share information.
Help availability: Video guides, documentation, and responsive support teams matter more than feature lists. Problems will arise, so ensure someone can help solve them.
The AI tools that serve you best address whatever blocks your progress right now, and can adapt as those obstacles change. For instance, if you struggle to create compelling emails, then Omnisend can assist with its AI email generator.
Future of AI for small businesses (2025 and beyond)
Businesses approach AI differently. Early adopters test everything new. Cautious owners observe from the sidelines. The technology marches forward regardless.
AI shifted from experimental technology to a practical necessity. Businesses using it handle routine tasks faster, respond to customers around the clock, and spot inventory problems before shelves go empty. Those without these capabilities work harder for similar results.
Changes arriving in the next 18 months:
Expanded automation: Tasks requiring daily attention will run themselves. Invoice processing, appointment confirmations, and inventory reordering happen without human involvement.
Hyper-personalization: Small businesses gain capabilities once limited to major corporations. A hardware store’s website could highlight plumbing supplies for contractors browsing at 6 AM, then switch to weekend project ideas for Saturday.
Conversational AI: Customers will get instant answers about hours, pricing, and availability. No more waiting for callbacks.
Affordable access: Premium features migrate to free tiers. Cloud-based tools eliminate installation and maintenance costs. AI for small businesses and startups becomes more accessible than ever.
Integration everywhere: AI shows up in software you own. Gmail composes responses, your calendar app shuffles meetings to avoid double-bookings, and Excel recommends formulas. Neat stuff that saves you time.
So, what’s next for you?
Whatever frustrates you has an AI solution waiting to help. The question isn’t whether to start — it’s which annoyance to eliminate and process to improve first.
Final thoughts
You’ve just reviewed 15 small business AI tools across five categories. The smart move? Pick one and use it for a week.
Start with your biggest time sink. If it’s email marketing, try Omnisend’s free plan — it includes AI features most platforms charge for. If it’s customer support, look at Tidio or Fin. For content creation, NotebookLM or Surfer might fit.
Free trials remove the risk. You’ll know within days if a tool helps or adds complexity to your workflow. Just ensure any trials include the features you might need with a paid plan.
Join Omnisend to grow your sales with automated emails and SMS
Aiste is a Content Marketing Manager at Omnisend. When she's not searching for the perfect synonym or refining her latest copy, you can find her curled up with her cat, binge-watching yet another TV series.
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