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Forbes Topline

How Your Small Business Can Use AI To Compete With Industry Giants

Forbes Topline

Forbes

Business News, News, Entrepreneurship, Business

4.86 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2026

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Follow Forbes Talks How can entrepreneurs gain big-company capabilities without the massive overhead? Forbes Contributor Jodie Cook reveals the playbook for leveraging AI to replicate large-organization functions like marketing and finance. Learn how to focus human resources on competitive advantages and use speed as a weapon. Whether you’re looking to grow your brand, wondering how to turn your side-hustle into a business, or hoping to make changes to your personal finance strategy, Forbes Leadership Lessons is here to help. Industry leaders will teach you how to tackle everything you need in order to navigate and succeed in the business world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're running a business. You've got a laptop.

0:10.0

They've got entire departments. That gap used to cost millions to close. Now it costs a few hundred dollars a month.

0:18.0

AI gives you the capabilities of a large organization without

0:22.7

the headcount. Here's the playbook. First, map the gaps. Every big company has functions you don't.

0:29.6

Marketing, customer service, data, legal, finance, write down all the ones you could use. This

0:37.3

list becomes your blueprint.

0:39.1

Open your favorite large language model,

0:41.3

like ChatGPT, and give the AI a clear picture of your business.

0:45.8

Then ask it,

0:47.0

based on what you know about my business,

0:49.8

list every function that a larger company in my industry would have. Include marketing, operations,

0:56.0

customer service, finance, legal, HR and any specialized departments. Replicate team functions

1:04.0

at a fraction of the cost. AI-powered customer service costs around $50 per month compared to $50,000 for a team.

1:11.6

AI content creation runs $20 a month compared to $5,000 for a writer.

1:17.6

Your total AI stack can run under $500 monthly while creating 80% of the output that would cost six figures in salaries.

1:26.6

But no set of prompts is going to be better

1:30.1

than a professional writer without some serious prompting. Prompting well is a skill. Build it. Don't

1:37.1

stop until AI becomes your entire content creation machine. If a specific task is your superpower and no one else can do it like you,

1:46.0

keep doing it yourself. Everything else is a candidate for AI. Have AI create an implementation plan

1:53.0

for each function your business needs. So include potential tools, costs and the exact workflows.

2:00.0

Ask it directly, what do I do to make this happen?

2:03.3

Once you've automated and streamlined your functions, you can use your time to focus human

...

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