The words
What's the difference between a chatbot, an assistant and an agent?
One question tells them apart. AI agent vs chatbot vs assistant.
Guides
AI for small business, explained for whoever pays
This is an AI guide for small business owners and managers: short, practical reads for whoever has to decide and has no time to learn jargon. What to choose, how to start, what it costs and what to check before you trust it. They're written by the people who make Flipa, without selling it in every paragraph.
Guides that talk about other companies' products carry the date we checked and a link to the source.
Which one first?
No need to read it all: tell us where you are
Depending on where your company stands, there's a short path of three guides.
If you don't use AI yet
- 1AI agent vs chatbot vs assistantThe words first, so nobody sells you one as another.8 min read
- 2Implementing AI in four weeksThen a short plan: one task, three people and a month.7 min read
- 3Giving it your data to readAnd last, what makes it answer with your facts and not with generalities.8 min read
If everyone uses ChatGPT on their own
- 1ChatGPT Business: plans and pricingThe urgent part: knowing whether it's time to move from loose accounts to a shared plan.8 min read
- 2Custom GPT vs agentWhat a lot of teams set up next, where it falls short and what's changing.7 min read
- 3How to ask an AI for thingsWhile you decide, at least ask it well.8 min read
If you want something for the whole team
Reading times are approximate. Each route is three guides, in this order.
By moment
How to use AI in a small business: the guides, by today's question
The training part
Do we have to train an AI on our data?
Almost never. How to train AI on your own data, without training it.
ChatGPT's plans
Which plan is ours and what does it cost?
ChatGPT Business pricing: plans and what each costs, with the date we checked.
A GPT of your own
Is a custom GPT enough for us?
Custom GPT vs agent: what changes and where a GPT falls short.
The plan
Where do you start without making a mess?
The team's chat
How do we stop asking each other the same things?
The jobs
Can I create an agent without coding?
The requests
How do you ask it for things the right way?
How to ask an AI for things: twelve examples to adapt and the four parts of a good request.
The data
What happens to what the team types into ChatGPT?
Is it safe to put company data in ChatGPT? Informational text, pending legal review.
The house rules
Do we need a written AI policy if we only use AI tools, not build them?
An AI policy for small businesses. Informational text, pending legal review.
All of them
The ten guides
AI agent vs chatbot vs assistant
Three words used as synonyms that aren't. With a game to check you've got it.
Training AI on your own data
You almost never train it: you give it documents to read. Three paths and when to use each.
ChatGPT Business pricing
Which plan to look at for your headcount, with the amounts OpenAI publishes and the date.
Custom GPT vs agent
What a custom GPT was good at, where it falls short for a team, and what to use now.
Implementing AI in four weeks
One task, three people and a month to find out whether it works for you.
An internal chatbot on your documents
What it needs, how to set it up, and the three tests it has to pass.
Creating an AI agent
Five decisions and no code, with a sample profile.
How to ask an AI for things
Twelve requests ready to adapt and the four parts of a good one.
Company data in ChatGPT
What happens to what you type, and four questions to settle with the team. Pending legal review.
An AI policy for small businesses
Which tools are approved, what data stays out and who checks the output. Pending legal review.
Generative AI for business: what it is and what it isn't
Generative AI is the kind that writes: it drafts new text from what you ask, instead of only sorting or searching. ChatGPT is the example everyone knows. For a business the use is direct, because a lot of office work is writing, summarizing and answering.
What it isn't: a database or an employee. It knows nothing about your company until you give it something to read, and it can be wrong with great confidence. That's why generative AI works in a business when it starts from your own documents and when somebody reviews what it writes. The odd words you run into along the way are in the glossary.
How to use AI in a small business: four uses that pay off first
At a family orchard and cider mill with twelve people in the office, like Stony Brook Orchards in our example, these four are the ones you notice soonest:
- Answering internal questions. “What payment terms do new wholesale accounts get?” stops depending on whether the person who knows is in the office.
- Writing in the house voice. The product page for the early-season cider, the harvest newsletter, the email to a distributor.
- Preparing replies to customers. A draft somebody reads and sends, not a message that goes out with nobody looking at it.
- Running regular checks. Looking every Monday at whether the website still says the same thing as the price list.
None of them calls for a technical project. They call for the important things to be written down, and for somebody to decide which one comes first.
FAQ
Before you start reading
What is generative AI for business?
It's using programs that write (they draft, summarize and answer) for everyday office work. In a business, what makes the difference is that it knows the place: its products, its terms and its way of talking.
How can a small business use AI?
On work that's heavy on text and repeats: answering internal questions, writing in the house voice, preparing replies to customers and running regular checks. It works when there are documents to start from and a person who reviews the result.
Where does a company that has never used AI start?
With a single task that repeats and annoys, three people and a one-month deadline. Before choosing a tool, it helps to understand three words (chatbot, assistant and agent) and to gather what's already written. That route is above, in three guides.
Are these guides useful if I don't use Flipa?
Yes. They explain how to choose, set up and test with any tool, and when they talk about other companies' products they cite the source and the date. Our product shows up in one section, as one way to do it. The rest applies just the same.
Is Flipa available in English?
Not fully. The app's interface is in Spanish today and English isn't available yet, though the assistant answers in the language you write in. Plans are bought by card on the pricing page, and the Trial is free, no card needed. We'd rather you know that before you read on.
Would you rather see it at work?
Start free with Flipa, no card needed, and try it with your own documents.
Start free