AI Agents: Becoming a Business Standard for Startups and Small Businesses
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming a cornerstone of modern business, especially for startups and small businesses. As these ventures strive to compete and grow in a fast-paced commercial landscape, many are integrating AI agents to boost operational efficiency, enhance the customer experience, and drive overall growth.
Recent data from the Census Bureau highlighted this trend. Very small companies with four or fewer employees saw the second-highest increase in AI usage since September 2023, trailing only corporations with 250 or more employees. AI adoption among these small businesses increased from 4.6% to 5.8%, while large corporations saw a rise from 5.2% to 7.8% during the same period.
Startups and small businesses often face challenges like limited resources and scaling issues. However, AI agents provide solutions to reduce operational costs, optimize resource utilization, and enable rapid scaling. An AI agent is a system or program capable of autonomously performing multi-step tasks, from accounting to customer care and business development.
According to Alan Paton, CEO of Qodea, a global technology provider, these agents will have a transformational impact. He states, “An AI agent will provide any startup with instant scale. Suddenly, they can offer global customer support, in any language, that exceeds the standard of their biggest competitors. Customer questions and complaints can be responded to at any time of day and answered in such a sophisticated way that the customer won’t be aware that they’re not talking to a human at all.”
Freeing Up Founders and Boosting Efficiency
Crucially, AI agents free up the time of founders, who can then concentrate on areas crucial for growth. This allows them to focus on their core expertise rather than being bogged down by repetitive tasks or areas of the business where they may lack expertise.
Unlocking Speed and Creativity in Marketing
In the competitive world of B2B digital marketing, AI is no longer a luxury but a fundamental element for a competitive advantage. Digital marketing agency Jam7, founded by industry veterans Mitchell Feldman and Jason Nash, is transforming how technology brands lead the market through an agentic marketing platform (AMP).
By using AI, Jam7 provides its clients with real-time market intelligence, identifies emerging trends, and creates hyper-personalization at scale. This leads to qualified leads, lower acquisition costs, and stronger engagement.
CTO Netanel Eliav notes, “Many companies still use a ‘spray and pray’ approach to marketing, hoping that scattered campaigns will drive results. AMP changes all that by validating and honing strategies through data, so businesses can eliminate wasted effort and ensure every marketing decision is laser-focused, purposeful and ROI-driven. Marketing without AI isn’t just slower; it’s weaker. With AMP, businesses are unlocking unprecedented levels of efficiency, speed and creativity. The companies winning today aren’t asking if they should adopt AI; they are already using it.”
Cost-Effective AI Agents
AI agents are affordable, even for small businesses, with many prebuilt solutions available via subscription plans. These plans offer manageable monthly fees, typically ranging from $30 to $500, based on the features and usage, unlike significant upfront costs. However, according to Paton, startups must understand what’s possible and what’s not before investing in an AI agent.
“The agent will only be as good as the information it’s fed,” says Paton. “They should be treated like the smartest seven-year-old you’ve ever met, who, properly taught, will act like a professor. But only if it’s properly taught.”
He recommends startups start with free online training before selecting a technology partner to create the ideal process. “The devil is in the detail,” Paton adds. “Businesses must carefully define what they’re trying to do and use the AI agent to become world-class at that.”
Developing Bespoke AI Agents
Some founders are developing their own AI agents to create solutions tailored to their specific needs. Licensing consultancy Onyx, for example, assists businesses in navigating the complexities of software licensing to save them money.
Founded by Chris Brown and Neil Lomax, both veterans of the Microsoft licensing channel, Onyx developed its own AI agent based on their 40 years of experience. Brown explains, “Customers are spending significant sums of money on software and cloud services with Microsoft, and they are finding themselves without the structured discounts and the advisory support they previously relied on from resellers. This change will leave many companies at risk of overpaying or procuring sub-optimal solutions, often without realizing it.”
Onyx’s AI agent focuses on providing fast, accurate licensing insights and a data-driven analysis of software licensing and cloud costs to validate commercial viability and identify cost-saving opportunities.
“Developing our AI platform was a journey of trial, error, and refinement,” says Brown. “We had to experiment with different models, understand their strengths and limitations, and ensure that the AI wasn’t just providing quick answers and ‘AI hallucinations’, but correct and contextualized answers. AI alone isn’t enough in a space as nuanced as Microsoft licensing, so we designed Onyx to be backed by human experts, offering a safety net that ensures accuracy and trust.”
The development of Onyx’s AI platform took over six months, involved significant investment, and required scaling the team to 14 full-time developers to handle growing customer queries worldwide.
AI Agents: The Future Is Now
As AI technology advances and becomes more accessible, AI agents are poised to become integral to even the smallest organizations’ business strategies.
Paton states, “We are seeing more small businesses embracing AI agents. I believe in time that it will become the standard operating model with everyone using AI for a multitude of simple and complex tasks. We’re only at the very start of the AI revolution, and we’ve just scratched the surface of what is possible.”
