What are the most valuable resources for a small business? Probably three: capital, customers, and time.
Artificial intelligence has emerged as a technology that addresses all three of these resources and acts as a triple threat to make small businesses look big. In the process.
Andre MaccaoSenior Vice President Visa Approval Solutionsand Josh ScheerPresident and Owner White lotus travel designtold Karen Webster that AI can help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) create marketing plans and product descriptions in minutes without the need for a large marketing team. The technology also helps streamline back-end operations, automating schedules, notifying customers when payments are due, and keeping up to date on trends and news.
“We only have a limited amount of time,” Scheer said of the minutes and hours a day he has, adding, “There are a lot of jobs where you can rely on AI. That's where I rely on AI.” Really Use that to your advantage.”
Mackao and Scheer said the human touch, enhanced by AI, can help business owners gain a competitive advantage and customer loyalty.
Mackao said that according to Visa small business data, one in five small business owners in the U.S. very Familiar with the business capabilities of AI.
“Small businesses are generally busy running their businesses and are still figuring out how to use AI to improve their day-to-day operations,” Macicao said. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans who have implemented AI in their small business say they did so to improve productivity, according to Visa's latest Small Business Survey.
Taking on the first call and the first challenge
White Lotus Travel Design creates customized itineraries based on clients' unique tastes and desires, and with travel rebounding sharply, Scheer said there has been high demand for destinations in the Mediterranean and parts of Europe.
Scheer offered his own perspective on the benefits and limitations of using AI. He told us about a client he was given a challenge not long ago. Google and Chat GPT their Own They then asked Scheer to “top” the itinerary in specific parts of France.
“That was my first call with a client,” Scheer said.
AI is certainly good at generating information specific to chateaux, towns, and local hotspots, all of which were raw materials, just as Scheer did. Own He said he started by cutting back on his itinerary.
But what the model misses is the human touch, the little things and empathy that come together to make a truly memorable trip, with individuality and personalization in mind, he says. Some people might only want one activity. one day; perhaps The other person in the group doesn't drink alcohol.
“If you don't have experience, you might not know how to ask these questions,” Scheer says. “My job is to take what the client expects and what ChatGPT produces, and customize it based on the customer's needs. [my experience and knowledge.]”
Scheer said the AI model “won,” and the customer has since returned to White Lotus three times.
The model of humans working with machines has been essential for White Lotus Travel Design to grow its customer base. Scheer advocates a “slow and steady” approach, adding that its first attempts to use AI to improve workflow began with an online scheduling tool for reaching out to customers and prospects and building email and marketing lists.
He says his clients now have an app on hand that they can use to store vouchers and other functions while traveling, all at scale. White Lotus also manages two separate payment flows, including a professional services fee that covers the initial investigation; the other payment is made by sending an invoice to the client outlining the trip itself, and who gets paid, how much, and when (Scheer uses a PCI-compliant platform to manage these functions).
Work in the background
Mackao noted the importance of allowing time for the human element to shine, saying Visa is committed to “prompt engineering.” The aforementioned expertise To improve models: AI is a key tool Visa uses in fighting fraudsters and building risk management models to ensure customers are who they say they are.
“We benefit from 269 billion transactions per year that help inform these models and drive insights,” Mackao said.
Visa has Own Mackao said the human touch from payments and commerce experts, along with insights on governance and best practices in a rapidly changing regulatory space, is key. Card enumeration attacks, in which criminals attempt large-scale “trial and error” attacks to see if they can authorize transactions that don't involve a card, are on the rise. In the unlikely event Several credential combinations will work.
“We can isolate and identify fraudsters and protect merchants from bad actors so they don't have to worry about the risk of fraud or the risk of chargebacks,” he said.
Visa helps ensure that the transaction was approved and legitimate, even if the customer comes back later and claims the transaction never happened for some reason, Scheer said.
With fraud prevention and marketing tasks no longer as manual as they once were, “the human touch is where you want to spend your time,” Scheer said.
Subscribe for daily updates on PYMNTS AI. AI Newsletter.
