How AI changes the way founders build and market a business

AI gives small teams more ways to handle work that previously needed specialist support. That does not mean every task should be automated, or that a smaller team will always outperform a larger one. It does mean founders have more choices about how they organise the business.

In my work across fintech, SaaS and marketplaces, I look at AI use in three areas: everyday work, marketing operations and customer discovery.

What a small team can do

Customer research, email segmentation and first drafts of content are practical places to try AI. The useful question is how much time it saves once someone has checked the output.

I would start with a task the team does regularly. Record how long it takes today, try an AI-assisted process, then compare the time and quality. Include the review time in that comparison. A draft produced in seconds is not a saving if it takes an hour to correct.

Decide who is responsible for the final work before expanding the process. Customer support, personal data and claims about the product need particular care.

Marketing needs an ongoing review process

A marketing team needs reliable data about where customers come from and what happens after they arrive. AI can help prepare reports and summarise feedback, but the team still needs to decide what those findings mean.

If reporting takes up much of the week, review the repetitive work first. Agree on the figures that matter, check how they are collected and automate the parts that are consistent. Leave time to investigate changes instead of only producing another dashboard.

I would also make responsibility explicit. Someone should check the data, someone should decide what to change, and the team should review whether that change helped.

Customers may find you through AI tools

Search engines, social platforms and word of mouth still matter. AI assistants are another place where people can ask for product recommendations.

Review whether your website clearly explains who the product is for, what it does and how it compares with alternatives. Specific answers, evidence and up-to-date product information help readers evaluate you regardless of how they arrive.

Where you can identify visits from AI tools, track what those visitors do. Use your own results to decide how much attention the channel deserves.

Where I would start

Choose one recurring task and one customer journey to review. Try a small change, measure it and keep what works. That gives the team a basis for the next decision without committing the whole business to an untested process.

Sofia de Mello-Barreto is an Product Marketing Lead with 15+ years in product marketing and growth across Europe, Israel and the US. Book a Growth Audit.