SPANISH FORK, Utah — As artificial intelligence plays a larger role in everyday life, small businesses are navigating new opportunities.
One industry embracing A.I. is the publishing field. “Our goal is to help ordinary writers become extraordinary authors,” said Tim McConnehey, the founder of Salt Lake-based Izzard Ink Publishing. “It's [publishing] an industry that's ripe for digitization.”
Izzard Ink publishes about 12 titles each year. McConnehey is using A.I. to help streamline the publishing process. “A.I. has hit every aspect of our business,” he said. “From the minute a manuscript comes in we sit down and we assess it. We assess it with A.I. and more importantly, we assess it with human editors.”
McConnehey made it clear that artificial intelligence isn’t writing books. Instead, it creates efficiencies. “It’s helping us identify what the problems are,” he said. “It’s giving us solutions and it's helping authors know what to change and how to change it. It's creating better content.”
McConnehey isn’t alone in his use of A.I. According to a recent survey by Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices, 58% of small businesses nationwide planned to invest in artificial intelligence in 2024.
“Our small businesses are going to need resources and technical expertise to adopt A.I. so they can continue to compete,” said Janetta King, with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program. The program is lobbying lawmakers at the federal level to add more A.I. tools and training to existing resources like small business development centers.
“Our small businesses are looking at A.I. through the lens of productivity and efficiency,” King said. “They can do more. They can serve their customers and clients better.”
As artificial intelligence continues to grow, McConnehey encourages other small business owners to learn more about the tech and embrace it to improve results. “We have to understand the processes behind what we are doing or A.I. will lead us astray. That's why training the workforce is more important,” he said. “We are seeing the businesses that employ the workforce that knows A.I. – they are going to succeed.”
