AI Strategy for Small Businesses: A 90-Day Action Plan
AI isn’t hype anymore - it’s becoming the default. A 2025 U.S. Chamber report indicates that 58% of small businesses already utilize generative AI, up from approximately 40% last year. Salesforce found 91% of SMBs using AI say it’s already boosting revenue.
The message is clear: small businesses don’t need to wait, and they don’t need a massive tech budget. With a focused 90-day roadmap, you can capture the same ROI larger players are seeing, without wasting money on the wrong tools.
Why 90 Days?
Because results don’t need to take years. In fact:
68% of U.S. small businesses use AI regularly, up from 48% in mid-2024 (QuickBooks).
76% of companies see positive ROI from marketing automation within 1 year (Adobe/InBeat).
That’s why a 90-day plan makes sense. It’s long enough to run a pilot and prove ROI, short enough to keep momentum high.
Phase 1: Assess (Weeks 1–4)
👉 Consultant Insight: Don’t start with shiny tools; start with bottlenecks impacting your business.
Ask:
Where do we waste the most time each week?
What slows down customer response?
Which repetitive tasks frustrate my team?
Examples we’ve seen: manual sales follow-ups, repetitive reporting, onboarding emails.
Phase 2: Pilot (Weeks 5–8)
👉 Consultant Insight: Run one pilot project and measure it.
Best starter: CRM automation.
Automate lead follow-up in Katalyst CRM or HubSpot.
KPI: response time, meetings booked, or deals advanced.
Proof Point: SMB-GR found 53% of SMBs are already using AI, with another 29% planning to adopt this year. That means you’re not experimenting alone, but that you are already behind and catching up to your competitors.
Phase 3: Scale (Weeks 9–12)
👉 Consultant Insight: Only scale what the numbers prove based on KPIs or other measurements.
Roll winning workflows into another department.
Assign an “automation owner” so workflows don’t die on the vine.
Use Google Analytics 4 or Microsoft Power BI to measure ROI beyond gut instinct.
Reminder: if you don’t see improvement in 30 days, that’s a signal to reset, not to quit.
Quick Win Story
One of our SMB clients was losing deals simply because follow-up emails lagged. We helped them set up automated CRM outreach. The result? Response times dropped from 48 hours to less than 6 hours and that was only because we included a human-in-the-loop element to ensure the automated content was verified before sending. If we skipped the human review, it would have been nearly instantaneous (not recommended unless it's for static content with no decision-making). That’s the power of a well-run pilot.
Common Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them)
Mistake #1: Buying tools before mapping processes.
Mistake #2: Trying to automate everything at once.
Mistake #3: No one owns the workflow, so it dies.
Mistake #4: Poor data quality. (this is a topic for a future post)
These aren’t just rookie errors, they’re why so many “AI initiatives” fizzle out.
Action Steps Checklist
☑ Identify 2–3 bottlenecks costing you the most time.
☑ Pick one to automate and define a KPI.
☑ Run it for 30 days. Track the results.
☑ Scale only what works.
🚀 Ready to build your roadmap?
Book a clarity call with us today!
Research Sources
Written by Brian Morgan, President of SMB Accelerators, Inc. Helping small business leaders scale faster with AI, resulting in less waste, less stress, and more ROI.
