AI Workflow Management

5 Tips for Efficient Workflow Automation for Small Business

Discover 5 actionable tips to simplify workflow automation for small businesses, boosting productivity and saving time.

Feb 7, 2025

automation use cases - Workflow Automation for Small Business
automation use cases - Workflow Automation for Small Business
automation use cases - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Consider you've got a great idea for a product. Your marketing plan is solid, and you're ready to roll. But first, you must take care of a mountain of research and writing, creating a business plan, drafting a website and developing your product documentation. If only you could wave a magic wand and make it all disappear. 

While there’s no magic wand, AI workflow management can help you tackle all that boring stuff efficiently and quickly so you can return to the vital work of launching your business. In this guide, we'll explore how workflow automation for small businesses can help you research and write faster, with a special focus on AI tools that streamline the process.

Otio offers a smooth solution. Our AI research and writing partner helps you start your next writing project by automating the research phase. With this tool, you can quickly uncover relevant information on any topic to write with greater context and detail.

Table Of Contents

What Workflows Can Small Businesses Automate

a small setup meeting - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Small businesses should automate their lead capture workflow using a CRM system to capture and track leads from initial contact to conversion. With automated processes, companies can save daily hours by reducing the need for manual data entry and follow-up. Several ways to automate lead capture include web forms, landing pages, and email marketing campaigns. 

Using these tools, you can automatically capture leads and add them to your CRM with little to no manual effort. In addition to saving time, lead capture automation can help you nurture leads and move them through your sales funnel more efficiently. By automating the lead capture process, you can focus on more critical tasks, such as converting leads into customers. There are many different ways to automate lead capture workflow, but here are some of the most popular:

1. Web Form Integration

Web forms are one of the most common methods of lead capture. By integrating your web forms with your CRM software, you can automatically add new leads to your CRM as soon as they submit their information.

2. Landing Page Integration 

Landing pages are another standard lead capture method, especially for businesses that run online advertising campaigns. By integrating your landing pages with your CRM and workflow automation software, you can automatically add new leads to your system as soon as they submit their information.

3. Email Integration 

Email is another great way to capture leads. By integrating your email marketing software with your CRM and automation software, you can automatically add new leads to your system as soon as they subscribe to your email list.

4. Facebook Lead Forms 

Facebook is a great way to connect with potential customers and capture leads. Integrating your Facebook lead forms can automatically add new leads to your CRM when they opt in through Facebook.

Sweeten the Deal for New Customers with Workflow Automation

When new customers sign up for your service, giving them a great first impression is essential. Customer onboarding is orienting new customers to your product or service. It involves introducing them to your company, explaining what your product does, and helping them get started using it. There are a few key elements that should be included in every customer onboarding workflow: 

1. Welcome Message

Send each new customer a personalized message as soon as they sign up. This is an excellent opportunity to introduce them to your company and tell them what to expect from your service.

2. Getting Started Guide

Provide new customers with a step-by-step guide to using your product. Include screenshots or video tutorials to make them follow along easily.

3. Customer Success Manager Assignment

Assign each new customer to a Customer Success Manager who will be their point of contact going forward. This ensures they always have someone to contact with questions or concerns.

4. Product Tour

Give new customers a tour of your product so they can see its features and how it can benefit them.

5. Support Resources

Ensure new customers know where to find support resources, such as your knowledge base or customer support team. Automating customer onboarding can save your business time and money by streamlining the onboarding process and making it more efficient. Automating customer onboarding also has several other benefits, including:

  • Reducing the amount of time your team spends on customer onboarding.

  • Increasing customer satisfaction rates.

  • Improving customer retention rates.

  • Helping you scale your business more effectively. Automating customer onboarding is a great place to start if you’re looking for ways to save time and money in your small business.

Hire the Right People Faster with Workflow Automation

Hiring is one of the most essential and time-consuming tasks for any small business owner. Not only do you have to find the right candidates, but you also have to ensure that they are a good fit for your company’s culture and values. In addition, you need to make sure that they have the skills and experience necessary to succeed in the role. Fortunately, there are a few ways that you can automate your hiring workflow to save time and energy, and one is by using a CRM system. CRMs with HR management functionality can automate large portions of your hiring workflow, including:

  • Creating online application forms to gather information from new applicants

  • Screening candidates based on their qualifications.

  • Scheduling interviews with candidates.

  • Add automation to different stages of your hiring process.

  • Keeping track of your hiring progress allows you to identify bottlenecks and change your process quickly.

  • Maintaining a database of qualified candidates, making it easy to fill open positions in the future. Investing in a CRM with HR management functionality can save daily hours and improve your hiring process.

Speed Up Your Quoting Process with Workflow Automation

If your small business provides quotes or estimates for products or services, you know how time-consuming and tedious the quoting process can be. A quoting workflow typically includes several steps, such as gathering data, generating quotes, and sending quotes to clients. However, automating this process can speed up the quoting process and improve quote accuracy. In addition, automating your quoting workflow can help you keep track of quotes, making it easier to follow up with clients and close deals. Automating your quoting workflow is an excellent solution if you’re looking to save time and improve efficiency.

Improve Your Sales Process with Workflow Automation

A sales pipeline is a company's process to move prospective customers through the different stages of the buying journey, from awareness to purchase. A well-designed sales pipeline will ensure that each customer receives the correct information at the right time, making it more likely that they will ultimately make a purchase. While it is possible to manage a sales pipeline manually, doing so can be time-consuming and error-prone. 

Automating sales pipeline workflow can improve efficiency and accuracy, freeing up valuable time for other tasks. There are several ways to automate sales pipeline workflow, but some of the most common methods include customer relationship management (CRM) software. A CRM with sales pipeline functionality can help you automate the process of moving customers through your sales pipeline by:

  • Tracking interactions and activity makes it easy to see which prospects are at which stage in the buying journey.

  • Updating lead records automatically.

  • Generating reports on sales pipeline progress.

  • Sending automated emails or notifications to potential customers.

  • Provides a central place to track sales data.

Automate Your CRM for Seamless Workflow Management

One workflow you can automate is your customer relationship management. A CRM (customer relationship management) system is necessary for any business that relies on customer relationships to drive revenue. How do you automate CRM? By using CRM software that has built-in automation features, email marketing capabilities, and text message marketing. A CRM system with these features allows you to automatically track interactions, store customer information, and manage tasks related to sales and marketing. 

Automating your CRM will enable you to focus on developing customer relationships rather than administrative tasks. Automating your CRM allows you to more effectively track sales leads and follow up with customers after their purchase. By automating your CRM workflow, you can save daily hours by automating tasks such as data entry, lead management, and follow-ups. 

We can help you improve customer satisfaction by promptly addressing all inquiries. Increased sales and revenue by allowing you to track and manage your sales pipeline better. More efficient sales processes. Better customer insight. Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Automating your CRM should be at the top of your list if you are looking for ways to save time and increase your company’s sales.

Save Time and Money by Automating Your Marketing Tasks

Marketing automation is the process of using software to automate marketing tasks. The purpose of automating your marketing task is to save time on repetitive marketing tasks, freeing up time to focus on other aspects of your business. Automating your marketing tasks has many benefits, including improved efficiency and productivity, higher conversion rates, and better customer engagement. 

Aspects of Marketing: You Can Automate Retargeting 

Automating retargeting allows you to add contacts to Facebook retargeting campaigns and remove them once they become paying customers. This saves you time on manual tasks, ensuring your campaigns are always up-to-date. 

Email Marketing

Small business owners can also use marketing automation tools to create automated email campaigns and send more personalized emails to their customers, increasing the likelihood of conversion. With email marketing automation, you can track open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates to gauge the success of your email campaigns. 

Text Message Marketing 

Automating text message marketing can help reach your leads and customers differently. Text messages usually have a much higher response rate and can help you close more sales. 

Marketing Reports 

Real-time reporting is essential for successful marketing campaigns; marketing automation can make this possible.

Automate Customer Service Tasks for Better Business Efficiency

Customer service is a critical part of any business, and automating your customer service workflow can save you time and money. There are many benefits to automating customer service, including: 

  • The ability to provide 24-hour customer support. 

  • Improved customer satisfaction through faster response times. 

  • Increased efficiency and productivity. 

The ability to track and measure customer service metrics. How to automate customer service? There are a few ways you can automate your customer service workflow, including: 

Using a Chatbot

Chatbots are artificial intelligence software that can simulate human conversation. You can use chatbots to answer common customer questions, such as product information and shipping times. 

Integrating your CRM with live Chat Software 

This will allow you to automatically send information from your chat software to your CRM, eliminating manual entry. 

Using an Automated Phone system

Automated phone systems can route calls to the appropriate customer service representative and provide customers with basic information, such as operating hours and frequently asked questions. By automating your customer service workflow, you can improve the efficiency and productivity of your customer service team. Automation can also help you provide better customer support by reducing response times and increasing customer service availability.

5 Tips for Efficient Workflow Automation for Small Business

team discussion - Workflow Automation for Small Business

1. Utilize the Power of Otio to Streamline Workflows 

To effectively simplify workflow automation, small businesses can use AI tools like Otio to streamline research and writing processes. Today, knowledge workers, researchers, and students suffer from content overload and are left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Too many settle for stitching together complicated bookmarking, read-it-later, and note-taking apps to get through their workflows. 

Now that anyone can create content with a button, this problem will only worsen. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them: 

  1. Collect many data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos. 

  2. Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. 

  3. Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected. Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. 

Along with this, Otio also helps you write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing. 

Our tool has web scraping capabilities that allow you to access a wide range of data sources beyond traditional academic papers and search engines. This feature enables researchers to collect diverse information from sources like bookmarks, tweets, books, and YouTube videos, streamlining the process of curating and analyzing data for research purposes. Let Otio be your AI research and writing partnertry Otio for free today!

2. Find Your Slowest Processes for Automation 

It’s unreasonable to expect you to automate all processes simultaneously. Instead, you’ll need to prioritize. Within some of your workflows, you may find a lot of manual tasks that take up a lot of time and can contribute to bottlenecks. If these tasks are always done the same way, they are good candidates for automation. For example, compiling weekly reports is a prime candidate because it involves pulling information from the same places and sending the data to the same person if you’re unsure which tasks take the most time, track time over a period to generate reliable insights that can help you decide which workflows to focus on. 

3. Identify Stakeholders Involved In Each Workflow

Understanding who is involved in each workflow is essential to the success of your automation implementation. Map out the stakeholders for your list of the most critical workflows to automate. This could include team members who initiate the process, those who contribute along the way, and anyone who relies on the final output. Think about a task that involves multiple approvals. You’ll want an automation tool that notifies and efficiently collects each stakeholder's input. Knowing who will be impacted helps design an automation strategy that considers everyone’s needs and minimizes disruption. 

4. Take Inventory of Current Programs or Platforms 

Successful automation requires the right technology, but before you add any new tools, you’ll want to inventory what you currently use. Some of your existing applications could have automation features or integrate with platforms that do. You could find that your most widely used tools, such as CRM, are the most flexible and ready for automation. This will identify redundancies and further streamline workflows. It will also help you predict compatibility issues and determine what you need before expanding or changing your tech stack. 

5. Look for Ways to Consolidate Steps and Tools 

Once you’ve identified tasks, stakeholders, and tools, look for ways to consolidate. Automation is ultimately about making your work as easy as possible. You may find you can combine two workflows into one, or a complex workflow is not so complex when you use a single tool. For example, if you were entering tasks into a task management system and a project tracking tool, you could reduce your workload by choosing a platform that can handle both and automate some steps.

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Benefits of Small Business Workflow Automation

man working alone - Workflow Automation for Small Business

1. Enhanced Precision

Businesses relying on paper records often miss important details during documentation. For example, stakeholders may overlook entire pages or skip essential sections. Such oversights delay the completion of critical processes. Workflow automation eliminates the chances of missing vital information—alerts and highlights within automated workflows direct users' attention to areas needing completion to improve accuracy.

2. Increased Protection

With workflow automation, businesses can improve document security. For instance, e-signatures allow companies to create online versions of their paperwork to replace vulnerable paper files. The process lets users configure security settings to limit access to authorized personnel, protecting sensitive information from prying eyes. Automation also helps firms avoid natural disasters, theft, or unauthorized file access. The latter is significant since e-signature workflows are encrypted, safeguarding against malicious attacks. Overall, this level of safety far exceeds that of traditional paper-based documents.

3. Smooth Integration with Existing Tools

Digital transformation has allowed small businesses to adopt the latest technologies to improve operations and productivity. As a result, many companies use customer relationship management (CRM) tools or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to manage critical business functions. Workflow automation for small businesses can integrate with these existing platforms to streamline processes and make transitions easier. For example, e-signature tools can seamlessly integrate with your CRM or ERP system to allow users to sign documents without leaving the platform. This helps improve productivity by saving time and resources.

4. Improved Return on Investment

Paper-based documents can be costly and time-consuming. For example, when multiple parties are involved in signing, they must be physically present to complete the process. This necessitates scheduling meetings and traveling to business offices or customer homes. The workflow automation brought in by e-signature tools helps businesses avoid these expenses. Instead, stakeholders can sign documents electronically from wherever they are, improving the experience for everyone involved. In addition, improved accuracy, reduced storage costs, and better security allow organizations to adopt e-sign workflows confidently.

5. Elimination of Manual Errors

Manual processing is often full of errors. In a professional setting, the staff members can also make mistakes when they enter data into the systems. These errors do not just delay processing, but they also lead to compliance issues. If the mistakes go unnoticed, there are poor outcomes by the end of the process. Workflow automation can solve this problem by reducing any manual errors. Automated workflows lead to better product quality.

6. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

Many companies are trying to improve their workflow with the benefits of workflow automation. The benefits improve customer satisfaction and help stay competitive in the market. Any unhappy customers do not return for repeat business. The automated workflow leads to few errors and delays, but the truth is that products and services are delivered on time and correctly. Not only this, automation also helps optimize processing time so that tasks in the workflow become less complex. The result is always a better customer experience.

7. Greater Stability in Workflows

The only way to scale up manual processes is by hiring people or increasing every person’s workload. However, when the manual processes are scaled up, there is a need to deal with increased errors. The workflow automation for small businesses makes scaling up a business straightforward. The repetitive tasks can co-occur, so no human labor is required. There are better efficiency levels, and increasing the systems' output without increasing staffing costs becomes easy.

8. Improved Responsibility Among Team Members

When the workflow is automated, assigning responsibility to a team member for all parts of the process becomes easy. This reduces any possibility of something getting slipped into the gaps. Every single step of the process can be assigned to someone. In addition to ensuring that all the work gets done, this also helps reveal any possible inefficiency in the working process. This is one of the best benefits of workflow automation.

9. Empowered Team Members

Workflow automation for small businesses also enables employees to feel empowered. Their role in the process and the tasks they feel responsible for can be managed more effectively. Taking better accountability for everything that can go wrong is also easy. The managers no longer have to oversee each process step or check in on the employees.

10. Improved Quality of Work

One of the best benefits of workflow automation is that employees can do high-quality work after it is implemented within an organization. Since all the processes become automatic, there is more time to do work they should be cared about. The software handles tedious and error-prone tasks, and you are bound to see better quality from the team. When high-quality work is delivered, the organizational goals are met quickly and relatively quickly.

14 Best Workflow Automation Tools for Small Businesses

1. Otio: Streamline Research with AI-Powered Automation  

Otio - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Today, knowledge workers, researchers, and students suffer from content overload and are left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Too many settle for stitching together complicated bookmarking, read-it-later, and note-taking apps to get through their workflows. Now that anyone can create content with a button, this problem will only worsen. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them: 

  • Collect many data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos. 

  • Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. 

  • Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected. Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. 

Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. Along with this, Otio also enables you to write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing. 

Our tool has web scraping capabilities that allow you to access a wide range of data sources beyond traditional academic papers and search engines. This feature enables researchers to collect diverse information from sources like bookmarks, tweets, books, and YouTube videos, streamlining the process of curating and analyzing data for research purposes. Let Otio be your AI research and writing partnertry Otio for free today!

2. Zapier: The Automation Tool for Everyone 

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Zapier is one of the most recognized automation tools for small-to-medium-sized businesses. The tool lets you automate repetitive tasks across different software by integrating your apps and creating automations for your workflow. Zapier supports integrations with over 3000 apps, from popular tools like Slack and Notion to more obscure, niche ones. Zapier is an excellent option if you need full-fledged workflow automation. But, the higher tiers are pretty expensive, so if you have simple automation needs, it’s not the best choice. 

Pros 

  • Facilitates connections between tons of unrelated apps. 

  • Supports multi-step automations. 

  • Simple to use. 

  • It's a decent free tier.

Cons  

  • No mobile apps. 

3. Miro: Visualize Your Workflows 

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Miro is a versatile online collaboration tool that facilitates project management, diagramming, process mapping, and content visualization. I like that Miro has an infinite canvas, which allows users to create comprehensive and interconnected workflows without spatial constraints. 

This is particularly useful for visualizing complex processes and ensuring that every step is clearly defined and easily accessible. Another reason Miro stands out is its pre-built templates and customizable boards. Whether you are managing a project, conducting a sprint planning session, or tracking progress with a Kanban board, Miro offers a wide variety of templates that can be tailored to fit specific needs with a simple drag-and-drop interface. 

Pros  

  • Templates: Miro offers many templates for different use cases. 

  • Integrations: Miro integrates with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Atlassian, and digital asset management. 

  • User-friendly: Miro has a user-friendly interface on desktop and web. 

  • Versatile: Miro can be used for a variety of creative projects. 

Cons

  • Performance issues: Some users have reported performance issues, such as frequent crashes and system UI freezes. 

  • Mobile app: Some users have criticized the mobile app for being unreliable and lacking functionality. 

4. Sendinblue: An Amazing Email Automation Tool 

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Sendinblue is a mature email marketing automation tool with a generous free plan. Sendinblue has powerful features, including heat map reporting, advanced statistics, automation, personalization features, a landing page builder, and more. To unlock some of these features, you’ll need to purchase their Premium plan, which starts at $65/month. However, the Lite plan (starting at $25/month) can suit your needs. 

Pros

  • It's an unusually robust free plan. 

  • Straightforward, intuitive interface. 

  • Informative Help page. 

  • Upfront pricing with annual discounts. 

Cons 

  • No two-factor authentication. 

  • Limited content types. 

5. Lucidchart: Diagram Your Workflows  

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Lucidchart is an all-in-one diagram platform that will help you think through and map out each phase of your project. It’s perfect for flowcharts, product specs, or org charts. It creates the chain of command and then factors in any contingencies cohesively. You can then share the diagrams across the organization or team to help everyone see what needs to happen next. 

Pros

  • A cloud-based platform that’s accessible from any device. 

  • Integrates with productivity platforms like Google apps, Workspace, and Slack. 

  • Import data from other cool apps like Excel, Zapier, and Salesforce. 

Cons

  • There is no offline mode. 

  • Limited features are included with the basic plan. 

6. Buffer: A Social Media Management Tool with Workflow Features

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Buffer is an affordable social media management suite with exceptional features, including automations. With Buffer, you can: 

  • Build your content calendar and schedule posts in advance, 

  • Schedule first comments, 

  • Automate link shortening, 

  • Generate automatic cover pages for your reports, 

  • Automate your multichannel reporting. 

And more. Buffer’s free plan lets you connect up to 3 social accounts to kickstart your social media management, and when you’re ready to scale, you can subscribe to one of their paid plans. Their Essentials plan starts at just $5/month per social account. 

Pros

  • Cross-platform posting: Easily schedule content across multiple social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn with one interface. 

  • Generous free plan: The free version offers a good starting point with access to a few social profiles and basic scheduling features. 

  • Visual calendar view: Provides a clear calendar view to see upcoming scheduled posts easily. 

  • Integrations with other tools: Can connect with design platforms like Canva to streamline content creation. 

Cons

  • Limited analytics: Compared to other social media management tools, Buffer's analytics features are less comprehensive, lacking detailed insights into engagement and audience demographics. 

  • It is not ideal for deep social listening: It cannot track mentions, replies, or broader conversations on social media as effectively as other platforms. 

7. Hootsuite: Advanced Social Media Automation  

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Hootsuite is a more high-end social media management and automation tool, with plans starting at $49/month. Hootsuite is the gold standard in the social media management tool market. So, the software supports a wider variety of platforms - including support for WordPress and YouTube, and it offers more advanced features at each tier. Hootsuite’s automations are more advanced than Buffer’s, too. For example, their Autoschedule feature gives Hootsuite complete control over your posting - the tool will pick the best time and publish your post. 

Pros

  • Multi-profile scheduling dashboard. 

  • Social listening feature. 

  • 30-day free trial. 

  • App integrations with Canva, Dropbox, and Google Drive. 

Cons

  • Higher-tier features start at €99 per month. 

  • The free trial requires credit card details. 

8. Notion AI: Generate Text for Your Projects  

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Notion AI can help generate text and autofill databases, create a handy summary of pages, and even assign action items based on specific documents, all handy time-savers. But my favorite Notion AI feature is the ability to ask AI-specific questions about all the information you have stored there. As discussed on our Open Blog, we use Notion at Buffer to house most of our (extensive) company documentation. 

As comprehensive as our documentation system is, finding an answer to an in-the-weeds question can take time when you’re in a hurry. So, rather than scrolling through articles and databases, I can hit the search icon, then ‘Ask AI,’ and type in my question (say, “How do I categorize internet costs in my monthly expense report?” or “Which Buffer teammates are based in the US?”) 

Pros  

  • The Notion AI works well on platforms, including desktops, mobile, and browsers. 

  • It integrates with popular platforms like Notta, Nightfall, Canva, and Calendly. 

  • The Notion AI paid plans are relatively affordable compared to other AI tools. 

Cons

  • Sometimes, the AI-generated summaries are generic and lack a point of view. 

  • The Notion AI add-on isn't free to use. 

9. Quickbooks: Accounting Software with Workflow Features  

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Quickbooks is the most established accounting software for small businesses, with plans starting at $25/month. The platform comes with every accounting feature a small business could need, from simple cash flow management to mileage tracking, bill management, and workflow automation. Quickbooks’ workflow automation features let you automate repetitive accounting tasks, but you must subscribe to the “Advanced” plan ($180/mo). So, without using Quickbooks as a dedicated accounting solution, paying to access these automation features may not be feasible. 

Pros

  • Provides good accounting reports. 

  • Affordable price. 

  • Easy to access from any device – phone, tablet, and computer (depending on the version). 

  • Easy to find and fix errors/mistakes. 

Cons 

  • Lack of industry and business-specific features (such as lot tracking, eCommerce, and barcode scanning). 

  • Lack of key reports outside of accounting. 

10. Chatfuel: Create a Facebook Chatbot  

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Chatfuel is an excellent chatbot solution for small businesses. Their free plan gives you a good feel of the tool, although it’s minimal. When you’re ready to commit, the pro plan starts at $15/month (the cost increases depending on the number of users). Chatfuel’s pricing isn’t the only draw for small businesses; its simplicity is also a plus. The software’s visual builder makes it easy to create flow-based chatbots, and they have a library of existing templates if you’re falling short on inspiration. The white-label feature, exclusive to the Premium plan, makes Chatfuel a good choice for growing agencies or IT service companies, too. You can create custom chatbots and sell them to clients under your label. 

Pros 

  • Easy-to-use Flow Builder. 

  • Unlimited Custom Field to Store User Data. 

  • Publish a chatbot on Facebook, Instagram & WhatsApp. 

  • There are many marketing possibilities on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. 

  • Built-in Live Chat. 

Cons

  • Duplicating chatbot flows across channels is not possible. 

  • It's hard to translate your chatbot to multiple languages. 

11. Nifty: Manage Projects and Workflows  

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Nifty PM calls itself a “collaboration hub, " aiming to unite projects, allowing teams to better focus on their goals (milestones). These are the goals that each project is structured around. Each milestone is divided into individual tasks, and a visual completion bar goes up as you complete each task. 

Pros  

  • Multiple task view options to choose from. 

  • There are numerous ways to collaborate and communicate with teammates. 

  • Time-saving project templates. 

Cons  

  • Third-party app authorizations need occasional attention. 

  • Template options can be limited. 

12. Tome AI: Create Business Presentations with AI  

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Tome is an application that allows you to create stunning business presentations and slide decks that are great for sales professionals. You can use AI for engagement analytics of your presentation and draft and customize the presentation and design. 

Pros

  • It helps improve the material by offering the right words and tone. 

  • Documents can be easily turned into precise, story-driven products. 

  • Make material people can connect with, like 3D models and video storytelling. 

  • Tome AI connects smoothly with various customizations to improve the narrative experience. 

Cons

  • There may be a learning curve that comes with using advanced features. Some people may take some time to master more complex functionalities. 

  • Relying on AI might hinder creativity in certain situations. 

13. Perplexity: A Unique Search Tool  

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Leading the pack, Perplexity is attracting a lot of attention due to its high-quality answers, great quoting of sources, and staying on topic even as you ask follow-up questions. It uses a combination of Google's, Bing's, and proprietary ranking signals to decide which results are best to base the AI response on. It's delicious to use alongside a classic Google search if you're digging into tricky topics. 

Pros

  • Conversational style, with natural language queries and responses. 

  • Source citations, unlike many other generative AI tools. 

  • Flexibility, thanks to multiple LLM options. 

  • Ability to create collections to store and organize queries. 

Cons  

  • AI tools still return questionable information. 

  • Some responses are repetitive. 

14. Process Street: Create Checklists for Your Workflows  

Tools - Workflow Automation for Small Business

Process Street is a simple checklist, workflow, and SOP software that lets you create and roll out workflows for all your business processes. You can build them around any task you repeat, from vacation requests to onboarding. You start by defining your process within the tool. You can start from scratch or use one of the existing templates and customize it to your needs. 

This library helps use existing process management best practices for everyday tasks without worrying about documenting your own. Once you’ve created workflows, tasks are automatically routed to the relevant people. When they complete their task, it gets sent to the next person. And you can roll out each workflow I create as many times as you need without any further edits. 

Pros  

  • Simple user-interface. 

  • Can easily create structured documents. 

  • Can add audio and video files to documents. 

  • Easily track daily activity with an activity feed. 

Cons  

  • There is no offline version. 

  • Doesn’t offer desktop apps. 

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Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio — Try Otio for Free Today

Researchers, students, and knowledge workers across industries today suffer from content overload. Thanks to the internet, there is now a near-infinite amount of research material. While this may sound like a good thing, it leaves many academics overwhelmed. Instead of helping them tackle their projects, it makes things more complicated. To make matters worse, many researchers are left to deal with this content overload using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Too many settle for stitching together complicated bookmarking, read-it-later, and note-taking apps to get through their workflows. 

Now that anyone can create content with a button, this problem will only worsen. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them Collect a wide range of data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos.  Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected. Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster.

Along with this, Otio also helps you write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing. Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner. Try Otio for free today!

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Join over 100,000 researchers changing the way they read & write

Join over 50,000 researchers changing the way they read & write

Join thousands of other scholars and researchers