AI and Small Business – The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Artificial Intelligence.

Two words that seem to be everywhere right now.

For small business owners, AI can feel like both a golden opportunity and a looming threat. On the one hand, it promises time-saving magic and a level playing field with bigger competitors. On the other? It’s raising serious questions about creativity, fairness, and even survival in certain industries.

So let’s break it down: the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of AI for small business.

For many small businesses, AI is proving to be a secret weapon.

• Efficiency on tap: Whether it’s automating admin, scheduling social media, or handling customer service queries, AI frees up hours each week. One UK study showed productivity gains of up to 133% when SMEs used AI to streamline operations (The Times).
• Level playing field: Tools once reserved for large corporations are now accessible to the smallest of start-ups. A solo maker can use AI to draft product descriptions, generate marketing plans, or analyse customer data without paying for a full-time team.
• Smarter decisions: AI doesn’t just crunch numbers, it spots trends. That means better planning, smarter stock management, and clearer insights into what’s actually working.

And for female entrepreneurs in particular, AI has another upside: it’s helping reclaim time. Many female founders use AI to handle customer service and admin freeing them to focus on creativity, strategy, and growth.

In parts of India, whole networks of women in self-help groups are being trained to use AI for marketing and e-commerce, opening up global opportunities that simply weren’t accessible before.

When used with care, AI isn’t here to replace you, it’s here to give you back the hours you desperately need.

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and saved time.

• The human touch matters: Handing over too much to AI can make your brand feel robotic and impersonal. For small businesses built on connection, that’s risky.
• Inaccuracy and over-reliance: AI can produce errors, biased results, or just plain nonsense. Without human oversight, that can damage your reputation quickly.
• The skills and confidence gap: Research shows women are 20% less likely to use AI tools than men, often due to lower confidence with tech or lack of training (Tom’s Guide). For many female founders, especially those already juggling businesses and family life, that gap risks widening existing inequalities.
• Safety online: Another concern for women in business is digital safety. Reports show over half of female entrepreneurs globally have experienced harassment online, with many limiting their digital presence as a result (Reuters).

So yes, AI can be powerful but it’s not “set and forget.” It needs a human eye, ethical consideration, and a clear strategy.

Here’s where things get really uncomfortable.

For creative small business owners such as artists, illustrators, writers, musicians AI is more than a tool. It’s competition.

Generative AI tools are being trained on millions of artworks, books, and designs without permission. They churn out “new” content in seconds, often sold cheaply online. And for many creatives, it feels like theft (Bergen County Chamber of Commerce).

One female artist, Georgina Kent of Georgina Doodles told me:

“AI art is a very real threat to artists. Generative AI software has been ‘fed’ artwork from thousands of artists without permission, which is a breach of copyright. It doesn’t understand narrative, nuance or texture. What it produces is cutesty, flat and unimaginative ‘art’. It can be sold very cheaply, and due to its cutesy nature, it appeals to a wide range of people with real art often being snubbed in favour of the cheap AI alternative”

Georgina, a Watercolour Artist & Printmaker, went on to explain the impact on her own business:

“If you search for ‘watercolour kingfisher’ on Etsy, AI results now rank above mine, are a very similar style and are half the price. I can’t compete on cost. This year has been exponentially quieter than previous years, and seeing floods of AI art on the same platform I sell on is both disheartening and worrying.”

The human toll is very real:

“I’ve had people tell me AI is better than my art, that I should give up painting. But I’m defiant. There will always be a place for traditional art and for me, the process of creating art heals my soul in ways AI never could.”

For creatives, AI isn’t just another business tool, it’s reshaping entire marketplaces. And right now, the protections are patchy at best.

The reality is, no individual artist or small business owner can stop AI scraping entirely. But that doesn’t mean you’re helpless. There are practical steps you can take to protect your work, assert your rights, and make it harder for your creativity to be exploited.

1. Use cloaking and watermarking tools
   • Glaze subtly alters your artwork so AI can’t mimic your style.
   • Nightshade embeds hidden “poison” pixels to disrupt AI training.
   • Services like ArtShield offer invisible watermarking.
2. Limit what you share
   • Share lower-resolution images online to make AI misuse less valuable
   • On your own site, block bots like GPTBot in your robots.txt file
3. Update your terms
   • Add a clear “No AI Training” clause to your website and contracts
4. Stay informed & vocal
   • In the U.K., new “right of personality” laws are being discussed to help creators control their likeness and work (The Times).

Looking Ahead

Like most tech, AI isn’t inherently good or bad, it’s about how it’s used.

For small business owners, the opportunity is huge: reclaiming time, levelling the playing field, and competing with the big players. But the risks: loss of trust, widening gender gaps, ethical blind spots, and threats to creativity, are very real.

The good, the bad, and the ugly all exist side by side. What matters is that we, as business owners, stay informed, protect our work, and use AI on our terms, not at the expense of our creativity or values.

One of Elysium Lifestyle Magazine’s regular authors, Amanda Hughes is a trusted voice in the small business world. She’s a twin mum, mentor, and experienced entrepreneur who has built two thriving businesses from the ground up.

She’s the Amazon #1 bestselling author of the Social Media Planner, host of The Growth Addicts Podcast (Top 30 on Apple), and founder of Get Seen Get Sales, a go-to community for small business owners who want to grow with strategy and confidence.

Amanda is on a mission to make social media easy, fun, and profitable for small business owners. She combines expert advice with real-life experience that actually works.