Since 1994

Practical AI

for small business.

Real workflows. Real tools. This week.

If you can describe the task,

AI can do the first draft.


The skill is not "prompt engineering."
It is describing what you want clearly enough that a stranger could do it.

That stranger is now in every tool you already pay for.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Plain English

Who this is for, and what you'll leave with.

Who this is for

The owner, operator, or founder doing every job. No engineering team. No prompt engineer on staff. A laptop and an account at one or two of these tools.

What we'll skip

Theory. Hype. Vendor pitches. Any sentence containing the word "agentic."

What you'll leave with

  • Five workflows you can run this week, with the exact prompt pattern for each
  • A two-minute "verify" habit that catches 90 percent of bad AI output
  • A straight answer on which tools are worth paying for and which are not, today
REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The lay of the land · May 2026

The four tools that matter for a small business today.

Tool What it's best at Free tier? When you'd pay
Claude (Anthropic) Long documents, careful writing, Artifacts preview side panel, Projects for shared context Yes, limited $20 / mo personal, more for Teams. Pay when you want longer context + Artifacts on every chat.
ChatGPT (OpenAI) Voice, image, Data Analysis with file upload, custom GPTs, broadest app integration Yes, limited $20 / mo Plus. Pay for voice + file upload + GPT-5.
Gemini (Google) Lives inside Google Workspace, Sheets, Docs, Gmail. Long context. Yes, limited $20 / mo Workspace add-on. Pay when most of your work is in Google.
Microsoft Copilot Lives inside Office 365, Excel, Word, Outlook, Teams. Limited $30 / mo per user. Pay when most of your work is in Office.

You don't need all four. Pick the one that lives in the software you already use, then add one more for the gaps.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
What's actually new this year

Side-panel Artifacts.

Shared Projects.


You can now hand AI a half-finished spreadsheet, a draft contract, or a campaign plan.
It edits the file in a preview pane next to the chat, you can see changes in real time.

That single shift is what makes the "AI does the first draft" workflow finally usable for non-developers.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 1 of 5

The spreadsheet rescue.


You exported a CSV from your bank, CRM, or POS.
It is a mess. You need it clean by 5 PM.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 1 · Spreadsheet rescue

Drop the file in. Describe what good looks like.

The prompt pattern

"Here is a CSV from {source}. Clean it up:

  • Dedupe rows on {column}
  • Convert dates in the {column} column to ISO format
  • Title-case all customer names
  • Add a column that sums {X} by {Y}
  • Give me back as an Excel file I can download

Then explain in two sentences what you changed and where you guessed."

What good looks like

Tool to use: Claude Artifacts, or ChatGPT Data Analysis. Both can preview and let you download the file.

Time: about three minutes for a 2,000-row file.

Verify: spot-check three random rows against the original. If those three are right, the rest almost always are. If any one is wrong, push back on that specific row.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 2 of 5

The email drafter.


You have forty unread emails and three of them need a thoughtful reply.
You have twenty minutes.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 2 · Email drafter

Paste their email. Tell it your situation.

The prompt pattern

"Here is an email I just received: {paste it}

Background you need:

  • I am {role} at {company}
  • This person is {who they are to you}
  • The history is {one sentence}

Draft three replies, 30 to 60 words each:

  1. Warm yes
  2. Soft no
  3. Buy myself a week

Match the tone of how they wrote to me."

What good looks like

Tool to use: Claude, ChatGPT, or the Copilot / Gemini sidebar inside your inbox.

Time: about ninety seconds per email.

Verify: read every word out loud before sending. AI drafts are smoother than your real voice. The read-aloud test is the cheapest way to catch the line that does not sound like you.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 3 of 5

The voice-memo SOP.


You have a five-step process in your head you have been meaning to document for six months.
You have a phone and a fifteen-minute drive.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 3 · Voice-memo SOP

Talk it out. Let AI clean it up.

The prompt pattern

"Here is a transcript of me walking through how we {do the thing}: {paste transcript}

Turn it into a written SOP. Format:

  1. One-paragraph intro: when to use this, who runs it
  2. Numbered steps, each with one sentence of why
  3. Common mistakes section, three to five items
  4. A 'when in doubt' line at the bottom

Keep my voice. Don't make up details I didn't say."

What good looks like

Tools you need: any phone voice memo app + any AI tool that takes long text input. Otter, Granola, or Apple's built-in transcribe work.

Time: fifteen-minute drive + five minutes of cleanup.

Verify: read it as if you were handing it to a new hire on day one. If a step is unclear, you skipped a beat on the drive. Re-record just that step and re-run the prompt with the addition.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 4 of 5

The bulk FAQ writer.


Customers ask the same twenty questions.
You have written down none of them.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 4 · Bulk FAQ writer

Brainstorm with you. Then write all twenty.

The prompt pattern, two passes

Pass 1:

"I run a {business type} that {serves who} doing {what}. List the twenty questions a new customer most commonly asks, ranked by frequency. Be specific to my business, not generic."

Edit the list. Add three you know are real. Remove two you don't get asked.

Pass 2:

"For each of these questions, write a 2 to 3 sentence answer. Tone: {your voice}. Where you'd need a specific number or policy, leave it as [BRACKETED]. I'll fill it in."

What good looks like

Tool to use: Claude or ChatGPT.

Time: ninety minutes including the bracket-filling pass.

Verify: never publish the bracketed placeholders. Search the doc for [ before you post it anywhere. That one habit prevents 100 percent of the "we forgot to fill in the discount code" disasters.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 5 of 5

The meeting actions.


You just got off a forty-five minute call with three decisions and five action items.
Nobody took notes.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Workflow 5 · Meeting actions

Transcript in. Decisions, actions, and follow-ups out.

The prompt pattern

"Here is a transcript of a {call type} with {who}: {paste}

Extract:

  1. Decisions made (what, by whom)
  2. Action items, each with: owner, deadline if mentioned, status
  3. Open questions we didn't resolve
  4. Follow-ups for next time

Mark anything where the owner or deadline is ambiguous so I can confirm with attendees."

What good looks like

Tools to use: any meeting recorder (Otter, Granola, Fathom, Zoom built-in) → paste into Claude or ChatGPT. Or use a tool like Granola that does both.

Time: thirty seconds after the call ends.

Verify: send the action-items list back to attendees within one hour. "Here's what I heard, push back if I got it wrong." The half-life of a misremembered action item is about two days.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Lab · ~20 minutes, hands-on

Pick one. Ship it now.


Open the tool you already pay for.
Pick the workflow that solves a real problem on your plate this week.
Run the prompt pattern from the slide.
Come back with the output and the verify step you did.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Lab debrief · Open mic

What did you build?

Share

  • Which workflow did you pick?
  • What was the prompt you actually used?
  • What surprised you about the output?
  • What did you change before you used it?
  • Where did the AI miss?

Patterns we usually see

  • Pass 1 is rarely the final draft. It is the structure. The voice comes from your edits in pass 2.
  • The verify step finds the same five mistakes every time: wrong names, wrong numbers, made-up policies, overconfident tone, and missing context.
  • The win is not "the AI did it." The win is "I did it in twenty minutes instead of two hours."
REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Pitfalls every owner hits in the first month

Five mistakes. All preventable.

# Mistake What to do instead
1 Trusting a confident answer. AI sounds sure even when it isn't. Ask for sources. Ask it to flag where it guessed. Spot-check three details.
2 Pasting private data into a free account. Free tools may train on what you paste. Use paid business plans for anything customer, financial, or legal. Or scrub before paste.
3 Skipping the verify step "just this once." The "just this once" is the email that goes out wrong. Verify is the workflow, not extra.
4 Defaulting to the biggest, most expensive model for every task. Cheap tier first. Only upgrade when the cheap tier visibly fails on your task.
5 One giant prompt instead of two clean passes. Brainstorm pass → edit → execute pass. Two prompts beat one every time.

If you only remember one of these tonight, make it #3. Verify is the workflow.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS

2-min

The verify habit you need to build into every workflow. Faster than re-doing the task. Cheaper than apologizing for the bad output.
REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Pricing reality check · May 2026

When the free tier is enough. When it isn't.

You're using AI for... Free is enough Pay $20 / mo for Pay $30+ / mo for
Drafting emails, summaries, short docs ✓ Almost always Higher message limits, voice mode, file upload —
Working with files (Excel, PDFs, CSVs) Limited ✓ ChatGPT Plus / Claude Pro —
Workflows inside Google or Office apps Demo-only — ✓ Gemini Workspace add-on / Copilot for 365
Long documents, careful writing, big context windows Limited ✓ Claude Pro (Artifacts + Projects) —
Anything customer-facing in production No No Custom GPTs / Claude Projects + a human review step

A workable monthly budget for a solo founder: $20 to $50 / month total, across one personal subscription + one workspace add-on. Set a spend cap on day one.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Take it home

Five workflows. Five weeks.


Don't try to do all five at once. One per week. Build the muscle.

  1. Week 1: The email drafter. Use it on the next five emails that need a thoughtful reply.
  2. Week 2: The voice-memo SOP. Pick one process. Talk it through on a drive. Clean it up.
  3. Week 3: The spreadsheet rescue. Next time you get a messy export, run it through Artifacts.
  4. Week 4: The bulk FAQ writer. Two-pass. Edit between. Post the results to your website or help desk.
  5. Week 5: The meeting actions. Start recording one meeting a week. Send the action list within an hour.

At the end of five weeks: you have five working workflows, you know which AI tool you actually prefer, and you've built the verify habit that protects you from the rest.

REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Keep going

Resources we built for you.

Hands-on labs

  • Compare 13 AI models side by side · rexblack.com/labs/compare-models
  • What is an AI agent? · rexblack.com/labs/agent-anatomy
  • AI tool selection for small business · rexblack.com/resources/talks/strive-may-2026
  • The six flaws of AI that never go away · rexblack.com/resources/talks/strive-apr-2026

Deeper reading

  • Choosing the right model (and knowing when to switch) · rexblack.com/resources/writing/ai-model-selection-framework
  • Workflow or agent? · rexblack.com/resources/writing/workflow-or-agent
  • Evaluation before shipping · rexblack.com/resources/writing/ai-evaluation-before-shipping

Production examples

  • AI-powered intake at scale · rexblack.com/case-studies/ai-veteran-intake
REX BLACK · PRACTICAL AI FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Since 1994

Thank you.

Rex Black, Inc. · rexblack.com

Open warm. "Today is not a lecture about AI. It is a working session. We are going to walk through five workflows you already do every week, the long way, and the short way using AI. Then you are going to pick one and try it live. By the end of the hour and a half you will have shipped at least one workflow in your own business."

Set the frame. Most small business owners think "prompt engineering" is a technical skill. It is not. It is the same skill as writing a clear brief for a contractor: who, what, why, what good looks like, what to avoid. If you can do that with a person, you can do it with these tools.

Orient the room. This is a working session. We are going to walk through five real workflows you do every week. Each one comes with the prompt I use, the tool I use, and how I verify before I send. By the end you should have a list of two or three workflows you are going to try this week, and the confidence to try them.

This is the realistic landscape as of right now. Pick one as your primary based on where your work lives. If you live in Google Sheets and Gmail, Gemini is the lowest-friction win because it shows up in the sidebar of the tools you already use. If you live in Excel and Outlook, Copilot. If you live in your browser, Claude or ChatGPT. Then add one of Claude or ChatGPT as your "thinking partner" for harder work. That is two subscriptions, $40 to $50 a month, all the surface area you need.

The most important shift in the last six months. Up until last year, you had to copy the AI output, paste it back into your real document, and hope. Now Claude Artifacts and ChatGPT Canvas show you a live preview of the document next to the chat. You see what it built. You ask for changes. It re-renders. You download. That is the missing piece that makes "first draft from AI, final pass from me" a real workflow instead of a copy-paste mess.

Setup. Everyone has had this exact problem. A 1,200-row export from Stripe or QuickBooks or HubSpot. Dates in three different formats. Duplicate rows. Half the customer names in ALL CAPS. You need a usable file in twenty minutes and you do not want to learn a pivot table on a Tuesday afternoon.

Live walkthrough. Drop in an actual file. The prompt is doing four things: telling it the source so it knows what columns to expect, telling it the operations in plain order, asking for the output format, and asking it to explain what it changed. That last bit is critical, it forces the tool to surface the parts it guessed at so you can verify them first.

Different problem. Same shape. You can do this with the AI tool of your choice or, if you are in Gmail or Outlook, with the sidebar that is already there. The trick is to give the AI the context it does not have.

This is the highest-leverage workflow for most owners. Most of your inbox is a small number of decision types, repeated. Once you have the three-version pattern (yes, no, stall), the AI is just doing the typing. You are doing the deciding.

The classic founder problem. The SOP is in your head and nobody else's. Writing it from scratch feels like a chore. Talking it through on a drive does not. Then you let the AI do the cleanup.

This is the workflow that compounds the most. Every SOP you have written is one less question your team asks you next month. The drive-and-talk format is the unlock, because writing is the friction, not thinking.

The classic "I should have done this two years ago" project. AI turns it into a ninety-minute afternoon, not a quarter-long content project.

The two-pass pattern matters. Pass 1 is collaborative, the AI is brainstorming with you. You edit. Pass 2 is execution, the AI is doing the typing on a list you approved. This same pattern works for blog ideas, product names, marketing angles, anything generative.

The recurring small-business tax. The decisions were good, the call was useful, and now half of it is going to fall out of your head by tomorrow. The fix is in two parts: get a transcript automatically, then extract structure from it after the fact.

This is the workflow that buys you the most goodwill from people you meet with. The fact that you sent a clean summary an hour after the call is the differentiation. The AI did the typing. The discipline of sending it is yours.

This is the working block. Twenty minutes. Use your phone, use your laptop, use the AI tool you already have. The prompts are on the slides we just covered. The point is not to do all five tonight. The point is to ship one. Then you have proof, and the others fall in line.

Open mic. Get four or five people to share their actual prompt and output. The shared prompts are worth more than another forty slides of advice. The people who built nothing learn the most from the people who built something.

Walk through these slowly. Every one is a real story from a real engagement. The verify-skip is the one that ends careers, not relationships. The biggest-model default is the one that ends budgets.

Land it. Two minutes. That is the cost of the verify habit. Read it. Check the names. Spot-check three numbers. Confirm with the source if it's high stakes. Two minutes. Less than the time you'd spend wondering whether you missed something.

Most founders we work with end up at one of two setups. Setup A: Claude Pro at $20 a month for thinking + Gemini Workspace at $20 a month because they live in Google. Setup B: ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month for everything + Copilot at $30 a month because they live in Office. Forty to fifty dollars a month. Set a hard spend cap in the billing settings on day one so a runaway API call does not surprise you.

This is the take-home plan. Five weeks. One workflow at a time. The compounding is the point. By week five you are using AI in your daily work without thinking about it, which is the goal. "AI as a tool, not a project."

Last functional slide. Everything we have on AI for small business in one place. Bookmark this talk's URL, you can come back any time and the labs and articles are always there.

Hold the contact slide while you take questions. Stay on this slide for the conversation.