Productivity tools are a hot topic this week, with Google recently integrating its Gemini AI model across its entire digital workspace.
Users have noticed AI features popping up in Gmail, Docs, Meet, Chat, and more, offering to summarise, write, and provide insights in moments.
The new features have been divisive. While some users enjoy AI-enhanced workflows, others find these tools more distracting than helpful.
Virtual assistants like these aren’t a new phenomenon. They’re part of a lineage of tools that harks back to Microsoft’s much-maligned Clippy, and looks likely to persist into the future. But do small-business owners really benefit from the increasing number of intrusive, AI-powered features making their way into software?
AI assistants are a time-saving ally for some
ISB heard from numerous business owners about the productivity tools that truly help them run their business – and what features have served only as distractions.
Lauren Clemett is one small-business owner who has embraced an AI-augmented workflow. The CEO of the Audacious Agency has found the feature especially valuable for research tasks.
“We use Gemini because it links nicely into the entire Google Workspace, enabling us to have Gemini go looking for content off our Google Drive,” she explained. “It can search through multiple documents, meeting transcriptions, past work and strategic plans so fast that I would estimate that it’s reduced the time taken on research to now be minutes rather than hours.”
Clemett wasn’t the only entrepreneur who said she was saving hours by using AI assistants. Nicola Greentree, the founder of Evagreen consulting, praised both Co-Pilot and Gemini.
“Far from being a distraction, these tools have become a must have for us,” she said. “They save us about eight to ten hours a week.”
Nathan Schokker of Safe Company has enjoyed the rollout of AI features in his existing software stack.
“Rather than leaping at all of these AI tools, more so enabling and switching on AI within our current tech stack has proven very beneficial – within our CRM, Slack and Illustrator, for instance.”
When AI becomes a distraction
Not every small-business owner enjoyed working so closely with an AI assistant.
“To be totally honest, tools like Gemini sometimes feel like the modern-day version of Clippy popping up with suggestions you didn’t ask for,” complained Tyson Butter, the General Manager of Pet Parking.
Butter said that his team prefers tools that “might not be as flashy as AI assistants”, like Trello and Asana.
“I love the idea of AI swooping in to automate tasks, but it has to fit seamlessly into our workflow to really make a difference,” he said.
Chai Bade of the events platform Bunchups expressed a similar sentiment.
“While tools like Gemini and Copilot are exciting, I’ve found their value depends on the user’s ability to integrate them seamlessly into workflows,” he said. “For instance, Gemini’s AI capabilities have potential, but excessive notifications or poorly targeted suggestions can occasionally be more of a distraction than a benefit.”
Like Butter, Chai steers clear of AI assistants in favour of tools like Asana, Zapier, and Notion. These he uses for task management, automation, and resource management, respectively.
Top productivity tools among small-business owners
Overall, the most popular productivity tools among small-business owners were Trello, Asana, Monday, ChatGPT, Grammarly, and Gemini.
“Unlike some AI tools that try to anticipate what I need – and sometimes miss the mark – Trello gives me a clear, visual way to manage my workflow without unnecessary interruptions,” said business owner Rachel Lake.
“I use ChatGPT daily – sometimes instead of Google – to generate ideas, draft content, and even solve business challenges,” said Michael Black of Success Tutoring.
Beau Ushay of Virtual Marketing Management uses AI productivity tools strictly for collaboration purposes, and steers clear of using them for generating ideas.
“I understand there are the usual use cases [for AI assistants] – write, refine, summarise – but they’re not useful to me,” said the small-business owner. “I’m definitely not an early adopter with Gemini and mainly ignore most of the prompts.”
Ushay explained that he uses Monday as a Gaant chart tool for project management, and Trello as a task management tool and to-do list. Outside of this, he prefers an analogue approach to working.
“I’m a vocal advocate for doing the work yourself, so you exercise your brain instead of outsourcing your thinking,” said Ushay. “I think this is a far more effective way to build value for myself, my clients and my businesses.
“The idea is that AI only puts rocket fuel in an already winning formula. You need to get the formula right first, rather than trying to get AI to give you one.”
