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How small businesses are putting AI tools to work
Owners are handing bookkeeping, email, meeting notes and scheduling to AI, often inside software they already pay for.
In several of the tools below, the AI is not a separate product. It is part of software an owner may already use, such as the accounting app, the email account or the calendar, and it takes on routine work: sorting expenses, drafting invoices, writing up a call, finding a time for a meeting.
The ten tools below cover four kinds of work: bookkeeping, email and documents, meetings, and planning the day. Prices are in US dollars, and the limits on the cheaper plans matter as much as the price.
Bookkeeping and invoices
Three accounting apps have added AI to the everyday work of keeping the books. QuickBooks Online is accounting software for small business. Once a bank, credit card or other account is connected, it imports expenses and sorts them into categories automatically, which replaces the manual sorting. It also covers invoicing, expense tracking and reports, and includes an AI Chat feature, though with limited capacity. The Simple Start plan costs $19 a month for one user, with access for two accountants, and there is a 30-day trial. Tracking how profitable each project is comes with Plus at $70 a month, and Advanced, at $170 a month, covers 25 users.
Xero's AI, called JAX, answers questions about cash flow, profit trends and the financial health of the business. It can also create invoices and quotes from a request made in Xero itself, on WhatsApp, by text or by email. Smart Document Capture pulls bills and receipts into the books. The entry plan, Early, costs $2.50 a month for the first six months and then $25 a month, but its limits are low: 20 invoices and 5 bills. Automated bill entry and automatic bank reconciliation come with the Growing plan, and a 180-day cash flow forecast with Established, at $9 a month and then $90 a month. Xero Payroll, powered by Gusto, costs $36 a month plus $6 for each employee or contractor. There are apps for Android and iPhone.
Zoho Books has a free plan, aimed at solopreneurs and micro businesses, that covers one user plus an accountant. It handles invoices, quotes, expenses and journals, bank reconciliation and reports, and it can track 1099 contractors and prepare and file their 1099s. Its AI lets an owner ask questions in plain English, spot anomalies early and automate collections. The Standard plan costs $15 per organization a month, billed annually, for three users, and inventory tracking comes with Professional at $40. Zoho Books runs on iOS, Android, Mac and Windows.
For a business that sends only a few invoices a month, the free and low-cost tiers may be enough. The limits show up as it grows: the invoice cap on Xero's Early plan, the single user on QuickBooks Simple Start, and inventory tracking one plan up on Zoho Books.
Email, documents and bookings
Google Workspace with Gemini brings Gemini into the apps that businesses on Google Workspace already use every day, including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Chat and Vids. The Starter plan, from $7.00 per user a month, puts the Gemini AI assistant in Gmail and includes chat with AI in the Gemini app. Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Meet and Chat is not supported on Starter, though. That needs Standard, at $14.00 per user a month, which also adds appointment booking pages and eSignature with Docs and PDFs.
In Meet, Gemini can summarize, translate and take notes during a meeting. Starter includes 30 GB of pooled storage per person, and there is a 14-day trial. The choice between the two plans is the main decision here: on Starter the AI stays in the inbox, while on Standard it reaches documents and meetings as well.
Meetings and call notes
Meeting note takers are the largest group in this guide. Each one records or listens to a call, writes a transcript and turns it into a summary with action items. The differences lie in how they join the call, how much the free plan allows and what the paid tier adds.
Fathom's free plan covers the basics: unlimited recordings and transcriptions and AI call summaries. Users can choose between a bot that joins the call and bot-free capture, which is a beta feature for Mac. Advanced call summaries and AI-generated action items come with Premium at $16, and the Team plan is $15 per user a month with a two-user minimum. Meeting notes, insights and action items can sync automatically with Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion and Asana.
Fireflies.ai can be invited to a live meeting or set to join calendar meetings on its own, then records, transcribes and summarizes them. Its free plan has unlimited transcription but limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team and 20 AI credits. Pro, from $10 per seat a month billed annually, adds unlimited AI summaries, video recording, an Email Assistant and unlimited integrations. Conversation intelligence and team analytics are on Business at $19 per seat a month.
Fellow records, transcribes and summarizes meetings on Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, as well as in-person sessions, and picks out action items. Ask Fellow can turn a conversation into a follow-up email, a document and more. The free plan is small: five AI notes and five AI recordings per user for the life of the account. The Team plan, at $7 per user a month billed annually, allows 10 AI notes per user a month and adds meeting automations, project management integrations and API access. Unlimited notes and recordings are on Business at $15.
Granola works differently. It uses the computer's audio, so no bot joins the call, and it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and other meeting apps. It syncs with the calendar and prepares a brief before each external meeting, and the notes, action items and follow-ups are ready when the meeting ends. The free Basic plan keeps 30 days of meeting history and leaves out the pre-meeting briefs. Business, at $14 per user a month, has unlimited notes and history. Granola runs on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.
Otter.ai joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet to write and share notes, and it can also record from a Mac or Windows desktop without a bot joining. It transcribes English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. The free Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month, up to 30 minutes per conversation, three lifetime file imports and 20 AI Chat queries per user. Pro costs $8.33 per user a month and brings the Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier integrations.
Two questions narrow the field. The first is whether clients will accept a bot in the call: Granola and Otter's desktop recording work without one, and Fathom offers bot-free capture in beta on Mac. The second is volume. Fellow's five lifetime notes and Otter's 300 monthly minutes will not last long for someone on calls all day, while Fathom's free plan puts no cap on recordings.
Planning the day
Motion covers more ground than a note taker. It is a productivity platform that puts projects, tasks, a calendar, meetings, docs and notes in one place, with AI in each. Its AI Calendar Assistant plans the day and schedules meetings automatically, and its AI Meeting Notetaker takes notes and follows up with action items. It connects with Zoom, Google Meet, Gmail, Outlook, Teams and Slack, and there are apps for iOS, Android and desktop.
Pro AI costs $19 per seat a month and includes 7,500 AI credits. Business AI doubles the credits to 15,000 and adds team capacity planning, advanced dashboards and reports, timeline and Gantt charts, and time tracking. Motion is meant for solo professionals and small teams that want scheduling, meeting notes and task planning handled in one app.
What to weigh up
Most of these tools charge per user or per seat, so the bill grows with the team. A one-person business pays the entry price once; a team of five pays it five times, and a minimum such as Fathom's two users on the Team plan sets a floor.
The tools also overlap. Motion and Google Workspace on its Standard plan both take meeting notes, and QuickBooks Online, Xero and Zoho Books all send invoices. An owner who already pays for one of them may find that the AI they want is a plan upgrade away rather than a new subscription.
