AI for Virtual Assistants and Freelancers

The Power of AI: Enhancing Client Service for Virtual Assistants and Freelancers

In today’s fast-paced digital world, virtual assistants, writers, and other freelancers play an important role in providing skilled services to other business owners. However, as the needs and expectations of clients increase, it’s important for these service providers to stay up to date on new tools and resources that can help them maximize their time and productivity. And yes, this includes the “new” kid on the block… Artificial Intelligence (AI). Using AI for virtual assistants and freelancers is a hot topic right now. Before going any further, let’s first define what AI is.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

According to dictionary.com, AI is defined as:

• The capacity of a computer, robot, or other programmed mechanical device to perform operations and tasks analogous to learning and decision making in humans, as speech recognition or question answering.
• A computer, robot, or other programmed mechanical device having this human-like capacity:
• The branch of computer science involved with the design of computers or other programmed mechanical devices having the capacity to imitate human intelligence and thought.

In other words, it’s kind of like having a smart computer that can think and learn on its own.

Should Virtual Assistants, Writers, & Other Freelancers Be Worried That AI Will Replace Them?

As more and more people jump on the AI bandwagon, service providers like virtual assistants, writers, social media managers, and more, are voicing their concerns about whether their clients are going to start replacing them with AI.

Sure, it’s a legitimate concern, but AI can only do so much and there is no way it can replace human creativity or experience! It lacks a personal voice and don’t forget that it often spits out misinformation and needs to be fact-checked! So rather than wasting precious time and energy worrying about AI replacing you, you can better use that time & energy to focus on using AI to complement the services you provide!

By implementing AI in your business, it can help you streamline some of your workflow, optimize your time (and so much more) so you can focus on what really matters – ensuring you deliver exceptional value to your clients. Using AI for virtual assistants and freelancers makes sense.

Your clients could spend time training AI to output decent stuff, for sure, if they have the time and want to spend the time doing that. But once it’s created someone still needs to upload it to the different social media platforms, someone still has to choose images to go with it, someone still has to load the content up into blogs.

In other words, AI only speeds up one little portion of the process so highlighting to your clients that you do these things will remind them you’re still an asset to them and their business!

So, remember, AI does not replace you. Instead, it speeds you up! AI becomes YOUR strategic assistant supplementing your experience and creativity, not replacing it!
Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s explore how you can leverage AI to enhance client services.

6 Ways You Can Use AI In Your Service Based Business to Enhance Client Services

We’ve already talked about some of the benefits of using AI in your business. Now let’s look at six ways you can utilize AI to enhance the services you provide.

Chatbots for Quicker Response Times

As a freelancer, responding to customer inquiries is an essential part of your business. By implementing a chatbot to answer frequently asked questions, you’ll always be available to respond – even when you’re sleeping or taking time off – to ensure quicker response times!

One thing worth mentioning – it probably wouldn’t make sense to use a chatbot to respond to current client requests as that would be impersonal and for lack of a better phrase, on the unprofessional side. Once you’re working with a client, it’s about building a relationship with them and a chatbot isn’t a way to do that 😉

Content Creation

Think about your current process for creating content. Let’s say your client asks you to create a blog post about a topic you’re not familiar with. The first thing you’ll need to do is spend some time researching that topic to familiarize yourself with it. Then maybe you spend some time outlining what you want to include in the post. Then you need to come up with a title. And then of course there’s the writing of the content itself. Maybe this whole process takes you three hours, if not longer.

But now if you implement AI as the powerful tool, it is, you can use it to brainstorm the topic and come up with title suggestions, talking points, an opening and closing paragraph, and even write an entire post on the given topic! And even if it ends up taking you an hour to work with AI and wordsmith what it produces, that’s still a couple hours saved!

With the time saved, you can then load the post up on your client’s website, find an image (or images) to go with it and schedule the post to publish – just a few more ways you can show your client what having you on board helps them accomplish!

Social Media

Social media marketing can be a great way for someone to grow their business. Unfortunately, it’s also time consuming to manage a presence on multiple social platforms and to keep up with consistent posting on each. Which is where you come into the picture for your client 😉 You can easily take this out of their hands if you’re not already doing it.

With the help of AI, you can create social media content quicker and easily tailor it to fit each of the different platforms (instead of creating one post and using it for all the platforms, like many people still do)!

Let’s look at an example of what I mean – here’s one social media post that is tailored to each specific platform:

Main post:

Are you ready to ditch the sugar habit for good? I’ve created a brand new 21-day sugar detox challenge to help women in their 40’s who are struggling with cravings, mood swings, and energy crashes. If you’re ready to kick your sugar habit for good, join me for 21 days of support, guidance, and encouragement as we all work together to break free of this unhealthy addiction once and for all! Sign up today:

Then I asked AI to: ‘rewrite the following content so that it can be used as a Twitter post with one hashtag’ (and pasted the above content) and below is the output it gave:

Twitter (Now known as X) specific post:

Say goodbye to sugar cravings, mood swings, and energy crashes! Join my 21-day sugar detox challenge designed for women in their 40s. Get the support you need to break free from this unhealthy addiction. #sugardetox

Once it was done creating that, I used this command: ‘now can you take that content and turn it into a social media post that can be used on Facebook with no hashtags?’ Here’s what it spit out.

Facebook specific post:

Are you ready to say goodbye to sugar cravings, mood swings, and energy crashes?
I’m excited to announce the launch of my 21-day sugar detox challenge, designed specifically for women in their 40s who are struggling with these issues.
Join us for 21 days of support, guidance, and encouragement as we all work together to break free from this unhealthy addiction once and for all!
Click the link to sign up today:

Finally, I gave the command: ‘now use that content to create an Instagram post with several relevant hashtags and use some emojis too.’

Instagram specific post:

Say goodbye to sugar cravings, mood swings, and energy crashes!
Join my 21-day sugar detox challenge that I specifically designed, from my own personal experience, for women in their 40s.
Get the support you need to break free from this unhealthy addiction.
Click the link in my bio to sign up today!

#sugardetox #healthylifestyle #sugaraddiction #sugarfree #healthyliving #healthylife #wellness #selfcare #fitover40 #healthjourney #healthgoals

You can see that the same content is used for each social post, but AI was able to make it specific to each platform (i.e. hashtags & emojis for Instagram).

AI can also bulk create social posts for one platform too. For example, I created 8 Instagram posts (in a matter of seconds, mind you!) using this command: ‘generate 8 Instagram posts about the negative side effects of sugar addiction.’ And this is what it output:

1. Did you know that sugar addiction can lead to weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes? It’s time to kick the habit and start living a healthier life! #sugaraddiction #healthylifestyle #sugardetox
2. Feeling tired and sluggish all the time? Sugar addiction could be to blame. Join our 21-day sugar detox challenge and start feeling more energized today! #sugarcravings #energyboost #healthyliving
3. Sugar addiction can wreak havoc on your skin, causing acne, wrinkles, and other blemishes. Say goodbye to sugar and hello to clear, healthy skin! #sugarskincare #acnefree #healthyskin
4. Did you know that sugar addiction can lead to mood swings and anxiety? Break free from this unhealthy cycle and start feeling more balanced and at ease. #sugarwithdrawal #anxietyrelief #mentalhealth
5. Sugar addiction can also lead to tooth decay and gum disease. Protect your oral health by cutting back on sugar and practicing good dental hygiene! #sugarteeth #oralhealth #dentalcare
6. Are you struggling with digestive issues like bloating, gas, and constipation? Sugar addiction could be the culprit. Join our sugar detox challenge and start healing your gut today! #sugardigestion #guthealth #digestivehealth
7. Sugar addiction can also lead to brain fog, memory loss, and difficulty concentrating. Get your mental clarity back by reducing your sugar intake and fueling your brain with healthy foods. #sugarbrain #mentalclarity #brainfood
8. Did you know that sugar addiction can increase your risk of cancer? Take control of your health and reduce your sugar intake to lower your cancer risk. #sugarcancer #healthylifestyle #cancerprevention

It’s exciting to see what AI can do for you when it comes to creating social media content for you clients. Want to really impress your client so they’re singing your praises? After you’ve created some social media content for them, head on over to Canva and turn those social media posts into graphics! And if you know how to do it, there’s even a quick and easy way to bulk create graphics in Canva (it does require a Canva Pro (paid) account, though). If you’re not sure how to do this, a simple Google Search will give you a ton of free tutorials to choose from.

Video

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could approach a client and pitch to them how you will provide a month’s worth of YouTube video content ideas so they can release one new video a week? But not just the ideas. You would give them everything they need to simply sit down and hit the record button!
Yep, with the help of AI on your side you can give them everything they need for creating those videos:

• Video title – that’s click worthy (but not click bait)
• Video hook – that will grab the attention of a viewer straight away, enticing them to keep watching!
• Video description – that is compelling and gives more details into what the video is about.
• Video Outline/Script – that provides a structure for how their video should flow so that it keeps their audience engaged from start to finish.

You could even create a YouTube channel description for them (or redo a current version they have) with the help of AI! And don’t forget you can do the editing (with the help of AI of course), uploading and publishing the videos too! Using AI for virtual assistants and freelancers changes everything.

Email

Email marketing is an essential part of any business, but consistently creating effective emails can be both time-consuming and challenging. But it doesn’t have to be that way any longer! AI can help lighten the load.

There are numerous emails that AI can help create:

• Welcome email – personalized emails for new subscribers or customers.
• Promotional email – encourage a subscriber to act on a call to action (CTA).
• Testimonial email – highlight a testimonial from a happy customer that shares specifics about how the product/service helped them.
• Anticipation email – (create buzz/anticipation for new products or services, book releases, and more!)
• Discount promo email – create an email to help boost sales with a special limited time discount.

Talk to any number of business owners and most of them will tell you that they find creating engaging emails frustrating because they often don’t know what to write or have the time to do it consistently. Offering to handle this task is a great way to enhance the services you provide for a client.

Transcription

Let’s say, for example, you handle the production of a client’s podcast – from transcribing the audio for show notes, timestamps, and more, to loading it to their website and publishing.

Having to transcribe audio files manually is very time consuming as you are probably aware. But thanks to AI, gone are the days of old school transcription! Now you can make use of AI to do the transcription portion for you!

Once that’s done, you’ll need to proof the document and make any edits that are needed, add timestamps (if needed) and anything else you may do like brand the document if your client offers the show notes as a PDF download, for example. Then get it loaded to their website/podcast episode page and it’s good to go. Now can you see that using AI for virtual assistants and freelancers is an excellent idea?

So, yes AI takes out the human element of ONE portion of this process. Your client still needs you to handle the things AI can’t do, though. And if this isn’t something you’re already doing, this is an excellent way to approach a client and let them know you can help them with this process.
List of AI transcription tools:

• Otter.Ai
• Speak AI
• Trint
• Rev Auto Audio Transcription
• Descript     -Get a free account!

We’ve just looked at five different ways you can use AI in your freelance business. But there really is so much more you can do when using it as YOUR assistant. People are teaching AI new things all the time – what will you teach it to do to help elevate your service offerings even more?We’ve just looked at five different ways you can use AI in your freelance business. But there really is so much more you can do when using it as YOUR assistant. People are teaching AI new things all the time – what will you teach it to do to help elevate your service offerings even more?

Ethics of AI as a freelancer

As with many other tools and resources out there, when it comes to AI there are people on both ends of the spectrum (those who love it and think there’s nothing wrong with using it & others who hate it and think there is something wrong using with it). So, let’s talk a bit about the ethics of AI as a freelancer.
Is it important that you reveal to your clients that you are using AI? Do you think clients care that you’ve set up your process?

I think they care IF they are paying you per hour and they believe something took you 5 hours to do, and you’re charging them for 5 hours, but behind the scenes you used AI to cut that process in half (and it only took 2 1/2 hours), then ethically, yes I think they would feel like you deceived them and overcharged them… Not Acceptable!

But if you have developed package pricing where the promise has always been this is what will be completed at the end of this package, here’s the package price and you’re doing something behind the scenes that makes that package get done faster, then no I don’t think it’s unethical to use AI to speed that up.

That’s not any more unethical than it would be to use other resources that speeds things up like the old school transcription tools (think foot pedal) people used to use, or editing tools, or outsourcing (for example if you’re selling packages to clients and then outsource a part of that work to somebody you’ve added to your team that you pay less per hour than what you charge). It’s just smart business!

There’s a clear difference between a package price and hourly pricing! If you’re currently charging per hour, offer some package options as well – your clients will appreciate knowing exactly what they’re getting for how much, upfront! It’s a win/win situation for all.

In wrapping up, what I want to leave you with is this…

Remember, leveraging tools is good for business and having explored just a handful of the possibilities that AI can bring to your freelancing business, I hope you’re filled with excitement for the impact it can have on enhancing your client services!

Seize the awesome opportunity it presents so you can elevate your offerings while consistently delivering exceptional value to your clients. Using AI for virtual assistants and freelancers makes sense. Get ready to embark on an exciting journey that is the limitless potential of AI!

Resources

AI Options for Writing

• Chat GPT – Free & Paid Version
• Copy.AI – Free for up to 2,000 words a month
• Jasper – Free 7-day trial
• Chatsonic – Free trial for up to 10,000 words

AI Options for Research (Conversational Outputs)

• YouChat – Free at time of writing this
• Perplexity – Free at time of writing this

AI Options for Transcribing/Editing

• Otter.Ai
• Speak AI
• Trint
• Rev Auto Audio Transcription
• Descript – Get a free account!

AI Options – Google

• Google’s Bard AI – Free at time of writing this

AI Options – Microsoft

• Microsoft’s Bing AI – (web browser AI); not sure on pricing – found info that said it’s free for up to 1,000 requests & other info said $28 for 1,000 requests.

Make Your Own Chat Bot

• Botsonic – Wasn’t able to find pricing
• Intercom – Starting from $74/month
• Appy Pie – Free 7-day trial then starting at $6/month (looks like only annual billing available)
• ManyChat – Free up to 1,000 contacts then starting at $15/month
• ChatBot – Free trial then starting at $65/month or $52/month (if paid annually)

As you can see, using AI for virtual assistants and freelancers makes sense on many levels. I hope I’ve provided you with some food for thought here.

NOTE: The ONLY training on using AI – Artificial Intelligence responsibly to build and grow your business and for personal use is from Denise Wakeman and Andy O’Bryan, people I know well and continue to learn from in many areas. Take a look at the training they teach on achieving success with AI an ongoing basis, and please consider coming aboard!

I’m bestselling Wall Street Journal and USA Today author, marketing strategist, and entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and I would love to connect further with you to help you to achieve your goals. If you are interested in learning how to optimize the syndication of your content, please take a look at my popular Syndication Optimization training course (Use Discount Code INDEPENDENCE) and consider coming aboard to increase your visibility, credibility, and profitability.