AI for Solopreneurs: Practical Use Cases That Save You Time

There's a lot of noise about AI right now. Big promises about what it can do and no shortage of predictions about what it'll replace.

But for solopreneurs running real businesses, the question is much simpler: how can AI actually help me?

If you've tried AI and gotten generic, off-brand output (or worse, spent more time prompting than it would have taken to just do the task yourself), you're not alone. A lot of solopreneurs feel like AI is a solution looking for a problem to solve.

AI isn't magic, and it definitely won't "run your business for you." But it is genuinely useful for specific types of work — the repeatable, the tedious, and the tasks where a human shouldn't be spending their time. The trick is knowing which parts of your business those are.

Why AI works for solo business (even if you're skeptical)

Business is built on repeatable processes. Unlike personal use cases (no one needs AI to decide what to cook for dinner), business tasks follow patterns. And patterns are where AI really shines.

I spent years working with small, community banks before going solo. Small banks can't throw endless money and people at problems the way big banks can. They have to automate back-office processes so they can spend more time serving their customers and focusing on relationships.

Solopreneurs are in the same position. You have limited time and resources. Automation is necessary unless you want to spend your days doing repetitive (albeit necessary) tasks.

By using AI, you're freeing yourself to do the work that actually requires your brain and your expertise.

The "should a human be doing this?" litmus test

Before you throw everything at AI and hope for the best, start with one question: should a human actually be doing this task?

Here's how I think about it: if there's no joy and no judgment required — it's probably an AI task. A client once gave me a Google Sheet with 27 lines that each needed to be turned into separate Google Docs with specific formatting. The human work was the editing of the Google Doc’s content. The copying and reformatting? That's robot work. Claude did it in 30 seconds.

The gray area is content, strategy, and creative work. AI can help there for tasks like repurposing a blog post into social posts — but only if you've done the upfront work of defining your process and your brand voice. Without that foundation, you'll get output that sounds like every other AI-generated blog post on The Internet.

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How AI fits into a solopreneur's workflow

I've always been an automation enthusiast (I’ve been using Zapier for years). AI filled a role where I’d hit the limits of what I could do with automation alone. But if you haven’t done much with automation before, it’s hard to see where AI “fits.”

Here are a few ways to incorporate AI into your work.

Reformatting and data processing

AI can move information between formats — spreadsheets to docs, transcripts to outlines, raw data to structured content. This is definitely in the "no human should do this" category. It's tedious, time-consuming, and there’s no creativity involved.

I’ve even used AI to convert a whole bunch of .png files to .jpg files, while also compressing the file size, because I needed a different output for a project.

If you're spending chunks of your week copying and reformatting data, that's time you're not spending on work that actually moves your business forward. These are the easiest tasks to hand off to AI because the instructions and the end result are clear.

Research and synthesis

AI is good at scanning large amounts of information quickly — competitor research, industry trends, source gathering for articles, etc. It can pull together raw material in minutes that would take you hours to compile manually.

The gathering and summarizing are the parts that save you time. You're still the one who decides what matters and what to do with it. Think of it as a research assistant who's very fast at reading but needs you to tell them what's important.

Drafting and iteration

Outlines, first drafts, variations for social media — AI gets you to a starting point faster. It’s a lot easier to edit something than to stare at a blank page. But this only works if you've given AI enough context about your voice and your audience.

For example, I host free webinars for solopreneurs. The landing page and announcement emails follow the same format every time. Claude can work from templates, reference my voice and tone guide, and write a first draft based on the webinar’s topic. Then I edit it (sometimes heavily) before sending.

You have to set guidelines around how you’ll use AI and what you’re willing to let AI draft for you. If you’re not comfortable with an outline, draft, or social media repurposing, don’t do it.

Building custom tools

I built a simple dashboard that pulls data from four different sources into one view — something I couldn't do before without opening four separate apps. Had Claude build it in an afternoon, and now it’s something I look at every day.

You don't have to build a full-blown product. You can build little tools for yourself that solve problems nobody else is willing to solve or that are specific to you.

Within your solopreneur tech stack, you probably have data spread across multiple apps. A custom tool or dashboard makes it a lot easier to see what you need to work on.

AI tools for a solo business

These are the tools I actually use in my business. Not a comprehensive list, but the ones that I use most frequently.

• Claude: My primary AI tool. I use it for first drafts of my content, data processing, building custom tools, and thinking through problems.
• Zapier [affiliate link*]: Connects tools and automates workflows between them. I run about 1,500 tasks per month through Zapier, and also use AI by Zapier.
• Notion AI [affiliate link*]: Built into Notion for drafting and organizing content within your existing workspace. Notion has become a major hub for me because of how well it connects to Claude.
• MCPs (Model Context Protocol): These let you connect your tools directly to AI. I've connected Airtable, Kit, and more to Claude so it can pull and push data without me switching between apps.

You can't automate chaos

If you don't understand your own process, AI won't either. The first step to using AI effectively is knowing how you actually get work done.

Start by picking a well-established task in your business. Break it into steps. Which steps require your brain, and which are just copying or processing? Hand the latter over to AI and see what happens. You might be surprised how much of your week was spent on work a robot can do in seconds.

Not sure which tools are actually worth trying?
Here's a list to get you started.

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