One assistant, taught properly.
Most small businesses don’t need five AI tools. They need one main AI assistant, taught about their business and connected to the email, calendar and customer records they already use.
Henny Maltby25 years in marketing · Growth Hub Premier Partner · 23 October 2026
!How many are you paying for? Lots of little costs that don’t talk to each other.
Every AI tool solves one small job. One writes captions. One makes images. One takes meeting notes. One promises to do your SEO. Each one is only a few pounds a month, so it never feels like a big decision. Then you look at your bank statement.
It’s become such a common problem that small business owners on Reddit’s AI forums are asking whether they’re wasting money on tools that overlap, and on half used subscriptions left running on autopay. I hear the same on my own calls. Owners tell me that tools and subscriptions “add up really quickly”. Many have already paid separately for a web developer, then SEO, then a designer, and ended up with lots of little costs that don’t talk to each other.
There’s another side to it too. The IONOS and YouGov survey of 1,001 UK small business decision makers found that 29% plan to put no budget at all into AI this year, and a quarter would only use free tools. I understand why. If the last five tools didn’t pay for themselves, why would the sixth?
The answer isn’t more tools. It’s one tool that actually knows your business.
The setup
Three things. That’s it.
ChatGPT or Claude. One paid account, used for writing, research, planning, summarising and much more. This replaces most of the single job tools.
A set of notes your AI reads first: who your customers are, what you sell, how you talk, your prices and your rules. This is what stops it sounding generic.
Link your AI to your email, calendar and CRM, so it can find conversations, draft replies and suggest who to follow up today.
A quick word on CRM, because people often ask. It stands for customer relationship management, but all it really means is one place that keeps track of your customers and enquiries: who they are, what you discussed and what needs to happen next.
How it works for me
I used to employ a designer, a web developer and a PA. As each one moved on, I didn’t replace them, because AI now does that work alongside me and Chris, my web developer. Pink Elephant is now two people.
I’ve connected Claude to my email, my CRM (I use Pipedrive) and Zoom. I can ask it to find every past conversation with a certain type of contact and it does it in about 30 seconds. It scores my leads, suggests who to contact today and drafts the emails for me to approve. After a client call it writes the follow up around what we agreed and adds it to my CRM.
None of that needed five tools. It needed one assistant that knows my business and can see where my information lives.
I just use one AI for all of it
My honest answer
It’s the question I’m asked more than any other, so here’s my honest answer: either works. Pick one and teach it. The business that teaches an ordinary AI about itself will get far better results than the business that buys the “best” AI and tells it nothing.
I use Claude, because it connects to my email, Pipedrive and Zoom in the way I like to work. Plenty of owners do brilliantly with ChatGPT. Both have a free version and a paid monthly plan, and prices change, so check the current UK price on each provider’s own website before you sign up. Then use this to decide.
Privacy is usually the first worry, and rightly so. When Anthropic surveyed small business owners, data security was the most cited barrier, and the first question at their events was whether their data would be used to train the models. Check that setting first, whichever tool you choose.
When things won’t connect
Not every tool does, and that’s fine. Some booking systems and calendars don’t connect easily to everything. Apple Calendar is a good example. You might need a booking tool that syncs with Google Calendar, or accept working in two places for a while.
Where a tool won’t connect, you can almost always export your data as a spreadsheet or CSV file and give that to your AI. Or simply copy and paste. LinkedIn automation tools don’t connect into Claude, for instance, but you can download your own data from LinkedIn and work with that.
Set it up once, properly
In the AI Marketing Academy you build your own AI Marketing Brain and connect it to the tools you already use, step by step, whatever your business. Your only running cost is the AI tool you choose. The full Academy opens on 14 November.
Your subscription check
Set aside half an hour with your bank statement and work through this checklist.
Try this today
Copy this prompt into ChatGPT or Claude and paste in your list of subscriptions underneath. Only include the tool names and prices, never any account details.
I run a small business and I’m paying for too many tools. Below is a list of every subscription I pay for, with what it costs and what I use it for. (I’ve only included the tool names and prices, no account details.)
For each one, tell me:
1. Whether a single AI assistant could do the same job
2. Whether it connects to my email, calendar or customer records
3. Your suggestion: keep, cancel, or review in three months, and why
Then give me the total I could save each month if I followed your suggestions.
[Paste your list here]
Measure it
By measuring it, which most people never do. Keep a simple note for a month: time saved on emails and posts, enquiries followed up that would otherwise have slipped, and anything you stopped paying someone else for. If the number isn’t worth more than the subscription, something needs changing.
If you want to go further, Your AI Marketing Brain shows you how to build the Brain and set up your one main assistant properly, so it knows your business from day one. Find Out What’s Working, and What’s Wasting Money (coming soon) helps you see which parts of your marketing and spending bring in customers, and which you can stop.
Want a quick picture first? The free marketing review takes about 8 minutes, looks your business up and shows you where you’re losing customers.
Your questions answered
The questions I’m asked most when owners are deciding which AI tool to keep.
Either works well. The difference that matters is not the tool, it’s whether you teach it about your business and connect it to the things you already use. Try both free versions on a real task, pick the one you prefer, and stick with it.
The free versions are a good place to test. Before you commit to free only, check what the free plan lets you save, how much you can use it, what it connects to and what its privacy settings are.
A CRM is simply a place that keeps track of your customers and enquiries: who they are, what you talked about and what happens next. If enquiries ever slip through the cracks, you’ll benefit from one, and connecting it to your AI means follow ups get drafted for you.
Most tools let you export your data as a spreadsheet or CSV file, which you can give to your AI. You can also copy and paste. For calendars, a booking tool that syncs with Google Calendar often solves the problem.
Where to start
Register now and be first in when the full Academy opens. You’ll build an AI Marketing Brain you keep for good, connected to the tools you already use.
Your only running cost is the AI tool you choose, so you can cancel the drawer full of single job tools and put one assistant to work properly.
Start today with the free course, How Marketing Really Works, then build your Brain step by step.
Want to talk it through first?
My private 1:1 marketing sessions are worth £150 an hour, and your first hour is free. We’ll go through the tools you pay for and work out the one setup your business actually needs.
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