Most AI case studies come from large companies with tons of resources. ATV Big Air Tour is run by two people, and they used AI to transform the way their company operates too.
Co-founders Larissa and Derek Guetter take a live ATV stunt show to nearly 26 U.S. tour dates in a season that runs from May to November, handling travel, riders, equipment, merchandise, and marketing themselves. Their results show what AI for small business looks like: Automating repetitive tasks, redesigning process that used to take days and turning them into hours – all with the owner still seeing the work before it goes out. In our three categories of AI bets, this is a quick win.
A Quick Win: An eight-hour/week task down to one
The tour is promoted by event organizers, ticketing teams, local media, and chambers of commerce, and those listings don’t always get the dates and details right. Larissa was fact-checking about 30 online publications a day, which added up to a full workday every week. A scheduled ChatGPT Work briefing now reviews her priority sources each morning, finds listings with errors, suggests the right contact at each publication, and drafts the correction emails. Review time dropped from about eight hours a week to one, and Larissa still reviews the flagged errors and sends the corrections herself.
An Operational Enhancement: Merchandise inventory in hours instead of days
Inventorying merchandise and planning reorders used to take two to three full days. Larissa now photographs the stock and uploads the images. ChatGPT organizes the inventory, builds a spreadsheet and a simple inventory website, and suggests what to reorder in under 15 minutes. She reviews and adjusts the recommendations before sending the final order to her supplier, and the whole process now takes two to three hours.
A Strategic Move: Redeploying time saved to increase revenue
Across both tasks, a two-person company got back close to a workday each week, plus several days every time it restocks. Larissa says the tools let the pair do the work of multiple team members, and the goal OpenAI describes is more time to build the show and connect with families. Deciding where recovered hours go before they fill up with something else is the step this series keeps returning to. A Small Business Expo survey suggests the time savings themselves are common, with almost nine in ten of the owners it surveyed reporting that AI gives them back time every week.
How This Applies to You
Pick one task that takes a predictable block of your week, like checking listings, reconciling inventory, or answering the same customer questions. Write down how long it takes now, let AI do the first pass while you keep final approval, and measure the time again after a month. Then write down what that time is for. Is it for more events, more sales conversations, or just a pace you can sustain?
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FAQ
How can small businesses use AI?
Good starting points are repetitive, time-consuming tasks, things like checking listings or records for errors, drafting routine emails, organizing inventory, or summarizing information. ATV Big Air Tour used AI for listing reviews and merchandise planning, with an owner approving the final output. For a simple way to set ground rules before you start, see What Is AI Governance? A Simple Guide for Small and Medium Business Owners.
What should a small business automate first with AI?
A task that happens often, eats a predictable amount of time, and produces something you can check before it goes out. ATV Big Air Tour’s listing review fits all three: it ran every week, took about a full workday, and ended in correction emails the owner approves. Write down the current time before you start so you can measure the change. For a structured way to rank which problem to tackle first, see AI Decision-Making Framework for Business: From Strategy to Execution.
How much time can AI save a small business?
Results vary by task. ATV Big Air Tour reports saving about seven hours a week on listing reviews and turning a two-to-three-day inventory process into two to three hours. In a Small Business Expo survey of 145 owners, 89.7 percent said AI saves them at least some time each week, and nearly three in ten reported saving six hours or more. For what to do with that time once you have it, see Four Companies, Four Different Ways AI Hit Their Bottom Line.
Can ChatGPT help with inventory management?
For a small operation, it can. ATV Big Air Tour photographed its merchandise, and ChatGPT organized the inventory, built a spreadsheet, and suggested reorders in under 15 minutes. The owner still reviewed and adjusted the order before sending it to the supplier, which is worth doing before any order that costs money.