Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | January 26, 2026 | Worcester Business Journal 11 Warehouse Storage For Rent Asset Management Program Office and Lab Moving WE KNOW STORAGE!!!! thestoragecompany.com Need Extra Capital to Take Your Business to the Next Level? 800-939-9103 cornerstonebank.com Member FDIC | Member DIF We're here to support your growth and success. Our tailored financing solutions address your unique needs for construction, equipment, expansion, and working capital, helping your business thrive. Scan the QR code to learn more. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE F O C U S amount of training and what has the greatest output," she said. 2. Do deep research Unlike the near-instant, surface-level research AI tools produce on the free version of platforms like ChatGPT, using AI to do deep research generates far more sophisticated and comprehensive results. Deep research uses agentic AI, an autonomous form of AI making decisions and carrying out tasks without the need for extensive direction. "Agentic AI is beyond a chatbot. It's actually executing a task similar to what a human would do," said Inthirath. While it may sound complicated, deep research is purposefully created to be easy. Using a prompt, deep research works by analyzing hundreds of sources from academic research to case studies to cred- ible media outlets. Instead of returning responses within seconds, these reports can take up to 30 minutes to deliver, while potentially saving the user hours of research. Paid versions of deep research, such as those provided by Perplexity and Gem- ini, will run autonomous tasks for users, providing updates as oen as needed. For example, Perplexity can send weekly updates to a business owner, summarizing newest updates and product launches from specific competitors; or a nonprofit leader can ask Gemini to research all grants to be renewed next year. 3. Summarize documents Tools like ChatGPT can act as a personal assistant, returning summaries and performing data analysis on long reads, including reports, PDFs, and presentation decks. AI can comb for specific reference points, such as a specific claim in a lawsuit or a result buried in a medical report. AI tools can even analyze multiple doc- uments, such as proposals, said Fuller. AI applications can compare targeted met- rics, such as discerning which marketing proposal will take less time and be more cost-efficient. "You can upload proposals into an AI tool, and it can literally spit back out a summary of and a comparison of all the relevant and respective data points within the proposal in seconds," said Fuller. 4. Second pair of eyes For entrepreneurs or businesses with small teams, AI can play an inte- gral role in catching errors. "For small to midsize business leaders, [AI's] like your unpaid intern or another pair of eyes," said Becker Collins. Tools like Grammarly can quickly scan dras of emails, reports, and press releases, checking for grammatical errors and consistency with specific guides, such as AP Style. AI tools can act as a sounding board for creatives by reviewing a business' previous work and suggesting next steps, such as new blog topics or new features for a website. e best way to do this is to use a custom GPT, said Becker Collins, which is a tailored form of ChatGPT created by individual users for specific tasks. "You're not just talking to an anony- mous machine. You're talking to some- thing that has been trained on exactly what you're talking about, and you don't need a degree in computer science to know how to do that," she said. 5. Create images AI's ability to create pho- tos and images have come a long way, even in just the past few months, said Inthirath. Workers can use tools like Nano Ba- nana to create custom images by prompt- ing the chatbot with specific instructions for the images. Businesses can use AI to create info- graphics, professional-looking headshots, and images of their products in different environments. is ability is a major win, especial- ly for small businesses tight on cash, Inthirath said. Instead of having to hire an outside graphic designer or photographer, business owners can custom make images in mere moments. "Instead of using Photoshop, you can have the AI do it for you, and it's done in a minute or less," Inthirath said. Top five most-visited AI tools ChatGPT is by far the most commonly used AI tool with 5.6 billion monthly visits. Rank AI tool Estimated market share Number of monthly visits 1 ChatGPT 59.47% 5.6 billion 2 Canva 9.68% 911.8 million 3 Google Gemini 5.5% 520.8 million 4 DeepSeek 3.49% 328.2 million 5 Perplexity AI 2.55% 240 million Source: Exploding Topics W

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