How to choose an AI platform for your small business

The short answer: choose an AI platform by the job you need done, not by its feature list. Write down one to three jobs first. Then check six things: whether it does those jobs end to end, what access it needs, how you approve its work, what it costs in a year, who helps when something goes wrong, and what happens if you leave. A platform that can't answer all six clearly isn't ready for your business, however impressive the demo.

Search for "AI platform for small business" and you'll find long lists of tools ranked by someone. We publish this site for Dance, an AI platform for websites and marketing, so we won't rank anyone. Instead, here's the checklist we'd want an owner to use on any vendor, including us.

Before you compare anything: write down the job

Most bad software decisions start with "this looks useful" instead of "this is the job I need done". Write one to three jobs in plain words, each with how you'd know it's done.

Notice that the third job isn't a website job at all. A website platform like Dance wouldn't be the right fit, and that's exactly what writing the job down reveals.

The six-part checklist

Print this or copy it, and fill one in per platform you're considering.

How to read the answers

The job

A tool that does one step leaves you doing the rest. If a platform drafts website copy but you still log into your website builder and paste it in, that's a writing tool, not a website platform. That isn't bad, but it's a different purchase. Our article on AI platforms vs. AI tools goes deeper on this.

Access

The more access a platform needs, the more you should care about the approval answers. Prefer services that let you invite people with their own logins, and that explain clearly how to disconnect them.

Approval controls

This is the section most people skip and later regret. For anything customers will see (your website, emails, social posts, ads), the safe default is preview, then approve, then publish, with undo. Be cautious about anything that "runs automatically" on your public channels, unless you've chosen that for a specific, low-risk task.

Cost

Monthly prices are easy to compare. Total cost isn't. Add setup, the monthly plan you'd really need, usage charges, and anything you'd still pay someone else for. A cheaper tool that needs your web designer for every change can cost more over a year.

Support

AI makes mistakes. The question is what happens next. Is there a person who'll fix it, and how quickly? For a website, also ask who handles going live on your domain. That step trips up a lot of owners.

Fit and exit

You should always own your domain name. Ask plainly what you can take with you if you leave, and get the answer in writing. If a vendor won't say, treat that as an answer.

Red flags

• Promises of rankings, traffic, or a number of new customers.
• Changes that go live with no preview or approval step.
• No way to reach a person.
• Pricing you can't find without booking a sales call (fine for big companies, a warning sign for a five-person business).
• Reviews or "case studies" with no names, no dates and no details.
• The demo only works on a sample business, never on yours.

Test it in an afternoon, on your own business

The best evaluation is one real job. Pick something small and checkable from your list, like correcting your holiday hours or drafting one service page. Then try it with the platform you're considering:

1. Give it the job in plain words.
2. Check the result against your own facts.
3. Note how long it took, what you had to fix, and whether you could approve or undo it.
4. Score it against the checklist above.

Where Dance fits, answered honestly

Dance is for one kind of job: running your website and, optionally, marketing it. Here's how it answers the checklist today, according to startdancing.ai:

• The job: you change your website by asking in plain English, check a preview, then publish. The optional Website + Marketing plan, for websites on Dance, suggests what to improve next and drafts it for your approval.
• Access and starting point: if you have a website, Dance rebuilds it on Dance from what's there, and your old site stays up until you switch. Dance can't edit a website while it's still on another platform.
• Approval: every change is previewed before you publish it, and you can undo it.
• Cost: there's a free preview with no card needed, and current prices are on Dance's pricing page.
• Support: a real person helps you go live on your own domain, and plans include email support.
• Not a fit for: accounting, payroll, inventory, booking systems, or replying to enquiries for you.

If something on the checklist isn't answered here, ask before you decide: admin@startdancing.ai. The same goes for any vendor.