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As the CEO and founder of a public relations and marketing agency and mother of a lively two-and-a-half-year-old toddler, my day is a constant balancing act between the many professional roles I hold and my various personal and family commitments. Like many moms out there, transitioning from one role to another is akin to assembling a complex jigsaw puzzle, where each piece represents a different aspect of my life.
Regardless of which hat I am wearing, managing the diverse range of responsibilities that span both my business and personal lives has honed my multitasking abilities better than ever before, but it’s never easy to find a balance. Generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform have become invaluable allies. Now, as more platforms adopt AI, mompreneurs can leverage its powers for strategic planning, communication, operations management and managing external stakeholders at work and at home.
Related: The Rise of the Mompreneur: How Moms Are Killing It in the Startup World
Strategic planning: Business and personal
For a business, having a comprehensive market analysis, diverse growth strategies and innovative product and content development is the basis of any successfully run operation that relies on strategic and thorough planning. At home, strategic planning might look more like doctor’s appointments, grocery and meal planning, scheduling family trips, scheduling childcare and various children’s activities like birthday parties, after-school events and more. Both are essential for achieving your goals and navigating life’s complexities with confidence and efficiency.
AI steps in:
- Ideation: AI can be a powerful thought partner. Have you ever caught yourself brainstorming how to best optimize a pitch deck while simultaneously wondering what you should feed your toddler for the week all in the span of five minutes? Inputting these questions into an AI platform like ChatGPT can produce numerous creative ideas and opportunities to iterate. It can even tailor the weekly menu to what you currently have in your pantry or fridge.
- Analysis: AI tools like IBM Watson provide deep analytical capabilities that can predict consumer preferences and analyze vacation costs. This type of analysis can lead to better market forecasts as well as determine the most cost-effective and optimized family vacation based on airfare and exchange rates.
- Automating planning: Planning can be made more efficient with AI, automating both routine and complex tasks. Now that Google Calendar has implemented Reclaim AI, business operations and family life action items such as developing project timelines or coordinating multiple schedules across family members’ activities can be simplified.
Communications
In the movie Ocean’s Eleven, Matt Damon’s character, Rusty, imparts a valuable lesson on the art of effective communication: “Don’t use seven words if four will do.” Whether you’re engaging with clients or connecting with family, this sage advice holds true. Effective communication not only saves you time and energy but also ensures clarity and precision in your message.
AI steps in:
- Communication platforms: Slack changed the game on how remote teams interact on a day-to-day basis. My team meets on an ad-hoc basis and communicates with our external clients as well as vendors all via Slack. And now, it leverages AI for advanced search, conversation summaries and recaps — business owners and moms alike can keep their “receipts” and find valuable information in a pinch.
- Writing: Business emails, client reports, delivering news — whether good or bad — all of these tasks require a delicate and precise hand when it comes to written communication. But all too often, factors like context switching or insufficient sleep can sometimes hinder the process. AI tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly can be your thought partner or editor.
Related: How Being a ‘Mompreneur’ Prepared Me to Run a Multi-Million-Dollar Business
Managing operations
Operational efficiency and profit margins are regular discussion topics and goals in the business, but rarely are the concepts brought into the home life — at least, not verbally. And yet, like a business, moms have a never-ending list of repetitive household tasks as well as milestones and major shifts in routine, just like a business. Integrating AI into household operations can streamline the daily repetitive tasks that are so necessary to keeping life running smoothly, and most importantly, give them the gift that all moms want: free time.
AI steps in:
- Low-cost assistant: Many of us have smart tech or activated assistants already implemented in the home, from Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or Siri. These assistants can help manage grocery lists, control smart home devices, entertain family and guests with auditory and visual entertainment and even help answer homework problems.
- Project management: Platforms like Asana, Monday.com and Notion were developed to streamline professional productivity. They can set automated, personal reminders, build out and manage your everyday to-dos and categorize your tasks based on priority, making those repetitive duties much simpler while decreasing the cognitive load.
Managing external stakeholders
Building and maintaining relationships with business partners, customers, employees and vendors are essential for an entrepreneur’s success — surprisingly, not so different from a mother’s relationship with community members, teachers, coaches, children’s friends and parents, as well as one’s own family members. In many ways, mothers tend to fill the role of chief connectivity officer for their family — a unique yet deeply significant position in any successful business.
AI steps in:
- Scheduling and event management: Calendly and Doodles are both AI-powered tools that simplify the process of scheduling meetings for business purposes, but can also be implemented for planning community and family events.
- Communication and social: Social media and email are familiar, powerful tools for both business owners and individuals. Tools like Mailchimp and Persado can send personalized blasts while HootSuite and Sprout Social can leverage AI to manage your social media interactions through scheduled posts and engagement analysis.
Tina Fey said, “I think every working mom probably feels the same thing. You go through big chunks of time where you’re thinking, ‘This is impossible – oh, this is impossible.‘ And then you just keep going and keep going and sort of … do the impossible.”
Related: 5 Entrepreneurship Lessons We Can Learn From Moms
Juggling the unique spectrum of roles from family matriarch to business dynamo requires strength, resilience and endless energy — of course, it feels impossible. The integration of AI into daily tasks — be it through strategic planning, streamlined communication, optimized operations or effective stakeholder management — has not only enhanced my capacity to perform these roles, but has also redefined the very essence of multitasking.
As we continue to embrace technological advancements and find new ways to simplify and streamline our everyday life, we, as busy mompreneurs, have the potential to thrive in all areas of life, setting new benchmarks for what it means to be a modern, multitasking mompreneur. Sometimes, all it takes is a little help.