AI for Business in 2026 - A Practical Guide

Jump to: Claude | ChatGPT | Gemini | Perplexity | Copilot | Warnings Should you be using AI in your business? Probably, for some things. Are you already behind? Not yet, but the window is closing. Does anyone know where to start? Almost nobody, and that includes most of the people selling AI tools. Here's where most businesses actually are: someone on the team is quietly using ChatGPT, a competitor dropped "we use AI now" into conversation, and there's no policy, no budget, and no plan. Just a growing suspicion that this isn't going away. It's not. But it's also not going to run your business for you. Think of AI assistants as an eager intern who read the entire internet but has zero judgment. Incredibly fast at drafting, summarizing, and organizing. Terrible at knowing when they're making something up. Useful with guardrails. Dangerous without them. This guide skips the hype. No "AI will revolutionize everything" cheerleading. No vendor pitches. Just what works, what doesn't, what it