How independent business owners are using HoneyBook AI to create exceptional experiences, work more efficiently, and craft the life they want.
No one said running an independent business was easy. You’re managing your workload and operational demands while trying to exceed client expectations and find time for work-life balance. But ease is not what drew you to build your own business—passion, autonomy, and flexibility are.
All the same, a little help can make a world of difference. The good news? That help is now easier to come by than ever before.
Enter artificial intelligence, or AI, which has evolved into an accessible solution that’s transforming how small businesses operate. Our research shows that AI empowers independent professionals with three hours of time back a week—adding up to more than 150 hours saved a year.
That’s because AI is no longer for academics and technologists alone, it’s everywhere. And this ubiquity has made it easier for businesses of all sizes to adopt AI to improve the way they work.
Among HoneyBook members, the vast majority, 70%, are more confident using AI in their business today than they were two years ago.
What was then greeted with mixed emotions—from skepticism and doubt to curiosity and excitement—is today widely recognized as an essential tool for long-term business success.
Forward-thinking independent professionals go even further. They know that AI is more than a tool, it’s a partner in their business. Offering actionable insights, strategic solutions, and personalized suggestions, AI frees them from administrative burden so they can focus their energy where it matters most—their craft, client relationships, and strategic growth.
Insights that allow you to maximize your time and energy
How much of your day is spent managing leads? From organizing inquiries to responding to prospects to sending customized proposals—all to convince a stranger to become your client. Sometimes you put in all of this work just to find out they’re not a good fit or even worse—they’ve ghosted you.
Lead management is a critical part of running a small business but few things are more frustrating than wasting your time. There are only so many hours in the day, and as a small business owner, yours—in particular—are limited.
Instead, why not spend that precious time on the most promising leads entering your pipeline? Especially those that have the highest likelihood of becoming high-value clients.
This is called lead qualification and the HoneyBook AI priority lead notifications feature does it automatically. When a new lead enters your pipeline, the feature gets to work behind the scenes to score the lead based on your past booking history.
When a high-quality lead is identified, someone that is either likely to book, high-value, or both, you’ll receive a notification letting you know you have a promising inquiry waiting for your attention. From there, you can choose how best to nurture this lead.
Just keep in mind that acting fast is in your best interest. We discovered that 86% of clients book the business that gets back to them first. With priority lead notifications you’ll have the confidence to know your effort on this lead is well spent.
AI puts the power of actionable data into the hands of independent business owners—giving you the autonomy to make informed decisions about how you want to run your business and where you want to spend your time.
Personalized client communication at scale
Where priority lead notifications help you spend time in the right places, AI-powered email drafts help you save precious hours in the day. Tools that instantly draft personalized client communication, can take the task of crafting client responses off your plate entirely.
The HoneyBook email drafts feature uses historical data from past HoneyBook messages, to automatically prep communications that are specifically tailored to your unique business, services, and way of engaging with clients. Even better, it can effectively mirror your tone of voice so the draft sounds just like you wrote it yourself.
Your job? To simply send, edit, or discard the output. HoneyBook AI won’t send any messages without your consent, so you always remain in control of your client interactions.
“When the client emails me, and I click reply, it has suggestions for how to respond to that client,” says Dee.” Sometimes I have to adjust the tone, but for the most part, it’s already done, and I don’t have to think about it.”
The way you communicate with your clients is the foundation of your client experience, which is why business owners often spend so much time responding thoughtfully to each inbound.
With HoneyBook email drafts, you can deliver the quality communications you pride yourself on at scale without compromising on quality—all within the comfort of your CRM.
Pro tip
Pair email drafts with priority lead notifications to respond to high-value inquiries in seconds. That’s true efficiency unlocked with AI.
Stay organized and deliver an uncompromising client experience
Where written communication is important for delivering information in a professional, timely manner—it’s through verbal and visual communication that great client relationships are built.
To put it another way, meetings are a critical part of the client experience. It’s in these moments of real-time interaction that the connection between a client and the business owner is formed.
Wedding and events photographer Michaela Harle knows this all too well. For Michaela, being present, authentic, and specifically attuned to her client’s needs has been the driving force behind her business success. She gleans these all-important details through her client calls.
“For my clients, it’s about having an authentic time and connection and being in the moment, and that’s what my business is all about,” says Michaela. “With brides and grooms nowadays, they don’t want an experience that feels performative.”
But there’s one pesky necessity that can get in the way of authentic connection, and that’s the manual task of notetaking. The very same thing that provides business owners with the details they need to create a delightful client experience can compromise the quality of that essential client touchpoint.
Thankfully, there’s a solution for this. And it’s remarkably simple and exceptionally powerful: the HoneyBook meeting notetaker.
The meeting notetaker not only transcribes your client call, it also organizes and highlights key takeaways. With the meeting notetaker, you can walk away from your meetings knowing you gave your clients your full attention, without missing a single detail.
“HoneyBook’s meeting notetaker has transformed the ways that I do work and book clients,” says Michaela “Before I used to try to pay attention and connect with clients all while trying to jot down details, and understand what they say.”
She continues, “NowI get to be fully engaged and fully present with these couples and genuinely get to focus on getting to know my clients, hearing their story, hearing what their needs are, and providing an authentic experience.”
The meeting notetaker can transform a client call from a routine information-gathering session into the spark that builds lasting relationships—the kind that leads to recurring work and glowing referrals.
What’s clear is that AI isn’t replacing the value of human connection but rather amplifying it. It’s giving small business owners like Michaela the ability to focus on what they do best: creating genuine relationships and delivering exceptional work.
Turn time savings into business growth
Alone, different AI capabilities can solve precise pains like qualifying leads, drafting emails, taking notes, or preparing you for an important meeting.
But when working together, intuitively embedded into a single platform, AI can transform the way you work and result in meaningful time savings.
Just ask Dee who uses multiple HoneyBook AI features to support his business operations. “I think I’ve saved at least half the day using HoneyBook AI,” says Dee.
That, coupled with other powerful AI platforms like ChatGPT, helps him accelerate his creative and strategic output. He’s able to manage both his existing clients, nurture incoming leads, and build his personal brand all at the same time.
This shows that AI users are not just completing individual tasks more efficiently, they’re pivoting their energy to focus on bringing greater value to their business—and their lives as a whole.
Whether that’s high-growth activities that can boost their bottom line or reclaiming enjoyment outside of work, AI helps business owners get back more than just hours—they get to pursue their goals and dreams while running thriving businesses.
Empowered to craft a life on your own terms
Owning your own business has always meant sacrifice—early mornings, late nights, weekends on the job. It’s all for the love of the craft but not without its challenges. But in 2025, that paradigm is finally shifting.
Today, AI-powered platforms aren’t just helping entrepreneurs work more efficiently, they’re empowering them with the true autonomy they were looking for when they first got started.
For Michaela, AI has been a critical tool in helping her achieve her ultimate goal—slow living. “AI is so important because the less time that I’m spending on being my own assistant, I can put that time and energy into improving my craft and client experience, spending time with my family, or just doing the things I enjoy in life.”
Dee feels similarly. “AI gives me the freedom to do other things beyond my business,” he says. “We only have so much mental space, and [AI] just frees that up.”
This is where AI shines not as a luxury, but as an essential partner in maintaining work-life balance and being able to craft a life on your own terms.
The small businesses that truly succeed won’t be fighting the tech tide—they’ll be the ones who’ve welcomed AI as a valuable team member. By choosing an AI partner that keeps you in control, fits into your workflow, and understands small business needs, you create space for what truly matters: creativity, genuine connections, and sustainable growth.
AI to power your workflow
Boost bookings, save time, and simplify the way you work with HoneyBook AI.
