Can SMEs Benefit From The New Technologies?

Being an SME ourselves, this is a very important topic to us. And it appears that we are not the only ones. Having spoken with many business owners during London Tech Week, it became very apparent that the majority of businesses operating within the technology space are SMEs and are interested in adopting AI in their business.

According to the recent business statistics from Parliament, there are 5.7 million SMEs in the UK, accounting for 99% of all businesses. This is in stark comparison to 8,000 large businesses. In addition to this, the number of new tech companies launched in the UK rose by 14% in 2018. Needless to say, the start-up scene in the UK is booming and there is a huge demand for new-age technologies to help these businesses grow.

The feedback from most SMEs is that it seems to be predominantly large organisations that have and will continue to profit from AI and Machine Learning. This was apparent particularly within the panel discussion on the "Socio-Economic Impact of AI in the UK" at the AI Summit. The panel comprised of Sue Daly, AI lead at Tech UK, Eve Roodhouse Chief Economic Development Officer at Leeds City Council and Sonali Parekh, Head of Policy at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). Eve Roodhouse revealed the Leeds City Councils attempts to boost SMEs by encouraging a collaborative approach between all organisations. One way that they achieve this is through the development of the Leeds Data Mill (LDM). Launched in 2014, the LDM is an engagement platform aimed to encourage the use of open data to "drive collaboration, innovation and engagement within the city."

Sonali Parekh offered countless statistics, one of which was that one third of small businesses believe that AI would benefit their business, however only 2% of the FSB members have adopted AI. The panel speakers then went on to discuss the resistance to new technology from small business owners perhaps as a result of lack of knowledge on the importance of new technology or lack of confidence on how to employ it. Whilst this is of course the case for many individuals, it is also important to recognise those many small business owners who are eager to learn and grow their business with new technology. In fact, nearly half of UK SMEs agree that new technology would improve overall productivity by 46%. One only had to look around the room and see the hundreds of people crowded in to this panel discussion, along with the thousands in the ExCeL centre, to agree with this statistic. Our thoughts were transferred into many of the audience remarks, all of which focused on the tone that SMEs are in fact very keen to adopt AI for their business. Where the major challenge and concern seems to lie is lack of access to data and fears that big corporations will have the financial advantage to benefit from these new technologies, leaving SMEs in a vulnerable business position.

What are your thoughts? How do you overcome the challenges of implementing AI in your business? Stay tuned for our next article: Five Ways That SMEs Can Boost Productivity With AI.