Why SMBs and Artificial Intelligence work so well together

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to go down in history as the single biggest invention by man. It has the power to change diverse industries such as medicine, education, manufacturing, banking and more. It also has the capability to transform the very fabric of society. Several AI futurists, economists, academics and even popular movies and TV shows have long presented their take on an AI-driven future. Product advancements and research milestones indicate that a lot of these predictions are not too far-fetched.

Advancements such as Machine Learning, computer vision, neural networks and natural language processing all have one thing in common - they are levelling the playing field in diverse industries by giving SMBs an opportunity to compete with industry behemoths and better serve their consumers in a personalized manner. It is said that technology is the great equaliser and the power of AI and Big Data is backing that up by enabling SMBs to operate profitably.

How Artificial Intelligence is trumping Business Intelligence

For instance, prescriptive sales tools driven by AI are constantly analysing millions of simultaneous events to find patterns that improve the efficiency of CRM platforms. They can determine the impact of seemingly small actions that a sales team can initiate to drive better customer responses and conversions. In effect, they provide sales teams with a cheat sheet of simple do’s and don’ts that can drastically transform their ROI. For an SMB, this information can be priceless, and it can quickly become a top-tier competitive advantage.

With more and more SMBs planning to invest in software and apps, AI is poised to help SMBs leverage real-time consumer usage data to predict behavior based on trends such as past purchases, loyalty programs and other traits. Instead of answering the question ‘What will happen next?’, AI helps SMBs answer ‘What will be the outcome on X if I did Y?’. This form of prescriptive analytics is helping SMBs experiment with innovative ideas and models and is giving them the knowledge and agility to compete with larger players.

What SMBs should consider while implementing AI

However, implementing successful AI and prescriptive analytics models is easier said than done. At the heart of the matter is a lot of unstructured or semi-structured data and making sense of it all by obtaining deeper insights. There are plug-and-play platforms available in the market that make it simple for SMBs to get started. But at the end of the day, a tangible difference in customer engagement can only be made if the right data is plugged in at the right time.

This also requires a conscious effort by SMBs to acknowledge where and how AI will fit in with their existing infrastructure. All the financial implications and compliance risks should be properly addressed before this journey begins. It is also important for SMBs to not adopt a scattergun AI-driven policy wherein AI is just bought for the sake of it and implemented on an ad-hoc basis. A sound business strategy can be particularly useful if the right questions about what to automate, to what extent to automate and expected outcomes, are asked at the right time. For some, this may translate into better financial management, for some it may involve better customer servicing through chatbots, whereas for some it may involve better recommendation engines. The availability of reliable and relevant data is also vital for AI to succeed with SMBs. This will require some degree of external support or in-house data analytics knowledge, and SMBs cannot afford to shy away from such initiatives. Deploying AI without adequate data is like relying on a vehicle that has no gasoline to run it on.

SMBs have the unique advantage of agility and experimentation that larger enterprises don’t necessarily have. However, they also lack the resources and the legacy systems that back up larger corporations. AI helps SMBs bridge that gap by levelling the playing field and granting equal opportunities for customer engagement and innovation. Handled in the right manner, AI can prove to be an effective competitive advantage for SMBs across the board. And it’s no wonder that SMBs from all industries are fast adopting AI-driven processes and contributing towards global digital revolution that is making science-fiction a reality.