In this age of artificial intelligence, the phrase “think outside the box” has a brand new meaning. Most every company is trying to figure out if, when, and how AI can be of benefit to them and, even more importantly, what negative effect their firm might face as this superpower continues to be developed with no apparent termination point in sight.
The small- and medium-sized business market (SMB) is well known for pivoting and early adoption in order to sustain growth. Artificial intelligence is setting the pace in many ways, but especially in the SMB market. Investigating and adopting AI for your business can be revolutionary.
Most small and medium sized businesses lack the people, time and resources of bigger corporations. But AI is changing that very dynamic. Firms of almost any size can use AI to grow their business. In a nutshell, AI can be a source of creative thinking. It can also help employees be more efficient in what they do on a regular basis, resulting in greater output or productivity.
The staff of Entrepreneur Magazine has developed five tips for using AI to grow your company. They are intended to encourage you to consider implementing AI and give your staff the opportunity to improve their productivity, tap into their creative side, and hopefully, increase your profitability.
Engage your team by giving them an AI application and challenge them to ‘experiment’ with new ideas and different approaches to improve legacy processes. “Rolling out to entire teams at once—even if they are small teams— is critical to driving peer to peer learning. It encourages stronger adoption among team members and allows your business to identify patterns and see how AI is impacting work” the team at Entreprenuer said.
Utilize the ‘early adopter’ employees in your organization to leverage their curiosity and drive in order to foster more growth. As the Entrepreneur team said “Encourage your early adopters to share their experiences with the rest of the organization. This can unlock a wealth of innovative ideas and solutions, driving growth and staying ahead of the competition.” The key is in identifying those power users as early as you can and engage them to come alongside other team members.
Start immediately by improving simple processes and promote the successes that are achieved. This type of approach will allow your staff to become familiar with the product and each simple success will help to build their confidence to take on more complex tasks, at a future date. Some examples suggested include; re-capping a meeting, helping to construct a response for an e-mail.
As your team tries different things, have them share what worked and what did not work with other team members. Meteoric successes should be shared with everyone. As more and more successes are reported and other team members become more familiar with different techniques, the more innovations and success your organization will achieve.
Review processes and procedures from the perspective of your customers/clients. This step is an integral part of continued success for your firm. Entrepreneur says “Start by identifying the key touchpoints in your customer journey, then map out how AI can improve the experience at each stage. For example, AI can be used to personalize product recommendations, streamline the checkout process, and provide real-time customer support.”
“Think outside the box.” This fifth and final tip, just might be the most important. According to Entrepreneur, “SMBs must innovate to stay ahead of the competition, and AI-driven tools can inspire teams in multiple ways. Automating repetitive tasks provides employees with more time to plan, think more critically and be creative. It can also be helpful for idea generation. Whether drafting a marketing campaign or designing a presentation, it can inspire new ideas and enhance the quality of work produced by providing intelligent suggestions, templates, and design insights.”
As mentioned in an article from March 2024 in Inside Indiana Business, the McKinsey Global Insitute indicated a significant portion of the existing workforce could be replaced with AI by the year 2030. The good news from those grim statistics indicated that for every job that ends up being eliminated by AI, almost two more will be created; a happy problem, if ever there was one.
With that study looming in the background, the main question becomes one of how companies, whether they be in manufacturing, retail, hospitality, other services, or education can make the transition to AI a huge success.