What should an SME actually use AI for?
AI is everywhere. But where does it genuinely create value for a growing business?
The question isn't whether you should use AI
For most businesses, the question has already moved beyond whether AI is important. It is. The more useful question is: where can AI actually make this business better?
Start with friction
For an SME, the best AI opportunities are often surprisingly unglamorous. Maybe staff spend hours extracting information from emails. Maybe someone manually checks hundreds of transactions every month. Maybe management receives a report containing 40 pages of information but still has to spend an afternoon figuring out what changed. These are good candidates because there is an identifiable process, a measurable cost and a reasonably clear outcome.
Three useful categories
I tend to think about practical AI opportunities in three broad categories. 1. Automate. Remove repetitive human work. 2. Augment. Give people better information at the moment they need it. 3. Predict. Use historical data to estimate what is likely to happen next. The sophistication should match the problem.
Don't start with the tool
The strongest AI projects usually begin with a business process and finish with a measurable improvement. Ask what happens today, who does it, how long it takes, what it costs, what goes wrong, what data already exists and what “better” would look like. Only then should you choose the technology.
The sensible starting point
Pick one process that is repetitive, expensive, slow or frustrating. Understand it properly, establish a baseline, and test whether technology can improve it. Measure the result. If it works, expand. If it doesn't, you've learned something useful without turning the business upside down.