Artificial Intelligence: Is it also Suitable for SMEs?

Advice General AI

AI is no longer a technological fairy tale reserved solely for large enterprises. The technology has become relevant for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well. How can AI help your business? Besides increased productivity, you can improve customer satisfaction and strengthen your competitive position. With the easy access to AI tools and platforms, integration becomes even simpler. In this article, our in-house AI specialist Wesley Wienen provides practical examples and insights into AI integrations in SMEs.

Why Choose AI for Your Small or Medium-Sized Business?

1. Enhanced Business Efficiency

AI can significantly improve the operational efficiency of your organization. By automating repetitive tasks like data processing, email management, and customer service, employees can focus on more strategic and creative tasks. This leads to a productive and satisfied work environment, making innovation a core task for the staff.

Wesley Wienen: "In the manufacturing sector, we often see maintenance of machines scheduled at certain intervals. By adding a low-threshold AI implementation to your production process, you can base maintenance schedules on historical data. This not only reduces unplanned maintenance or breakdowns but also includes unforeseen issues in the AI model's prediction, optimizing production line efficiency in the long run."

2. Improved End-User Service

Customers are more demanding than ever, but AI can counter this. For example, implementing chatbots and virtual assistants to provide immediate support to your customers at any time. This allows you to assist your customers with their problems, answer questions, and provide personalized recommendations at any time of the day. But it can also be beneficial in the healthcare sector.

Wesley Wienen: "A great example can be found in the Netherlands, where they developed smart mattresses for patient care. Vital data of bedridden patients is measured through sensors in the mattress. This allows caregivers to prevent pressure ulcers in their patients because the sensors indicate when the patient needs to be repositioned. This simultaneously increases the quality of care and reduces stress for caregivers."

3. Informed Decision-Making and Detailed Marketing

AI analytics help you make better decisions based on collected historical data. The insights provided by AI through pattern recognition are not always visible to the human eye, especially when dealing with large amounts of data. Historical customer data also provides the opportunity to make more targeted choices about business activities.

These insights are crucial to know where your business stands in relation to its objectives. Additionally, this data can also help you orient yourself in the market.

Comment from our in-house AI specialist Wesley Wienen: "A practical example can be found in retail inventory planning. Seasonal items, popular items, and less popular items are defined through AI pattern recognition. This allows better estimation of stocks and transports from central logistic hubs, reducing operational costs, and aligning supply better with the market."

4. Competitive Advantage

You can use AI to differentiate your offerings, strengthen your market position, and adapt quickly to changing market conditions.

Wesley Wienen: "There is also a danger when popular AI algorithms or solutions are available in the market. Solutions will become more alike. Therefore, it is advisable to use a pre-trained model only at the start of an AI implementation. Over time, it is always better to train your models based on your own data. The results derived from this are of higher quality and better aligned with your organization's business needs."

5. Cost Savings

Contrary to what many believe, integrating AI into a business does not have to be expensive. There are now a large number of AI tools and platforms available. This makes it affordable for SMEs to experiment with AI and reap the benefits and insights. It remains important to see AI not as a one-time solution but as a constant workflow of innovation.

Wesley Wienen: "Additionally, AI implementation can immediately lead to cost savings through productivity gains, better customer service, or automation, as mentioned earlier. But also, tasks such as processing repetitive tasks automatically, addressing customers, and fraud detection are methods to save costs immediately when implementing AI. These are some of the low-threshold ways to start with AI within your company."

How to Begin AI Integration?

Wesley Wienen: "The most flexible way to start with AI is through a cloud platform, but that may not be in line with your company policy. Therefore, it is certainly also possible to use on-premise solutions to acquire AI insights. From AppSys, we can support you in determining your growth path towards an active AI ecosystem."

AI at AppSys

At AppSys, we help you embrace this technology and harness its potential. Together with you, we explore what AI can mean for your business.

More questions? Contact us.