From ChatGPT to Bard: Artificial intelligence software is driving a new wave of technology in the global economy. However, despite its undeniable potential, global business users of AI shouldn't allow themselves to get sucked into the hype and hysteria, but instead, develop a comprehensive strategy that is in line with their individual situation, needs, and goals. 

To learn how small and medium-sized enterprises can best integrate AI into their business processes, we spoke with Austrian serial entrepreneur and consultant Oscar Karem, CEO of no-code platform provider Innoloft Sven Pietsch, and OriginStamp founder Friedrich Kisters. 

Vienna-based business mentor Oscar Karem is known for his business acumen and digital expertise in the German-speaking world and was named a Top Business Advisor 2023 by the International Business Times. Innoloft's LoftOS software enables users to easily create web applications on their own without any prior knowledge of programming processes, making software programming as easy as PowerPoint. Finally, OriginStamp enables anyone to archive and timestamp documents on the blockchain, safeguarding critical documents, data and other valuable assets.

AI is for everyone

According to Karem, the first lesson every business owner has to understand is that their organization can and should leverage AI. "Companies that ignore the transformative power of new technology risk their own extinction in an increasingly digitalized world," he argues.

Moreover, various AI specialists have since started to share their secrets about how to best use various AI tools on LinkedIn, YouTube, and many more platforms. This type of content can be extremely useful to learn about how these systems operate, but they can also quickly develop into a distraction. After all, there's no need to know every command or the top 100 best AI tools.

According to Friedrich Kisters, it's crucial to obtain a thorough understanding of the specific AI solutions applied to your business. "AI technologies can transform business operations for SMEs in various ways, such as automation, data analysis, compliance monitoring, and customer engagement. The key to successful deployments is understanding the capabilities and limitations of AI technologies. For example, there are still tasks that today's AI technologies cannot automate, such as highly creative tasks, tasks with limited data, or tasks that involve causal and contextual understanding."

Curiosity isn't everything

While a drive to explore is certainly helpful when it comes to identifying the potential of emerging technologies, it is not the only characteristic it takes to profit from AI technology. Analyzing how businesses have used AI over the past few years, the globally renowned consulting firm McKinsey released a report dubbed "The state of AI in 2022-and a half decade in review" in December 2022.

Unsurprisingly, the firm recorded a doubled increase in the use of AI during the last five years - from 20 percent in 2017 to 50 percent at the end of 2022. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, is the fact that AI adoption has since reached a plateau, and even declined from its high of 58 percent in 2019.

Even though this trend may have reversed thanks to new product releases by OpenAI and other big players in the field in the early months of 2023, it still shows that the implementation of AI can fail if companies don't employ the right strategies.

In another interesting finding, McKinsey determined that the primary value-add of AI technologies has changed. While manufacturing and risk management represented the key areas of impactful AI use in 2018, the most significant impact on revenues can now be found in sales and marketing, product development, finance, and supply chain management. 

Additionally, the report states that organizations following the best practices in talent management, data, strategy, and technology appear to have experienced the highest returns from implementing AI into their operations.

Concluding, SMEs should carefully formulate a strategy that not only focuses on the main application areas of AI, but also takes other business areas and practices into account when adopting the novel technology.

Employees are key

Strategic curiosity is undoubtedly crucial when introducing AI to a small business, but business owners should consider another variable that can determine the success or failure of this process. After all, the best intentions and plans can be rendered completely useless if a company's employees are not on board with the upgrade.

Not only do employees need to be trained and educated on relevant AI use cases and best practices, they also need to be inspired. Business consultants like Oscar Karem can play a pivotal role here. "Employees are not machines that simply perform any assigned tasks. Many will find it easy to work with new AI tools, but others may be more averse to the technology or even fear for their own jobs," Karem explains.

Consequently, business owners need to exercise appropriate leadership and help different types of employees adjust to ChatGPT and Co. Some may need additional technical support, others may need more freedom to explore the technology for themselves, and a small minority may even need reassurance that AI is merely a smart assistant that helps them do their jobs more efficiently but won't replace them now or in the future.

In conclusion, as Oscar Karem summarizes, "AI opens up a world of opportunity for businesses to streamline their workflows and improve the customer experience. While not a panacea, this powerful search engine is a valuable tool that can enrich everyday business operations. By intelligently integrating AI, companies can increase efficiency, develop innovative solutions, and differentiate themselves from the competition."

To strategically implement AI into the operations of SMEs and entrepreneurs, the curiosity of senior management and business owners is undoubtedly critical. But certainly, never forget about the backbone of any business - its employees. After all, the best intentions and plans can be completely useless if a company's employees aren't on board with the transition.

With this in mind, Innoloft organizes so-called Hackathons, where small teams from marketing, sales and developers work internally on small cases to introduce teams to the topic of AI in an action-oriented way and with a hands-on mentality. "The hackathon provides the team with technical background knowledge through concrete participation in AI developments from Innoloft and shows possibilities and limitations. From my point of view, this has the effect that the employees engage more intensively with the topic even beyond the hackathon and look for opportunities to use AI in their own work," says Sven Pietsch, CEO of the software company Innoloft.

Consequently, business owners need to exercise appropriate leadership and help different types of employees adapt to ChatGPT and co. Some may need additional technical support, others may need more freedom to explore the technology themselves, and a small minority may even need reassurance that AI is merely an intelligent assistant to help them do their jobs more efficiently but will not replace them now or in the future. "We offer a software solution that gives everyone the freedom to create even complex web applications, from websites to their own digital ecosystems. We need to give our employees the same freedom to express themselves in the fast-moving digital world and empower not only our customers but also our own employees to do so." Sven Pietsch concludes.