Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the way businesses operate, and for SMEs, this offers exciting opportunities. However, many business owners find the AI journey daunting. How do you get started? Which teams should adopt AI first? How do you ensure it drives value across your entire organisation?
Here we break down the key strategies for a successful AI rollout, helping you improve productivity, streamline operations, and create real value for your business.
1. Understand and Address Your Data Gaps
Before AI can deliver its full potential, your business needs a solid data foundation. Many companies fail to implement AI effectively because they haven’t organised their data, often not knowing when their last data audit was conducted. AI thrives on data, so ensuring your data is structured and accessible is the first step.
Once your data is in order, AI tools can help employees find and use it more effectively. In a recent study, 83% of salespeople, 81% of customer service representatives, and 85% of IT staff said they would use AI to help them find the information they need quickly. For SMEs, this can streamline everything from unifying marketing and sales data to recognising supply chain patterns.
2. Tailor AI to Role-Specific Challenges
Not all job roles face the same challenges, and AI’s greatest strength is its ability to address specific pain points.
Sales Teams: AI can help with tasks like identifying sales opportunities (75% of salespeople want this) and finding the right customer contacts (73%). It also reduces the time spent on “administrivia,” such as drafting emails and preparing presentations, freeing up your team to focus on building relationships and closing deals. In fact, AI users in sales are exceeding quotas at a far higher rate than non-users.
Marketing Teams: Marketers want AI to help them identify market trends (82%) and optimise promotional strategies. Tools like Copilot in Excel can highlight data trends and outliers, helping your marketing team make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Customer Service Teams: AI is boosting response times and customer satisfaction. By helping new hires build competency faster and handling routine customer queries, AI is improving service quality while freeing up time for more complex issues.
IT and Finance: AI is being used to automate routine tasks like software updates and managing backups. It’s also helping finance teams eliminate data silos and streamline processes like variance analysis.
3. Identify and Support AI Champions
When rolling out AI, it's crucial to find ‘super users’ within your team. These champions are enthusiastic early adopters who can train others and provide valuable feedback. Encouraging these champions to share their learnings will help drive adoption across your business.
You might even incentivise creativity. For example, offering AI access to employees who present innovative ideas for its use can spark engagement and excitement.
4. Focus on Reskilling and Training
AI can significantly boost productivity, but only if your team knows how to use it. Providing the necessary training to help employees engage with AI tools effectively is essential. Whether it’s learning how to prompt AI tools or gaining a deeper understanding of data sharing, reskilling will ensure your workforce stays ahead of the curve.
Training also helps build trust in AI. Clear guidelines on what the tools should and shouldn’t be used for, combined with visible leadership support, will encourage employees to embrace AI without fear.
5. Build New Work Habits Around AI
AI requires new working habits, and that’s where many companies face a drop-off after initial excitement. It’s crucial to help your team build use cases specific to their roles so they can adopt AI tools seamlessly into their daily routines.
For example, salespeople might use AI to take meeting notes, allowing them to focus on the conversation, while marketers could use AI to summarise campaign results. Encouraging employees to dedicate time to exploring how AI can solve their day-to-day challenges will maximise its impact.
Final Thoughts
Implementing AI in your business doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start by getting your data in order, identify the key pain points across different teams, and prioritise reskilling your workforce. Build a team of champions who can lead the charge and continually refine your AI strategy as your business learns and grows. AI is a journey, not a destination, but those who start early will be the ones to reap the greatest rewards.
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