Many organisations are overcoming the hurdles of implementing AI and experimenting with various AI application offerings. These organisations are mainly large and capital heavy, leaving small and medium enterprises behind. But do not worry –  the implementation and use of AI for SMEs needn’t require that much heavy investment. In fact, the power lies in understanding the challenges and considerations of using AI within your business.

Getting started

The first step is to start small and simple. As a small or medium-sized business, capital and manpower is not readily available. Experiment with what is within your reach and within your budget. Play around with applications to see what AI can and can’t do for your business. The AI tool that you use needs to align with your business objectives and your target market. Most importantly, your target market needs to still be able to experience your authenticity and personal touch through the use of AI.

Challenges of adoption of AI

AI is still in its development stage. While developments are moving quite rapidly, AI is still quite far from reaching its full potential. There are many challenges that AI adoption brings to organisations of any size. For SMEs, the pool of hardships may be bigger.

  • Resource constraints: Most SMEs operate on limited financial and human resources. Implementing AI usually requires exorbitant-priced IT infrastructure and in-house expertise that is difficult to procure.
  • Data quality and quantity: AI systems are trained on large datasets. Accumulating sufficient high-quality data to train AI models can be challenging. Inaccurate or sparse data can lead to poor AI performance and unreliable insights, which can be detrimental to business operations.
  • Compliance with data protection and privacy laws: Procuring high-quality data is not enough. Data and privacy compliance is required by laws and regulations such as POPIA and the GDPR. Businesses need to ensure that they have adequate and necessary security and technical measures to safeguard against your data being misappropriated.

Considerations for SMEs

The key consideration with any AI tool or application is that it requires human intervention and oversight. Like any other technology that has emerged in the marketplace, there needs to be a strong sense of awareness and mindful management when using AI within your business. Let’s explore these considerations:

  • Bias and discrimination: AI models may amplify or increase biases present in training data, leading to discriminatory outcomes. For SMEs this could lead to reputational damage or even worse, the liquidation of your business. SMEs should therefore consider having checkpoints to avoid being found victim to misinformation and ensure that they review automated outputs.
  • Intellectual property: AI systems are prone to use copyrighted material for the training of their datasets and also for outputs generated. SMEs have the responsibility to check with the copyright holders prior to using generated AI material for their business operations.
  • Building partnerships: Collaborating with AI vendors, larger organisations and SME funders can help bridge the expertise gap. Partnerships can provide access to knowledge, resources and technology that might otherwise be out of reach. Engaging with the broader AI community also opens up opportunities for innovation and best practice sharing.
  •  Transparency and Accountability: SMEs should ensure that their use of AI must be explicitly disclosed to third parties such as service providers, customers and other affected parties. Contracts must have clearly defined liability clauses to address AI-related incidents and SMEs should also consider reviewing their insurance policies to mitigate potential liabilities.
  • Return of investment: Consider whether the implementation and use of AI will provide a high-value return of investment to your organisation.

Actions you can take next

The implementation of AI within your organisation is not a race, but a journey. Just like any other application you have on the device using to read this, AI is simply a tool to assist you to prioritise your time and effort on things that matter most to you and as a SME, your organisation. You can:

  • Attend our AI for SMEs workshop to learn more about how to implement AI within your organisation.
  • Empower yourself by using our resources like our Trustworthy AI Programme to ensure your AI systems comply with legal and ethical standards.
  • Be proactive by reaching out to our experts to advise you on specific AI-related issues you are currently facing within your organisation.