Innovation
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AI and data analytics are the key to SME recovery in 2021

For most enterprises, the bulk of new revenue opportunities into the future will come from digital sources, as customer engagement through to product development shifts how businesses operate. To take advantage of this as an opportunity, there is the pressing need for enterprises to undertake digital transformation and find new ways to operate and interact with their customers through digital.

The core component of digital transformation, and where the opportunities for new revenue come from, is data. Data forms the foundation of all digital engagement and services; powering AI, analytics, IoT and other applications. SMEs have traditionally been hesitant to adopt a data-driven approach to business due to concerns about resourcing, security and affordability; but what applies to the largest enterprises applies to SMEs, too. AI and data analytics, and their ability to drive personalised offerings, are key to business recovery.

Where data adds value to SMEs 

The 2020 APAC SMB Digital Maturity Study shows that nearly 70% of SMEs across APAC are accelerating the digitalisation of their businesses. In many cases this was in response to COVID-19, which, through lockdowns, remote working, and social distancing, required that organisations shift their operations to the cloud and online.

Though SMEs have been rapid in their digitalisation efforts, they remain hesitant to adopt further innovation. For example, AI and machine learning. The perception is that AI is expensive and beyond the means of SMEs, but this is no longer the case as there are now a broad range of AI applications available to SMEs that can enhance the customer experience.

The AI tools available to SMEs can include:

  • AI-enhanced marketing

Analytics can proactively monitor the purchasing behaviour of customers, or more generally how they interact with the brand, and, subsequently, AI-based marketing can automatically target the communication to customers so that it is personalised to them.

  • Competitive Intelligence via AI-powers analytics tools

Being able to respond to competitors in real time is key to doing business in the modern business. AI tools can monitor social media, websites, and web applications to help track the messaging of rival brands, their performance in the market, and other factors that can then be responded to in real time.

  • Improved cybersecurity via automations

Reactive security is no longer sufficient to protect an environment and most security solutions now use AI to detect suspicious activity on the network or analyse and respond to new threats immediately. For SMEs with limited IT security resources, this is particularly valuable as it provides proactive security without needing to have the skills to do so manually.

  • Chatbots and personal assistants

The simplest of AI applications can still have an enormous benefit to the SME in fielding the "level-1" contact with customers and addressing the basic questions asked of them. Chatbots increasingly interact to native language standards too, which means that SMEs can respond to queries more quickly and focus their energies on the more demanding customer engagement projects as they escalate.

How SMEs need to approach AI

While AI is within reach for the SME, there still needs to be a concentrated effort to properly build AI applications into the IT environment. What often causes an AI project to fail is that they can become too ambitious up-front, with the organisation looking to launch with a complex AI application up front. AI projects need to be approached in an agile, iterative manner in order to be successful.

Cisco frequently engages with SMEs to help them develop and deploy an AI strategy. One of the more common questions asked by SMEs is "where do we start?", to which there is a clear, eight-step strategy that enterprises should take:

1) Develop a three-year technology road map.

2) Prioritise the critical business processes to automate.

3) Evaluate the right technologies to invest in – focus on empowering remote employees/workforce, and developing a secure e-commerce platform and robust cybersecurity network.

4) Invest in talent and skills focused on digital.

5) Find the right technology partner for your journey.

6) Leverage financing and remanufactured equipment to help with cash flow and budget requirements.

7) Keep up with industry trends and best practices.

8) Simplify, start small, learn, and scale.

SMEs should work with partners that understand that if they are not deriving value from their data and AI applications immediately, then they're missing out on new revenue opportunities and allowing their competitors to become the disruptors. Finding the right partner that can provide the skills and talent so that businesses can start their data and AI journey immediately, and targeting the low-hanging fruit as a first step is the best way for SMEs to begin to articulate their digital vision and the role that AI will play in it.

For more information on how artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming the way we work, click here.

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