In today’s competitive business landscape, many small and medium businesses struggle to prioritize customer experience to leverage their products and services. With AI being one of the key assets for business growth in 2023, there are many ways to leverage AI to improve customer experience, sales, and productivity in your company. According to a report in Forbes, 64% of business owners think that AI can improve customer relationships. In this guide, we’ll talk about how AI can assist in the development and improvement of customer experience in SMEs and how your business can utilise it.

How AI Can Improve Customer Experience: 5 Ways

How we use customer and sales data depends on AI. The AI can help us collect customer data, as well as analyze it for better marketing and business strategies. Here are 5 ways that can help you improve customer experience with the help of machine learning and AI.

Data-driven Virtual Assistants

Implementing AI-powered VAs can be extremely valuable for the overall service your business provides. It can cut costs and reduce wait times so your customers and clients have faster access to solutions to their problems.

AI VAs can be available on multiple platforms and guide your customers to the solution to their issues. In case the issue is too complex, it can be referred to the human customer service agent.

Having a virtual assistant powered by AI can be a great asset for a business that operates globally and can help address overworked customer support agents that are often overwhelmed by the volume of work.

Chatbots

Another way how AI can improve customer experience in SMEs is by implementing chatbots on your website. It is another way to make it easier on customer service personnel, especially if your business is small and struggles to provide round-the-clock support due to limited resources.

Chatbots are already not uncommon, especially with service providers and online stores. But, with advanced AI systems based on LLMS (Large Language Models), they’re now even more improved, and able to converse almost naturally.

AI-powered chatbots can help you collect emails, appointment dates, order numbers, and other repetitive data, while your human customer service can focus on more time-sensitive and complex tasks.

Use Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis is a powerful tool you can use when creating a marketing strategy for your business. It enables marketing managers to develop strategies that resonate with their potential customers and clients.

Understanding customer feedback is one of the best ways how AI can improve customer experience in SMEs. By identifying behavioral patterns and trends in customer sentiment, SMEs can proactively address issues and improve customer satisfaction.

Predictive Analytics for Demand Forecasting

AI can help SME owners analyse customer behavior and demand based on their previous purchases, shopping cart contents, wish list, and browsing patterns. Analysing this behaviour can also help managers choose the right time to start sales and introduce new products and services.

Predictive analytics is also helpful in providing businesses with valuable insights, allowing them to optimise inventory management and influence demand patterns. By leveraging AI’s predictive abilities, SMEs can reduce costs, improve resource allocation and enhance customer satisfaction.

Enhanced Cybersecurity Measures

If you’re wondering how AI can improve customer experience in SMEs by improving the cybersecurity of your website and other assets, it’s simply because customers will appreciate knowing that their data is safe and confidential.

Maintaining robust cybersecurity is crucial for protecting customer data and ensuring their trust in SMEs. AI can enhance cybersecurity measures by monitoring network traffic and identifying and mitigating potential threats. AI is also successful at detecting anomalies that can hint at security and data breaches.

By leveraging AI-powered security systems, SMEs can enhance their ability to protect customer data, ensuring top-notch customer experience.

Conclusion

AI enables SMEs to deliver tailored and seamless experiences to their customers and clients. By implementing chatbots and AI-powered virtual assistants, as well as a streamlined e-commerce experience, positive customer feedback and satisfaction are guaranteed. Identifying how AI can improve customer experience in SMEs is crucial for leveling the playing field and competing with larger enterprises while creating long-lasting customer relationships and trust.

As technology continues to make complex things simpler, it brings about new challenges that we must face and overcome. Many small and medium enterprises face various obstacles in dealing with the proper security of their digital assets. This is because providing effective cybersecurity entails significant costs that some companies or startups cannot afford. However, AI has developed integrated technology that can assist people in defending against cyber attacks. 

You might wonder how AI can protect you when it also opens avenues for numerous security threats. However, the latest technological advancements have provided opportunities for everyone to detect and respond to threats more efficiently, reducing vulnerabilities and strengthening defences. In this post, we will explore the benefits of using AI-powered security products and how they can assist SMEs like yours in staying ahead of the competition.

Signal Science

Web application security is of utmost importance for SMEs to protect their online assets, and customer data, and maintain brand reputation. SMEs often face challenges such as limited resources and expertise to address vulnerabilities like cross-site scripting, SQL injections, and data breaches. 

To tackle these problems and safeguard all data, Signal Sciences introduce a form of AI security filtration that allows to handle and detect unexpected or irregular actions that may suggest a potential attack by analyzing traffic from an online application. 

Signal Sciences’ AI algorithms have the capability to proactively block suspicious activities and offer comprehensive security against various threats. By strengthening the website and enabling rapid response to issues, Signal Sciences builds trust among customers by ensuring that the website does not go offline. Signal Sciences assists small and medium enterprises in securing their websites and protecting against emerging threats. This minimizes potential downtime, allowing customers to access the web application without interruptions. Ultimately, deploying Signal Sciences demonstrates SMEs’ commitment to safeguarding their data and providing a secure online environment for their customers.

Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System

Due to a lack of sufficient security architecture, young organizations are vulnerable to attacks such as malware, ransomware, and data breaches. However, Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune technology is a superb technology that monitors networks using artificial intelligence. 

To detect anything unusual, it monitors network traffic, how users use the network and data flow. The machine-learning algorithms used by Darktrace detect anomalies and potential risks in real-time, allowing SMEs to respond quickly and efficiently. 

Moreover, Darktrace provides various benefits, such as early threat identification, faster incident response, proactive protection, and enhanced network security. It acts as a superhero for SMEs, defending and protecting their digital assets.

Exabeam

User Behavior Analytics is an important factor in understanding and gaining insights into the activities of a tech business. Moreover, continuous user monitoring, the risk associated with continuous user monitoring is also high as it tracks user activities that can lead to unauthorized access. This is where Exabeam becomes useful. Exabeam’s Enterprise Immune System is designed to address the security concerns faced by businesses like yours. It achieves this by analysing user behaviour and identifying what constitutes normal activity.

Then, using advanced machine learning techniques, it maintains a close eye out for any deviations or anomalies. This means Exabeam can detect insider threats, compromised accounts, and suspicious activity rapidly, providing you with early detection and security. But wait, there’s more! Exabeam also simplifies issue response and investigation by delivering automatic insights that save you time and effort. With Exabeam, you’ll have better visibility into user behaviour, a stronger security posture, and the ability to secure sensitive data and important systems proactively.

Digital Guardian

With exposure to new technologies, the chances of losing important information or stealing are also high. This is where Digital Guardian comes in place. It basically becomes your digital guardian to analyze data access patterns, user activity, and even content context. This means they can detect suspicious activity fast and stop data exfiltration attempts in their tracks. 

With Digital Guardian on your side, you’ll have complete control over your data security, ensuring that your sensitive information is kept safe and secure. With the coverage of extensive data usage visibility, providing you with vital insights into how your data is accessed and used you can rely on Digital Guardian as your ultimate data protection ally. 

Recorded Future

Recorded Future is built around the concept of threat intelligence which is the technology of collecting and analyzing large amounts of threat data, providing SMEs with actionable intelligence to help them stay ahead of their adversaries. It excels at identifying new risks, providing contextualized information about possible attackers, and providing timely suggestions for effective incident response by leveraging AI and machine learning algorithms.

It’s not simply about identifying the evil side in everything. Recorded Future goes above and beyond by providing knowledge about potential attackers and quick incident response advice. They are really concerned with providing SMEs with the tools they require to take effective action.

SMEs may use Recorded Future’s platform to prioritize risks, increase security, and make informed decisions to keep threats at bay. It’s all about staying one step ahead of the game and reducing risks like a pro. With this SMEs can have access to advanced threat intelligence capabilities, providing themselves with the knowledge and resources they need to stay one step ahead of the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape.

Barracuda Sentinel

You’ve probably heard of phishing emails and spear-phishing attacks. Barracuda Sentinel is a fantastic email security tool that employs artificial intelligence to keep your inbox safe. The strength of Barracuda Sentinel is its ability to detect and warn even the most sophisticated assaults that may bypass typical email security solutions. It protects users from fraudulent schemes by evaluating false domain names and suspicious attachments. 

Furthermore, Barracuda Sentinel’s AI-powered email security solution constantly adapts to emerging threats, ensuring proactive defence against thieves’ ever-evolving techniques. Individuals and companies may traverse their email exchanges with confidence, knowing they are protected by cutting-edge technology, by employing Barracuda Sentinel’s strong security features.

Okta Adaptive MFA

Okta Adaptive MFA is a game changer in how it may transform Identity and Access Management for small and medium-sized organizations. IAM is important for assuring secure and authorized access to organizational resources, which is where Okta Adaptive MFA’s AI capabilities come in. 

It establishes the proper authentication level for each user by studying user behaviour, location, and device information. This dynamic technique improves security while reducing the hazards of compromised credentials. The comprehensive characteristics of Okta Adaptive MFA set it distinct. It provides intelligent risk-based authentication, which means it can evaluate the level of risk associated with each authentication attempt and adjust accordingly. Furthermore, it interacts perfectly with your existing IAM infrastructure, making it extremely simple for SMEs to install.

Okta Adaptive MFA is definitely worth investigating if you’re an SME trying to enhance your security game and protect sensitive data. It’s like having a wise and trustworthy guardian who assists you in improving your security posture.

Dome9 Arc by Check Point

Let’s take a look at Check Point’s Dome9 Arc and how it may give small and medium-sized businesses a major edge in cloud security. Dome9 Arc uses AI algorithms to evaluate cloud settings, detect misconfigurations, and deliver real-time security insights. It’s like having a cloud security expert at your disposal. 

SMEs may proactively discover and address risks in their cloud infrastructure using Dome9 Arc’s AI capabilities. This allows you to keep ahead of the competition while still ensuring the integrity and compliance of your cloud environment. No more concerns about security flaws. 

Along with this, you get to see automated security assessments, allowing you to evaluate the status of your cloud security on a regular basis. It also enforces constant compliance, so you can rest assured that you are meeting all of the relevant standards. Not to mention the streamlined cloud security procedures, which make managing and maintaining a secure cloud environment a snap.

For better security, it’s best if you include Dome9 Arc by Check Point. It protects against emerging risks and assists you in creating a robust and resilient cloud environment. 

Conclusion

As you read, you must have realized how AI can act as a reliable security guardian, monitoring your website 24/7. These AI tools effectively address a wide range of website security concerns, including threat detection and prevention to keep malicious attacks at bay. They also focus on securing web applications and ensuring comprehensive website protection.

In addition, user behaviour analytics are utilized to detect any suspicious activities, while data loss protection remains a critical aspect. These tools provide you with the necessary security measures. Leveraging AI for website security is truly a game changer for SMEs in this evolving digital world. It empowers you to safeguard your online assets, maintain a strong and secure digital presence, and enjoy peaceful nights knowing that your website is in capable hands.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way different businesses operate, and that’s just the beginning of AI revolution. Many business owners are brainstorming whether there’s a place for AI in SMEs, and how it will shape the future of work and employment in those businesses.

Many people are concerned that with rapid AI development, roles and professions that are today crucial to businesses will become obsolete. That’s not without a reason because of the way AI is being promoted in media and the fact it can simplify so many daily tasks that’d normally take hours.

New AI tools emerge every day, from OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard to thousands of other AI-powered tools that can generate images, videos, summarize meetings, YouTube videos, and even write a research study.

According to research published by Jobbio, many people who are employed full-time are scared of the potential threat of AI for their jobs. According to data obtained for the research, around one-fifth of workers in The USA think that their jobs will no longer exist within the next ten years.

Instead of looking at it as a threat, small to medium enterprises should look for ways to implement AI in a way that can help them organize their workflow and improve productivity. Continue reading to learn how to use AI in SMEs to prepare for the future of work.

5 Ways to Use AI in SMEs to Prepare for the Future

As of 2022, there are 5.5 million SMEs in the UK, which makes up about 99.9% of the private sector, according to government data. Here’s how to leverage AI in SMEs and make better results.

Invest in AI Training

To use AI effectively the members of your organization will need to learn how to use it properly. You can do this through workshops, crash courses, bootcamps, and other forms of education. All SMEs should prioritize education and training within their workforce.

Developing AI literacy among your employees is the crucial step towards the effective use of AI in SMEs because it can help them identify where AI adds the most value to their work. This initiative can help foster innovation, identify AI use cases and cultivate a culture of continuous learning.

Maximize Workflow Automation

Many tools in the past allowed employees to automate their workflow, making it more effective. However, the integration of different AI tools available on the market can help maximize it. That said, AI in SMEs is quite important for automation.

According to research by Accenture, people will be able to focus on “exceptional work” which includes the non-routine tasks that generate more than 80% of value. In other words, the use of AI surpasses the traditional automation tools used in the past.  

With the ability to automate even more tasks, even the non-routine ones, employees will be able to increase efficiency and focus on more strategic and creative endeavors.

Prioritize Data-driven Decision Making

AI is powered by data, and as such, it can help SMEs use it to make informed, data-driven decisions. But, to use business data as fuel for AI, businesses need to recognize the value in data and establish robust data management practices and policies.

SMEs can use data to get insights into customer behaviors and predict market trends as well as operational flaws and inefficiencies that maximize the loss and hold the company back from reaching its objectives. Using AI to identify potential security and privacy flaws can help establish firm security and privacy measures and adhere to data regulation.

That way, AI in SMEs can help build customer and stakeholder trust.

Invest in an Open AI Culture

SMEs shouldn’t see AI as a threat to job security but rather foster an open AI culture among teams and other employees.

It’s important to foster a culture where both humans and machines collaborate, making the job smoother, more effective, and more efficient. AI is designed to augment human performance and allow employees to work smarter while identifying weaknesses they can address to turn into strengths.

SMEs should encourage employees to explore the capabilities of AI and different AI-fueled solutions that can complement their work performance. AI in SMEs can lead to innovative and creative solutions as well as increased productivity which can be used for projects in the future.

Automate the HR

Have you ever heard of the term HAIR? It refers to automated human resources, leading to faster processing of large volumes of candidate data in efforts to find candidates that are more suitable for different positions.

It’s important to educate HR managers and the rest of the HR department on how to set an automated environment in a way that will allow them to analyze performance and other metrics regarding employment. HR managers will also need to analyze and explore ways to tell the AI performance apart from human work.

Conclusion

The AI revolution has started, and we’re yet to see the peak of AI in SMEs. One thing is for sure, SMEs will need to optimize AI in order to stay competitive in the market. The age of AI will bring even more SMEs forward that will know how to harness the power of AI to get on top of the industry.

By investing in AI education, training, and adaptability, and embracing automation SMEs will be more than prepared for the AI-driven future.