During my recent trips to various cities across the country, it was heartening to notice that many of our SMEs have increasingly been adopting digitisation. These businesses are leveraging digital solutions to enhance productivity, improve customer experience and strengthen competitiveness. 

However, it is imperative to understand here that in today’s business landscape, along with digitisation, adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is also crucial for the growth trajectory of SMEs. There are several tools which can help small businesses understand the behavior of the customers online, gauge their expectations, and improve return on investment (ROI). Additionally, with several analytical tools and machine learning, businesses can analyze and make data driven decisions, create personalized marketing strategies and forecast future growth. Moreover, tools such as chatbots can help automate and streamline CRM tasks, provide instant customer query redressal and thereby improve customer experience and operational efficiency. 

With AI, SMEs can automate several tasks and minimize waste and improve overall productivity. But having said that, the SMEs might also face challenges in the adoption of AI in their business. First and foremost there is a lack of awareness among the SMEs for digital and AI tools for business. Second, they also face challenges in investing in technology, hiring tech- savvy workforce or upskilling the existing staff to effectively use these tools. Despite the government’s efforts in making Indian MSMEs ‘digitally-saksham’, there are still some apprehensions about adopting artificial intelligence (AI), including costs of implementation, infrastructure, and expertise to fully leverage AI technology. These factors hinder their ability to fully realize the potential of technology.

The Indian government’s commitment towards AI is evident from its investment of over 10,000 crore in the India Artificial Intelligence mission (AI mission). I am sure, this will help industries across all sectors and will provide more growth opportunities for Indian SMEs as well.

From my own experiences, I can safely infer that SMEs have to come out of the cocoon and embrace AI tools to take them forward. And those who fail in doing so will be left behind.

I invite your opinions.