Ready to compete against the big boys in your industry?
Every small and medium sized business fantasizes about going head to head with industry titans. Of course, having dreams is one thing. The reality has always been resource constraints.
Enterprise scale companies invest millions of dollars into staffing, technology, and processes that allow them to crunch data and gather insights.
Until now…
AI powered analytics has completely disrupted the data wars. Suddenly, small and medium sized businesses have access to affordable tools that unlock data driven decision making at an enterprise level.
Not to mention you can start smaller than most business owners realize.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- How AI Analytics Gives SMEs An Unfair Advantage
- Taking Advantage Of The Data You Already Have
- 4x Strategies For SMEs Leveraging AI Analytics
- Making The Transition To AI Analytics On A Budget
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How AI Analytics Gives SMEs An Unfair Advantage
The old way of doing business analytics was expensive and brutal.
Big businesses hired teams of costly analysts, purchased expensive enterprise applications, and invested heavily in data warehouses. Smaller companies? They relied on whatever Excel skills they had.
Times have changed.
AI analytics tools have democratized business intelligence by providing SME’s with enterprise grade insights at a fraction of the price. These solutions provide everything from customer behaviour analysis to sales forecasting without the need for dedicated IT or data science teams.
The move towards automated data analysis has changed the SME game by allowing small businesses access to actionable insights that would take months to compile using spreadsheets.
This change is huge if you ask me.
A recent Salesforce study found that 91% of SMBs using AI for analytics report an immediate increase to revenue. Now that’s what I call a statistic.
Taking Advantage Of The Data You Already Have
Here’s the thing most SME owners don’t realize…
You already have all the data you need.
Interactions with customers, sales & conversions, website visits. Any time you do business you gain valuable information about your company. The difference between you and enterprise scale companies has always been what you do with that information.
Big businesses have had years to tweak, refine, and optimize their data. Small businesses can now do the exact same thing with a commercial off the shelf AI analytics solution that can:
- Process your data as it happens
- Identify trends and make predictions
- Create business insights you can actually use
- Scale as your business grows
Instead of hiring an entire analyst team to watch customer behaviour at a big box retailer. SME’s with AI tools can get similar insights by simply installing a commercial off the shelf solution and let it run in the background.
All while spending way less money than your competitors.
4x Strategies For SMEs Leveraging AI Analytics
Enough theory. Let’s talk about what SME’s are doing right now to take on the big boys.
1. Customer Behaviour Analysis
If you’ve read this far you already know customers are everything.
By implementing AI based analytics into your customer workflows you can begin to analyse customer journeys through your company. Predict buying behaviours and identify at risk customers before they churn.
Something that used to take consulting fees in the 6 figures and months of analysis.
Can now be done instantly with the right tools monitoring your business every day.
2. Predictive Sales Forecasting
Want to know how much you’re going to sell next quarter?
Guessing would be nice, but AI sales forecasting can analyze historical data, current market trends, and known seasonal fluctuations to provide remarkably accurate predictions of future performance.
Inventory planning, staffing, expansion. These can all be done with more confidence when you know what your sales will look like far in advance.
3. Competitive Intelligence
Knowing what your competition is doing is always important.
But what if you could have insights into your competitors pricing, track market movements as they happen, and be alerted to up and coming opportunities or threats?
Automated AI analysis can do all of this and more. Giving SMEs access to a level of competitive intelligence that only Fortune 500 companies have had access to in the past.
4. Operational Efficiency Monitoring
Where are you losing money?
AI analytics can pinpoint wasted expenditures that would normally go unnoticed. Poorly optimized supply chains, neglected channels of marketing, and a variety of other cash drains can be identified and corrected with the right technology.
Making The Transition To AI Analytics On A Budget
The scary part for most business owners is they think AI requires huge investments in technology and IT.
WRONG. Another thing I want you to remember.
One of the biggest advantages small business have over large enterprises is their ability to adapt and implement changes much quicker.
According to a recent IBM study, companies who adopted AI saw productivity grow 4.8 times faster than the global average.
Break that down
Don’t go ahead and buy every AI solution under the sun. Implement one solution that fixes one pain point and measure the improvements. From there you can decide if implementing more AI makes sense for your business.
Top SMEs adopt new technology piece by piece. They test, measure gain, then adapt those changes across their businesses.
Hire Smart, Not Many
AI is only as useful as the people who use it.
Instead of going out and hiring a team of data scientists you should be training your existing employees. Show them how to use the new technology and equip them with the know-how to ask smart questions.
This doesn’t have to be expensive. There are dozens of AI analytics platforms built specifically with the small business in mind. Make sure to pick something that doesn’t require a data scientist to operate.
Wrapping Things Up
The data giants of the world aren’t going away. They’re investing every dollar they have into AI analytics to gain an advantage over their competition.
The smaller fish? We can adapt quicker, implement changes faster, and don’t have to deal with massive bureaucracy to roll out new technology.
Leverage that.
Now more than ever it’s crucial to take advantage of every opportunity you have to gather information about your business. With AI powered analytics you can unlock insights that would take months to compile by hand. All from the comfort of your desktop and at prices SME’s have been able to afford since the beginning of time.
Here’s your action steps:
- Identify a pain point that data can solve.
- Find an AI analytics platform that fixes that pain point
- Begin collecting data as soon as possible.
- Monitor new insights and implement them into your business.
- Hire smart and train your existing employees.