Stephanie Gorski is Strategy Managing Director and Global Strategy Lead for the Software & Platforms Industry at Accenture.
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Many people are using generative AI today for digital images and content, and we can already see how generative AI use will expand to shape the future of strategies in nearly every industry.
A recent study from my company, Accenture, found that 97% of global executives believe AI foundation models will enable connections across data types, dramatically changing the ways in which the tool is used. Meanwhile, 98% believe AI foundational models will play an important role in their organizations in the next three to five years.
But could generative AI also be the solution to address the long-standing gap between small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs) and enterprises? SMBs increasingly rely on support from larger businesses. Unfortunately, Accenture’s engagement with these enterprises and SMBs over the last 5+ years has made it clear there is a relationship mismatch between the two groups.
Despite SMBs openly communicating their needs, enterprises have continuously failed to meet them. With the right strategy to address three key SMB challenges, enterprises can enable SMBs to leverage generative AI to drive performance and finally improve the enterprise and SMB relationship.
Increasing Trust: Meeting SMB Needs At Scale
In 2021, Accenture uncovered that 49% of SMBs do not trust the enterprises they work with, despite 83% of enterprises believing otherwise. Two years later, this gap still persists.
SMBs want a tailored experience and want to work with companies that understand their perspectives and can speak their language—this is where enterprises fall short, contributing to diminished trust. Since the same study found that SMBs that trust enterprises spend 5-15% more on products and services, the lack of SMB trust leaves significant revenue on the table.
Generative AI can be leveraged by enterprises to build more trusted relationships with SMBs by offering the more personalized products and services SMBs crave.
A strong first step for enterprises is integrating generative AI into their current products and services—such as Google Workspace bringing AI functionality into commonly used document editors and spreadsheets—to help SMBs more easily manage daily tasks.
As SMBs become familiar with the technology, enterprises can provide more powerful AI tools such as CRM and campaign management integrations that help solve a wider range of SMB challenges. Even generative AI tools such as GitHub’s Copilot, which recently introduced ChatGPT capabilities into its platform, can dramatically improve the speed and efficiency of software engineering, enabling custom feature development at a lower cost.
Driving Efficiency: Turbocharging SMB Productivity
One recent report shows that 16% of SMBs (constituting companies employing 1-499 employees) today have fewer than 20 employees, making efficiency crucial. By helping SMBs increase their efficiency, enterprises can build a longer-term relationship with SMBs and broaden SMB buying behavior.
Generative AI can also help SMBs achieve more output with fewer resources. While there are many generative AI productivity use cases, leaders should focus on providing intuitive AI tools that free up SMBs from repetitive tasks or enable them to accomplish new tasks previously beyond their technical capabilities.
For instance, plugins are now available for ChatGPT that enable interaction with third-party applications, allowing the chatbot to act as an executive assistant while saving the owner both time and resources.
Igniting Growth: Attracting And Retaining Customers
Maintaining and increasing the customer base is a goal that both SMBs and enterprises share, but while SMBs have indicated that retaining current customers is their greatest challenge, newer SMBs see gaining new customers as their largest obstacle.
The more customers SMBs have, the more products and services they will purchase from the enterprise in order to support those customers, leading to mutual growth.
Enterprises can help retain current and convert new customers by optimizing and analyzing customer data for better decision making. This also helps SMBs to better understand their customers, provide higher levels of customer service and create personalized customer messaging and experiences.
Generative AI holds strong potential to continue to push the possibilities of customer success even further, helping SMBs quickly scale capabilities to reach new customers and markets through personalized interactions and campaigns.
Strategies For SMBs Looking To Integrate AI Solutions: A Case Example
Imagine a local sports outfitter that operates entirely online and relies on an enterprise platform for its e-commerce and technology needs. When looking to grow its business, this small business can leverage a generative AI analytics tool to identify high-potential, untapped markets.
This tool then creates a fully formed marketing plan and personalized ad messaging, specifically designed for each customer segment. The owner also creates a 30-second, cinematic promotional video using an AI image and video generator in under an hour without needing deep technical skills.
With the influx of new customers, the sports outfitter experiences a setback with a recall on a popular product, driving a huge increase in customer service call volume. As the lean team struggles to respond to all the inquiries, they deploy a generative AI-powered customer support tool.
These tools can field all calls simultaneously using an AI chatbot agent that knows the entire customer profile, monitors ongoing caller sentiment, speaks in an appropriate tone and offers additional product recommendations based on purchase history and interests.
This conversation is indistinguishable from speaking with a real human, providing that personal attention customers expect from small businesses.
Generative AI can allow such an SMB to scale their operations beyond what was previously possible—and would be because of the enterprise that took the steps to unlock generative AI for this SMB.
Generative AI Transforming The Enterprise And SMB Relationship
Enterprises have long wrestled with how to engage SMBs in the way they need while being conscious of the resources it takes to deliver such service.
I hope this article offers some valuable takeaways for enterprise leaders seeking to offer SMBs the support they need by focusing on ways to provide trusted, personalized, easy-to-use products and services which can allow both parties to reach new heights.
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