Faisal Abbasi, Managing Director for Western Europe and MEMA, Amelia,
The COVID-19 pandemic sent shockwaves around the global economy last March – leaving almost no industry untouched. While some larger players have managed to hold out against the worst impacts, and others even finding new and unexpected surges in demand for their products and services in a world that suddenly found itself depending on social distancing measures, it’s been many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that have found themselves at risk. Few had the same reserves to fall back on to ride out the storm.
As we seek to emerge from the worst economic impacts, it’s important to draw attention to initiatives such as the UK Government’s Help to Grow scheme, which has been created to support smaller businesses as they recover and rise again. The Help to Grow: Digital platform goes live this Autumn, and is designed to help SMEs look at how they can better use technology to optimise operations and services, as well as bring new and innovative ideas to the market. In addition to supporting skills development, it will provide eligible businesses up to £5,000 to secure a 50% discount on productivity-enhancing software.
Technology that can help revitalise the economy
With Help to Grow: Digital, the Government is prioritising discounts on technology which will help businesses “build customer relationships and increase sales, make the most of selling online and manage their accounts and finances digitally.” There is no doubt that automation and Artificial Intelligence-powered (AI) technologies must play a key role here. The Government previously published estimations that by 2035 AI could add an additional £630bn to the UK economy, in turn increasing the annual growth rate of GVA from 2.5% to 3.9%.
Making AI accessible and affordable
But for many small businesses, expensive enterprise packages are often not an option. The high upfront investment and requirements for in-demand and expensive AI or automation expertise means that they are often unsuitable for many small businesses. Instead, there must be a focus on productivity-driving technologies that are easy, accessible and affordable, such as low code / no code solutions, which can be implemented and managed by employees with minimal technical expertise.
This is especially important given the current skills shortage. As the World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs report highlights, even large companies are struggling to hire for Data Analysts and Scientists, AI and Machine Learning Specialists as well as Software and Application Developers. Small businesses, unless a technology company themselves, are often cost-out of these in-demand skills and, as a result, the important productivity benefits they offer.
How SaaS AI platforms can make digital transformation more accessible
With small businesses accounting for 99.3% of the UK total business population, it’s important that the government’s Help to Grow scheme helps bridge the AI-divide between large and small enterprises. Low code / no code platforms offer a viable solution to this challenge, providing non-tech savvy workers with guided instructions to easily deploy domain-specific, ready built conversational AI agents that can support with day-to-day tasks, from customer service through to finance management.
These types of solutions mean that small businesses can easily automate time intensive administrative processes, driving productivity and allowing their employees to focus their time, on value-adding projects to grow the business. In IT, for example, you can easily deploy an IT Help Desk Engineer, converging front- and back-office functions to automate IT requests including password resets and Wi-Fi access. Or externally, you can design a 24/7 call centre agent that is trained in company protocol to respond to customer enquiries round-the-clock and escalate only the tricky or emotionally sensitive queries to human customer service agents to manage.
Not only this, but the integration of AI with Software as a Service (SaaS) models crucially make this implementation affordable. By allowing SMEs to only pay for the digital employee cycles that they need – nothing more, nothing less – they can ensure they are getting the best value for money on a flexible basis that sees the AI adapt to their business, rather than the other way around.
Ushering in a new wave of entrepreneurship and creativity
The past year has been a challenging one for many small businesses in the UK and the government is right to invest now to support them in both securing their immediate future and helping them future-proof their organisation with productivity-saving AI solutions.
Low code / no code platforms that will help lower the technical barrier to entry to AI will be transformative for the UK small business community. Not only will driving greater productivity help them become more competitive amongst their peers on the international market, but it will also empower them to compete on the same technological level as their larger counterparts, punching above their weight in areas like employee and customer experience.
