What Changed
Commodity infrastructure, better APIs, and robust orchestration (n8n/Make) make AI practical for SMBs. You don't need a research team—you need clarity on use-cases.
Start with Assistants, Not Magic
Think of AI as a teammate handling: triage, drafts, summaries, and lookups. Keep humans in the loop where decisions carry risk or brand impact.
Four SMB-Ready Use-Cases
- Lead qualification: summarize and route inquiries with context.
- Document workflows: extract data from invoices/POs/contracts to your systems.
- Knowledge answers: internal wiki Q&A with retrieval and citations.
- Reporting: auto-compile weekly summaries with charts and commentary.
Guardrails & Reliability
Use retrieval with sources, temperature control, constrained outputs (JSON schemas), and fallbacks. Always log prompts/outputs and alert on anomalies.
Build vs Buy
Start with off-the-shelf tools to prove ROI. Move to custom once workflows stabilize or when data sensitivity demands it. Keep the data plane in your cloud if needed.
Measuring Impact
Track hours saved, first-response times, SLA adherence, and accuracy thresholds. Tie each to financial impact to justify expansion.