Management Summary
The successful integration of AI in SMEs requires a rethink at all levels of the company. However, before you develop a comprehensive AI strategy, it is first important to approach the new technology in a playful way and identify possible fields of application and opportunities for artificial intelligence for your own company.
Your attitude as a managing director will be crucial to the success of this exploration process. You don't have to become an expert in the field of AI straight away, but a willingness to understand the technology and see it as an opportunity is essential. And if you have this attitude, you will be able to find colleagues in the company who are willing to playfully discover potential fields of application for AI and develop initial approaches to everyday issues in your company.
Even if this development will lead to far-reaching changes in systems, processes, collaboration and business models, the question is not whether you should deal with it, but how and when you approach the topic.
Far-reaching changes require not only cognitive understanding but also the emotional acceptance of everyone in order to be successful. The introduction and utilisation of AI in a company is one such change. Artificial intelligence will not only change processes and workflows or become part of new business models. Artificial intelligence will change the corporate culture. And cultural change is a matter for the boss.
In my coaching sessions with managing directors of medium-sized companies, I realise that AI is still a black box for many, something that is complex and difficult to understand and where many do not really know how to open the black box and approach the topic.
This article therefore outlines possible approaches to get closer to the introduction of AI. It takes into account good practices from companies, but also my own experimental learning with AI.
The managing director's attitude to AI
The introduction of AI in the company begins in the minds of the management level. As a managing director, you shape the attitude of the entire company towards artificial intelligence. If you are sceptical and cautious, you will not drive the topic from the heart and you are more likely to hear the critics than the supporters.
You don't have to become an expert in the field of AI straight away, but a willingness to understand the technology and see it as an opportunity is essential.
But how do you develop an open and curious attitude?
Ask yourself, for example:
- What problems in the company could be solved by AI?
- Which processes could be organised more efficiently?
- Which routine tasks that nobody wants to do could AI do for us?
- In which decisions could we gain in quality and speed through AI?
Playful exploration of AI potential: involving employees
The topic of AI is on everyone's mind. And many are already using it in their private lives. AI therefore offers the ideal conditions for involving employees from the outset in a playful and low-threshold manner.
What can you initiate?
Good practice for playful exploration of AI: competitions for solving everyday problems with AI
- What would the ideal menu for our canteen look like?
- How could a fair distribution of parking spaces be ensured?
- How could company health management be better tailored to the preferences of employees?
Such creative tasks encourage the spirit of innovation and show employees that AI is not a threat, but can help them in their everyday lives.
AI can also play a key role in retaining the expertise of employees who will soon be leaving the company due to age.
Good practice for intergenerational knowledge transfer with AI
AI can be used to capture the experiential knowledge of departing employees in a structured form. Various technologies can be used here:
- Knowledge management systems with AI support: AI-supported systems can analyse and categorise written knowledge from documents, emails and reports. Interviews or questionnaires conducted or supported by an AI could enable departing employees to pass on their expertise in a structured manner.
- Conversational AI (e.g. chatbots): If knowledge transfer is to be made even easier, experienced employees can share their knowledge via interactive conversations with an AI system. These conversations are recorded and converted by the AI into meaningful blocks of information that can later be used by others. New employees could develop the questions.
Building expertise: learning, cooperating, developing
Expertise is needed to successfully use AI in the company. There are various ways to build up this knowledge:
Cooperation with start-ups and research institutionsExchange with external partners brings expertise and new ideas into the company. Start-ups and research institutes that have been working with AI for years can help to acquire expertise in a targeted manner and support the development of practical and future-oriented solutions.
Training your own GPTAnother experimental way to build up expertise is to train your own GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), which is specifically tailored to the issues facing your company.
By combining both approaches, you can bring AI expertise into the company relatively quickly and further develop the skills of your employees and the company's technological infrastructure.
Cooperation with customers and suppliers: creating synergies
Developing AI ties up resources. It is therefore advisable to consider which business partners it makes sense to cooperate with.
- Which customers and suppliers are working on similar issues to yours?
- Where does it make sense to improve cross-company processes and interfaces with a joint AI solution?
- In which processes do you use the same data to control your production, for example?
Such collaborations are not only efficient, but also strengthen the partnership with your stakeholders. They ensure that your company operates in a networked ecosystem in which everyone involved benefits.
Founding a core team: the spearhead of AI development
Establishing a permanent core team within your company that is dedicated to the development and use of AI is a crucial step. This team should work across departments and bring together experts from various disciplines with different levels of experience and expertise in order to recognise and implement the diverse application possibilities of AI within the company.
Selected fields of application of AI in medium-sized companies
- Creation of knowledge transfer platforms:
- Document analysis and structured preparation of the knowledge contained therein
- Creating tutorials and training programmes
- Efficient room utilisation and meeting room management
- Optimisation of energy consumption in the office
- Inventory management for office supplies
- Optimisation of internal communication channels
- Automated shift or personnel planning
- Optimisation of break times and areas
- Improving employee satisfaction through targeted feedback management
- Automation of IT support processes
What else should you consider when introducing and using AI?
Ethics and data protection
AI not only harbours opportunities, but also challenges in terms of ethical issues and data protection. It should be ensured that the AI systems used comply with legal data protection requirements. In addition, it will be important to develop ethical guidelines in the future to ensure that decisions are made on the basis of fair and comprehensible criteria and that discrimination is avoided.
Development of an AI strategy
Given the investments involved in the introduction and use of AI, it is essential that you develop a strategy that incorporates AI after a phase of playful exploration and familiarisation with the topic.
Monitoring technological development
AI technology is developing rapidly. Your strategy should provide for the ability to react to new technological developments. The strategy could also be to use modular AI solutions that can be successively expanded.
Conclusion: AI introduction in SMEs - gaining confidence through experimentation
In the rapidly advancing technical development in the field of artificial intelligence, it is important for companies that have not yet dealt with it to familiarise themselves with AI. Playfully explore the possibilities that this technological field holds for you together with your employees.
As a managing director, you are a key person for the technological development of your company with your attitude and the spaces you open up for trying out, familiarising yourself with and using AI.
Even if this development will lead to far-reaching changes in systems, processes, collaboration and business models, the question is not whether you should deal with it, but how and when you approach the topic.
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