We underestimate how much SMEs can gain from AI

When we talk about technological revolutions, the focus quickly shifts to large organisations with big budgets and specialised teams. That’s a shame. Because AI gives small businesses the opportunity to get much more done with the same people and resources. And, above all, to spend less time on the work they never became entrepreneurs to do.

Because you didn’t start your business because you love chasing invoices, checking project statuses or doing admin.

SMEs have a major advantage: they can move quickly. I don’t recognise the idea that SMEs will only join the AI revolution later.

Entrepreneurs are curious about the possibilities of AI, but above all, they are pragmatic. They want to know: what’s in it for me? Once that value becomes clear, they are very willing to experiment. When we opened a waitlist for the Focus AI beta at Teamleader Focus, more than 10% of our customers signed up within the first day. Without a major campaign. That says enough, doesn’t it?

Of course, not every company is at the same point. Some entrepreneurs use AI for individual tasks, while others are already integrating it into their processes. But for many SMEs, AI has become more than a one-off experiment.

It’s not a question of whether SMEs will use AI. The real question is how they can use AI as smartly as possible.

Over the next two to three years, we’re going to see a major shift. What still feels experimental to some companies today will be completely normal in a few years’ time.

Checking project statuses, following up on open tasks, sending reminders, gathering information from different sources: these are all things you still spend time on every day. Soon, you’ll let AI do that work and simply look at the overview. Only the things that genuinely need your attention will still come to you.

Don’t underestimate what that means for the capacity of a small business. I expect that in a few years, SMEs may be able to get 10 times as much work done with the same number of people and the same resources. That becomes possible because AI takes over a huge part of the executional and repetitive work.

At the same time, AI itself will become less and less visible. Soon, we won’t even think about it anymore. AI will simply be built into the software we use. AI will become the new normal.

Social media posts that all look alike, LinkedIn posts that scream ‘written with AI’… I simply scroll past them by now. We really are in an AI slop phase. With AI, we are mass-producing texts, images and ideas. But much of it has the same look and tone.

We’ll get tired of that soon enough.

Precisely because everyone can produce content so easily, authenticity, your own voice and real relationships become more important. I can already see this shift happening in the United States. Companies are investing in experts again who can build a recognisable brand with its own voice. Branding and storytelling help you stand out from the flood of AI-generated messages. As far as I’m concerned, you shouldn’t want to hand your own voice over to AI.

AI can do a lot. But just because AI can do something doesn’t mean you should hand it over to AI. What is difficult for humans is easy for AI. And what is easy for us is difficult for AI.

Following up on a hundred open items? Or collecting and processing information from ten different sources? We put it off, lose track or spend days working on it. AI doesn’t have that problem. It can process huge amounts of information much faster.

But look at it from the other side too.

We know our customers and colleagues. We understand our company culture. We can judge, weigh things up and build relationships. We instinctively know that you use a slightly different tone with one customer than with another.

Give AI your entire to-do list and ask what you should do first. Chances are it will set the wrong priorities. Because that requires more than information alone: you bring context and experience into your judgement.

And yet those are exactly the human tasks we sometimes outsource first: write this email, come up with an idea, tell me what my team should do. I think we need to learn to think in exactly the opposite way.

Let AI prepare research, process information and follow up on a hundred things at once. But keep human contact, judgement and the final decisions in your own hands.

As an entrepreneur, you automatically get a mountain of admin on top of your actual work. Invoices, hours, projects, profitability. It has to be done, but it’s not exactly your hobby.

So why keep doing all of it yourself?

Let AI collect, check and prepare information. If everything is going according to plan, you barely need to look at it. And as soon as something deviates, you can step in, check it and decide for yourself what needs to happen.
That, to me, is the real gain from AI: let technology do the work that technology is good at. That leaves you with more room for what makes your business stand out. AI makes your work easier and more enjoyable, while allowing you to get much more done with the same people.