LeanBPI founder John O’Shanahan explains how SMEs can use AI to cut admin, improve productivity, streamline workflows and drive business growth.
In my tenure as a digital growth consultant, I’ve had a front-row seat to several waves of technological change.
I’ve watched cloud software give small businesses access to systems once reserved for large companies and helped them move from paper-based processes to more streamlined workflows.
“The biggest risk for SMEs now is whether they will ignore this technology completely or embrace it, leaning into experimentation to identify practical uses within their own operations”
However, these rapid advancements in technology simply do not compare to the two-letter word that has appeared across everyone’s lips: Artificial intelligence.
Moving beyond the hype
Without a doubt, it’s easy to get caught up in the noise surrounding chatbots such as Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Claude. For SMEs in particular, adopting any new technology can feel daunting, let alone one where the conversation is dominated by jargon like “large language models,” “AI integration” and “machine learning.”
However, if AI has reminded me of anything, it’s Amara’s Law. Amara’s Law suggests we often overestimate the short-term effect of technology and underestimate its long-term impact. While the current hype can feel overwhelming, the long-term impact of AI has the opportunity to transform operations for small businesses. Just look at what the introduction of the internet did.
The biggest risk for SMEs now is whether they will ignore this technology completely or embrace it, leaning into experimentation to identify practical uses within their own operations.
Where AI Is delivering real productivity gains
For many SMEs, knowing where to begin can be the biggest hurdle. One of the most common mistakes is investing in AI tools before identifying where time is actually being lost. The first step is to ask yourself: what repetitive tasks are taking up too much of your employees time? What would your team do if they got back an extra eight to ten hours each week?
Some of the areas where I’m seeing the biggest impact are email and communication. AI can now draft email replies, quotations, follow-ups and complaint responses in seconds. One professional services client managed to cut time spent on email administration in half by using AI-generated first drafts that staff then reviewed and personalised.
AI tools can also pull from previous submissions to create stronger first drafts for tenders and proposals. Construction and engineering firms are increasingly using AI to assist with Risk Assessments and Method Statements, helping to reduce administrative workload significantly while improving consistency.
In marketing, social media captions, newsletters, and product descriptions can now be drafted much faster than before. AI is also helping day-to-day operations by summarising meetings, extracting action points and pulling together supplier comparisons, competitor analysis, and market research into concise summaries.
It’s clear that the benefits of AI are significant and still unfolding but what approach should SMEs take to ensure successful adoption?
The two-phase approach
I generally advise clients to think about AI adoption in two phases:
- The first phase is general use, such as rewriting emails, summarising documents, drafting reports or assisting with marketing content. Almost every business can start here immediately, using low-cost tools such as Claude or Microsoft Copilot. Get comfortable with these chatbots and let experimentation lead the way.
- The second phase is more advanced and involves building AI assistants around company-specific knowledge and workflows. Instead of producing generic outputs, the AI begins working from the business’s own historical data, documents, tone, and processes. A good starting point is to identify one internal process. It could be onboarding, sales, client communication or any other process central to your business and build your first AI assistant around that. For example, an accountancy firm can produce client communications that reflect its own style and compliance requirements, or a recruitment agency can screen CVs against its own criteria or frameworks.
Ready to move forward?
The most important thing to know is that small businesses do not have to figure this out alone. There is already a range of support available through Local Enterprise Offices, Enterprise Ireland, MentorsWork, and the European Digital Innovation Hubs to help businesses explore AI and digital adoption.
Over the years, I’ve learned that successful digital adoption in small businesses rarely comes from one large transformation project. More often, it’s continuous improvement – solving one problem at a time, learning from it, and then building on it from there on out.
AI should be approached in the same way.
The businesses seeing the biggest gains today are not necessarily the biggest or the most technical. In many cases, they are simply the ones willing to experiment, identify practical use cases, and gradually embed AI into their daily operations.
The businesses that gain the most from AI will be those that use technology for repetitive work, while allowing owners and staff to spend more time using their experience, expertise, and customer understanding to move the business forward.
Top image: Photo by Andreas Klassen on Unsplash
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