Artificial Intelligence for SMEs

Written by Edgar Beltran

I am fortunate to have been able to attend the workshop, Applied Analytics for Competitive Advantage, organized by John Clements Consultants last September 5 & 6, 2018. This two-day workshop aimed to increase the knowledge and awareness of its participants on artificial intelligence (AI), data science, cloud computing, and big data applications and apply all these to real business situations.

The workshop was facilitated by Prof. Ikhlaq Sidhu — faculty director and founder of Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology and an IEOR Emerging Area professor at UC Berkeley; and Prof. Paris de I’Etraz — faculty managing director of IE Venture Lab and professor of Entrepreneurship at IE Business School.

During the workshop, I learned that AI does not only apply to big organizations, but to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well. There are a lot of available resources out there — organizations just need to determine the right infrastructure that will help reshape their businesses. While traditional “Do It Yourself” systems may be too costly for some small organizations (especially when systems become large), there are internet/cloud systems available on a pay-per-use basis.

Aside from infrastructure, another key element of AI is data — and when it comes to data, quality is more important than quantity. With the right infrastructure and quality data, companies may be able to predict and come up with a viable strategy and, thus, have a successful outcome.

Finally, in order to come up with a viable strategy using AI, some small companies need to build partnerships. And for these partnerships to work, companies must identify the right partner or partners — ones that have the necessary infrastructure and data that would benefit both their businesses.

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About the author:

An accountant by profession, Edgar currently handles sales and marketing activities for EDI-Staffbuiders, a division of John Clements Consultants. Edgar loves singing, eating Filipino dishes, and hanging out with friends and relatives. His favorites sports include bowling and billiards.