Generative Artificial Intelligence, this unknown. We've been talking about it for a year and a half now, ever since ChatGPT sparked interest in the topic, bringing managers, students and the simply curious to chat to see what it's like to talk to software using natural language. But there is a difference between chatting to get your school essay written and using AI to increase business: many have understood that AI is a tool capable of revolutionizing business but are disorientated when faced with the offer of different solutions and they don't know how to apply it in the company. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which for the moment remain at a standstill in seizing the opportunities of the new industrial revolution. Although the VI Business and Work Survey (RIL) conducted by INAPP (National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies) was presented 6 months ago, the picture is not encouraging: companies with fewer than 50 employees that adopt AI it would be only 1.5% and for those with over 250 employees it would reach 12%. The numbers must not be that far from the truth if it is true that another research conducted last February by Competence Industry Manufacturing 4.0, one of the eight highly specialized national competence centers promoted by the MISE, says that only 8% of SMEs use AI in production and 6% in logistics, while the percentages in large companies correspond to 26% and 32% respectively.
“SMBs today are faced with a vast and sometimes confusing choice of AI tools. To orient yourself, a clear understanding of your specific needs is first and foremost essential. This includes an evaluation of business operations, to identify where AI could bring significant improvements, such as process automation or advanced data analysis,” explains Paolo Brera, executive director of DisruptiveS, a startup founded a year ago specifically to accelerate the arrival of SMEs in the use of AI and machine learning tools. “After identifying your needs, you should research the tools that best align with your goals, considering both ready-to-use solutions and platforms that can be customized for specific requirements.”
You certainly can't stand by and watch competitors seize the opportunity to innovate: Brera himself, a manager with long corporate experience in marketing, obtained a certificate from MIT in Boston in Data Science and Machine Learning. And DisruptiveS is specializing in the creation of various vertical tools: “We started from a solid internal knowledge of the Axiom1 group, a company of which the startup is part, linked to digital marketing tools and digital PR management. Through the OpenAI platform which allows you to create vertical chatbots (therefore based on the language model on which ChatGPT is structured, ed.), we have created an Artificial Intelligence tool which we called Your Meta Ads Strategist and works as an assistant in developing marketing campaigns on Meta. Furthermore, we will soon release a vertical platform for managing the production of public relations content.”
Artificial Intelligence works like a new assistant capable of helping everyone in their specific field, but as Brera explains, for every company it is essential to identify the data to feed to AI and from which it can extract value, also simply because it allows you to ask questions and obtain analyzes that no human being would be able to obtain alone : “First and foremost, SMEs need to gain a clear understanding of what data they have and how it can be used to support more informed decisions. Their analysis can in fact reveal patterns, trends and give rise to insights useful for improving operational efficiency at various levels and across different business units, depending on the reference market segment. This is why turning to consultants allows you to understand where to start.”
Naturally, all this will also have an impact on workers who will have to update themselves on the use of these new tools: “The professional development phase is crucial in the affirmation and use of Artificial Intelligence”, concludes Brera. “A tool introduced into the company must be accompanied by constant up-skilling and knowledge of the basic dynamics of the AI world. In parallel, efforts in the development and structuring of the tools aim to make them simple to use and intuitively accessible. The first advice I can give to anyone entering the world of work is to start becoming familiar with ChatGPT and perhaps with personalized GPT, to develop a basic knowledge of the so-called prompting (i.e. the language, based on the natural one, for giving orders to AI, ed.), to prepare for a subsequent deeper and more structured adoption of tools based on generative artificial intelligence”.
