The importance of democratising AI to support the next generation of entrepreneurs

Guest Blog: Faisal Abbasi, Managing Director Western Europe and MEMA, Amelia explores the importance of low code / no code AI platforms to ensure the democratisation of this powerful technology. #AIWeek2021

According to a report by Simply Business, nearly one quarter of a million SMEs have ceased trading as a result of the pandemic. The impact on owners and employees alike has been stark, with small businesses amongst the worst affected throughout the pandemic, without the same reserves as some larger players.

That’s why the Government’s Help to Grow scheme is such an important initiative to help smaller businesses look at how they can better use technology to optimise operations and services, as well as bring new and innovative ideas to the market. In addition to supporting skills development, the digital route will provide eligible businesses up to £5,000 to secure a 50% discount on productivity-enhancing software.

What is the Help to Grow scheme?

With Help to Grow: Digital, the Government is prioritising discounts on technology which will help businesses “build customer relationships and increase sales, make the most of selling online and manage their accounts and finances digitally.” There is no doubt that automation and Artificial Intelligence-powered (AI) technologies must play a key role here. The Government previously published estimations that by 2035 AI could add an additional £630bn to the UK economy, in turn increasing the annual growth rate of GVA from 2.5% to 3.9%.

Empowering small businesses

With small businesses accounting for 99.3% of the UK total business population, it’s important that the government’s Help to Grow scheme, and indeed its National AI Strategy helps bridge the AI-divide between large and small enterprises. There must be a focus on productivity-driving technologies that are easy, accessible and affordable, such as low code / no code solutions, which can be implemented and managed by employees with minimal technical know-how.

Low code / no code platforms offer a viable solution to this challenge, providing non-tech savvy workers with guided instructions to easily and quickly design, deploy and implement conversational AI agents that can support with day-to-day tasks, from customer service through to finance management.

The key to democratising AI

These types of solutions mean that small businesses can easily automate time intensive administrative processes, driving productivity and allowing their employees to focus their time, resource and attention on value-add projects to grow the business. In IT, for example, you can easily deploy an IT Help Desk Engineer, converging front- and back-office functions to automate IT requests, including password resets and resolving Wi-Fi access issues. Or you can design a 24/7 call centre digital agent that is trained in company protocol to respond to a wide range of customer enquiries and can seamlessly escalate tricky or emotionally sensitive queries to human customer service agents to manage.

This democratised approach to implementing AI will increase the velocity for use-case development, while driving greater adoption to accelerate the time-to-value of AI within small businesses. It will also empower employees to identify and develop AI use cases for their specific needs, rather than retrofitting an enterprise solution to a small business challenge.

The hybrid digital-human employee workforce

Lowering the technical barrier to entry to AI will be transformative for the UK small business community. Not only will driving greater efficiency help them become more competition amongst their peers on the international market, but it will also empower them to compete on the same technological level as their larger counterparts, punching above their weight in areas like employee and customer experience.

 

Author:

Faisal Abbasi, Managing Director Western Europe and MEMA, Amelia

Social channels

Twitter - @IPsoft

LinkedIn – Amelia / Faisal Abbasi

Faisal.JPG

You can read all insights from techUK's AI Week here

Katherine Holden

Katherine Holden

Associate Director, Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID, techUK

Katherine joined techUK in May 2018 and currently leads the Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID programme. 

Prior to techUK, Katherine worked as a Policy Advisor at the Government Digital Service (GDS) supporting the digital transformation of UK Government.

Whilst working at the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) Katherine led AMRC’s policy work on patient data, consent and opt-out.    

Katherine has a BSc degree in Biology from the University of Nottingham.

Email:
[email protected]
Phone:
020 7331 2019

Read lessmore