A small business guide to AI implementation and change management

Whether streamlining sales, personalising marketing campaigns, or improving customer service, generative AI is helping small businesses unlock new levels of efficiency and engagement.

This article explores how AI can drive business growth, and offers insights from industry experts on fostering a culture of curiosity and innovation among your team.

Small business reimagined

Generative AI has already started fundamentally changing the way we do business. And as more businesses jump on board, those slow on the uptake risk being left behind.

After all, AI is “setting up businesses to be more efficient, more productive, more insight-driven, and more personalised for their customers,” says Rowena Westphalen, Senior Vice President of Innovation, Salesforce APAC at Salesforce APAC. So, one way or another, “all businesses will have to invest in AI to remain competitive.”

These technologies can help businesses boost revenue growth by fine-tuning core business functions, including marketing, sales and customer service. But perhaps the most game-changing aspect of AI is that it’s “freeing up employees to spend more time on the higher-value things, like their customers and their relationships with them,” Westphalen says.

Interested in learning how to apply AI to your business, download our AI for small business eBook.

Time to innovate

This opportunity to capitalise on human skills by offloading routine tasks will be key to business change and growth, says Louise Gibson, Founder and Director of the transformational coaching and consulting service With Verve.

By liberating employees to focus on work that requires their unique creativity and expertise, she explains, AI adoption can lead to greater innovation, engagement and workplace satisfaction.

“The opportunity for competitive advantage here comes from how leaders leverage the technology,” Gibson says. “So, how can you make roles more fulfilling by stripping out repetitive tasks—things that AI could do more efficiently And in doing so, how can you save time and make way to realise the full potential of your people and get them to focus on the value-adding work that their expertise and experience offers?”

The role of change management

Integrating AI into your business requires a well-thought-out change-management strategy, Gibson says, and there are two aspects to this:

1. Be deliberate in your decision-making around AI, and consider how it will be used upfront, including its impact on roles and ways of working.
2. Be clear in your communications to employees about AI, how you’re planning to use it in your business, and what it means for them.

“The key message here is that if you ignore the inevitable human aspect of implementing any sort of technology or change, you lose the full value and potentially create costly disengagement,” Gibson says.

She strongly advises business leaders to establish and commit to guiding principles for using AI. These must align with your business’ core values and goals, and will provide a critical framework for balancing AI exploration and risk.

“Knowing your values will clarify your non-negotiables, and these should guide your decision-making and the actions you take around AI and how it’s used,” Gibson explains.

A culture of continuous learning: the bedrock of AI adoption

Change management extends beyond introducing a new technology into your business. It’s also about nurturing a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and adaptability to ensure successful implementation of that technology.

According to our experts, inspiring teams to embrace change as an opportunity rather than a challenge requires business leaders to:

• Be transparent and vulnerable,
• Acknowledge uncertainties,
• Share failures,
• And role-model a willingness to experiment and learn.

Westphalen suggests emphasising the benefits of AI to help foster curiosity, innovation and buy-in. For example, according to research by Salesforce, “employees think they’re going to save about five hours a week by using generative AI,” she says. “That’s a month each year for full-time workers.”

However, she adds that nearly 60% of employees admit they don’t know how to tell if they’re using a trusted data source or how to ensure that sensitive data is secure. So, education has an important role to play long-term safety and security.

“If you use something like Trailhead to learn about getting started with AI, that can help people’s competence and trust that they’re doing the right thing,” Westphalen says.

Ultimately, while generative AI has huge potential to drive business growth, a well-considered and deliberate change-management strategy will really unlock your business’ competitive edge.

As Gibson puts it: “Any technological transformation is only as valuable as the people you need to engage with it.”

Read now: Striking the right balance: How to integrate generative AI into your business like a boss