Generative AI (GenAI) is a powerful tool for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and startups.
It has the power to provide businesses with increased revenue, cost reduction, cycle time improvement via automation, and better-quality products and services to create a competitive advantage. However, as a leader with your business’s success on the line, it’s understandable if you’re wondering where to start with this new technology and how to harness its power to grow your business.
Whether you’re an AI enthusiast seeking to better understand the positive impact of implementing GenAI on your business or a skeptic still trying to decide whether it’s a worthwhile investment, let us ease your mind. We’ll explore the benefits of this technology and uncover how real-world businesses like yours have already adopted it and found success.
Why Now Is the Time for Your Business to Implement GenAI
As the saying goes, there’s no time like the present — and that couldn’t be more true when it comes to adopting GenAI. Since ChatGPT came onto the scene in 2022, AI has grabbed attention on a global scale, and it hasn’t given up the spotlight since.
According to an October 2023 poll of over 1,400 executives conducted by Gartner, Inc., 45% confirmed that they are testing out GenAI solutions, and 10% had already put GenAI into production. These results marked a rapid increase from an earlier poll conducted in March of 2023, when only 15% reported testing GenAI in their businesses. An increase in positive sentiment accompanies the increased implementation of GenAI: 78% of those respondents believe that the benefits of investing in GenAI outweigh the risks.
The economic impact of GenAI isn’t slowing down anytime soon, either. In its 2023 report, McKinsey projected 6.1 to 7.9 trillion dollars being added annually to the global economy. In addition, one-third of the organizations they polled reported already using GenAI in at least one business function with plans to expand further. The overarching message? Get on board or risk being left behind by your competition.
How Does Generative AI Benefit SMBs and Startups?
Before you invest in GenAI, you may wonder, “How can I utilize GenAI to have the most significant impact on my business?” The short answer is, “however you need or want to.” As AI technology evolves, so do its capabilities and its flexibility. But we realize that’s an overarching statement to make. Let’s get more specific.
Optimize Your Business’s Productivity and Efficiency
Automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, reducing errors and increasing efficiency. Another bonus? By relieving your employees of these often mind-numbing tasks, you’re allowing them to focus on more rewarding and creative work, boosting both morale and productivity.
Decrease Costs and Increase Profitability
Increasing efficiency by automating routine tasks and processes reduces both labor costs and operating costs. A reduction in costs allows you to reallocate your resources into more strategic investments, leading to increased profitability.
Make Critical Business Decisions Based on Data-Backed Insights
Optimize resource allocation by using GenAI’s ability to analyze large amounts of data quickly. More accurately identify trends and opportunities to invest in and forecast demand for your products and services. Gain a competitive advantage in your market by using the insights you gain to uncover opportunities for innovation and improvement that set you apart from your competition.
Gain Customer Trust and Boost Brand Loyalty
Create personalized customer interactions through tailored recommendations based on historical data. Provide more comprehensive customer support with GenAI-powered chatbots that eliminate wait times and quickly give your customers the information they’re looking for —increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Provide Your Business With Flexible Solutions
For SMBs and start-ups that typically have more limited in-house resources, the complexity of GenAI technology and the rate at which it’s evolving may feel overwhelming. However, its evolution has brought more intuitive ways to integrate it into your business operations. Adopting GenAI has become easier than ever thanks to fully managed, cloud-based GenAI services, like those offered through Amazon Web Services (AWS). This includes our Innovative Tailwinds offering, an AI acceleration solution that runs on Amazon Bedrock and integrates watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform, and large learning language models (LLMs) Anthropic and Cohere.
Successful, Real-World Use Cases of GenAI in Action
At Innovative Solutions, we’ve helped numerous organizations seamlessly integrate GenAI into their workflows using Innovative Tailwinds to create customized solutions. GenAI’s industry applications are virtually limitless: Our customers span multiple industries, including health tech, fintech, manufacturing, SaaS, and more.
Preverity is an established leader in malpractice risk analytics. The organization wanted to improve its risk management and patient safety products further to provide unparalleled risk insights to its hospital and insurance partners. Implementing GenAI has allowed Preverity to take its risk measurement and development process to the next level, increasing speed, providing deeper insights, and driving more client efficiency.
By deploying Tailwinds, Preverity has achieved:
- 90% faster risk measurement development via automation
- Projected $100k in annual savings
Avannis is committed to enhancing the banking experience via customer engagement surveys. The company manually reviewed over 20,000 surveys each month, and needed a way to automate the process that would help it scale more efficiently. Innovative worked with Avannis to leverage a GenAI solution for automation, built on Innovative Tailwinds and Amazon Bedrock. This solution enabled a faster and more accurate survey analysis.
Thanks to this solution, Avannis has:
- Projected an annual savings of $54,000 through reduced manual labor
- Experienced improved staff morale with employees able to turn their attention to more engaging and valuable tasks
- Increased scalability now that it can scale its operations without increasing staff and costs
MacStadium, partnered with Innovative to streamline the implementation of their Orka platform and enhance customer satisfaction. The resulting solution, powered by IBM watsonx assistant and Amazon Bedrock, was dubbed “Mac.” Mac is a highly sophisticated AI assistant platform specialized in Orka that integrates with MacStadium’s existing system and knowledge base to facilitate improved customer service.
The implementation of Mac has resulted in:
- A 30% increase in staff efficiency with its enablement of quicker and more effective customer interactions
- A 25% reduction in customer support queries with more first-contact resolutions
- Enhanced service implementation speed, contributing to increased customer loyalty and overall business growth
AI Is Now Table Stakes — Don’t Risk Getting Left Behind
Generative AI is no longer just a technological innovation — it has now become a strategic necessity for SMBs and startups aiming to achieve sustainable growth. Businesses that are implementing AI solutions are gaining a distinct advantage over those that aren’t. The real-world evidence paints a clear picture: from boosting productivity and efficiency to enhancing customer service and enabling cost-effective scalability, GenAI offers a multitude of benefits that business leaders can’t ignore.
As an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner with over 30 years of technology experience, and a launch partner for the AWS Generative AI Competency, Innovative Solutions has mastered the science of meeting people where they are with the tech-driven solutions they need. Take the next step on your GenAI journey, and learn more about our GenAI offerings.
About Innovative Tailwinds
Want to learn more? Contact us today.