1.Start Small
Identify one or two key areas where AI can have the most significant impact, such as customer service chatbots or automated invoicing. These are great starting points for businesses looking to automate interactions and save time.
2.Verify AI Outputs
AI-generated insights or recommendations should be reviewed before implementation. Human oversight is necessary to ensure accuracy and ethical decision-making. For example, reviewing email campaign suggestions ensures they align with a business’s brand voice and goals.
3.Emphasize Ethics in AI
When implementing AI, it’s crucial to address ethical considerations. Small business owners should be aware of potential biases in AI algorithms and ensure customer privacy is respected. Transparency is key. Customers should be informed when interacting with AI systems.
4.Build Customer Trust
Transparency fosters trust. If a business is using AI for customer interactions, it’s important to clearly communicate that they are engaging with a machine and offer the option to speak with a human representative.
Editor’s note: This is a complement to “How AI Can Transform Small Businesses.”
Akli Adjaoute is the founder of Exponion, a venture capital firm that provides cutting-edge startup companies with the financial resources and expertise they need to achieve success. In his book, Inside AI, the 30-year expert explores the reality of AI’s abilities and limits.
Before Exponion, Adjaoute was the founder and CEO of Brighterion, which was acquired by Mastercard in 2017. Brighterion has received multiple awards, including the Innovation World Series Award, the Morgan Stanley Fintech Award, the Business Intelligence Group’s 2022 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Award, the U.S. FinTech Award’s 2022 Banking Tech of the Year, the 2021 Business Transformation 150 and the 2020 Fortress Cyber Security Award for Threat Detection.
Adjaoute holds 35 patents and has an additional 50 patents pending approval; his inventions have been cited more than 2,000 times. He is a renowned academic, speaker and writer in the fields of AI and security. He served as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco and as the head of the AI department and scientific committee chair at EPITA, one of Europe’s leading institutions for engineering and computer science education. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from the Université de Technologies de Compiègne and a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from the University of Pierre & Marie Curie.
