How to create a AI strategy: tips for small companies (2025)

More than 50% of US companies with 5,000 or more employees use AI in any form. But you don't have to be a trillion dollar conglomerate to use the potential of the AI. Some inexpensive tools can help you optimize the process, improve the forecast, generate content and increase the productivity of employees.

Take it from Suchharita Kodali, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, a leading expert for the retail industry and the role of technologies such as AI in the design of your future: “People must be open to the various possibilities that you can reach from point A to point B. This can contain AI or not. Finding the right solution for your company's inefficiencies is whether a new internal role must be added, a partnership with providers or the introduction of AI skills is required.

Find out how to create a solution-oriented AI strategy.

What is a AI strategy?

A AI strategy is a comprehensive approach to include AI in your business, products and services. If you create one, evaluate your business processes and identify areas where AI can improve efficiency measurably. For example, your AI strategy can include the use of AI-powered software for combining meetings, the provision of chatbots for the provision of customer support or implementing recommendation engines in order to offer personalized suggestions. It is just as important that a thoughtful AI strategy determines you where you should not invest in AI so that you do not overstretch your resources.

How to create a AI strategy for your company

1. Identify your needs
2. Explore your options
3. Evaluate risks
4. Lay out
5. Rate success

Here are some critical steps that you should take into account if you put together your AI strategy:

1. Identify your goals

First identify which areas of your business must be improved and determine how AI can tackle these pain points and achieve added value. Make sure that your AI strategy matches your company's guiding principle and goals and that your existing IT infrastructure can meet the requirements of AI tasks.

At the same time, Suchharita says that companies should avoid an approach “search for nails”. Instead of looking for ways, to involve himself for the sake of himself, she suggests carefully analyzing different aspects of the customer experience in order to identify problems that could be solved with AI, and at the same time remains careful that not all corrections require AI.

If you run a company with limited resources, concentrate on the use of AI to increase productivity and help the employees to carry out their tasks faster and more efficiently. AI changes the way they do business. Instead, it may be more suitable to optimize manual tasks that slow down or influence the customer experience. For example, if your support team is slow, Ki chatbots could help by answering simple questions -and imposed on your human team for more complex topics.

2. Research your options

Research the next AI tools with which you can achieve your goals. Here you will find out how to make sure you choose the right solutions for your company:

• Find advice. By reviewing case studies by companies that have used AI to deal with similar challenges. If your budget allows it, you will learn from an expert in the field that can provide deeper insights and instructions.

• Take part in events. Learn more about tools and providers by participating in trade fairs, conferences and round tables that contain AI software providers, as well as recommendations from colleagues and industry experts. Suchharita suggests that colleagues ask which tools they use and which tools they do not use. This can help you assess which options are valuable and which over glands are.

• Use existing tools. Experiment you and play with the integrated AI functions or freemium options in the services already used. For example, Gemini offers Copywriting tools for Google WorkSpace AS-driven, while accounting platforms such as QuickBooks use AI to automatically pursue the costs. The term offers AI productivity functions and writing of assistants such as use of grammar to improve your marketing copy. And of course Shopify Magic is freely available to all Shopify dealers.

3 .. Rate risks

Like any technology, AI has its own risks and challenges, but with careful consideration your company can reduce you. (You may also want to insert a right -wing expert to clear up compliance concerns, e.g. to ensure that AI tools meet the data protection regulations.) Note the following:

• Data security. Company data entered in AI tools are not always certain because they can be used to train the system. Your business probably holds a large cache with customer data on hand name, addresses, purchase history, etc. While most AI-entertainment tools of the name brands emphasize security. It is a good idea how your data is saved and used.

• Hallucinations. Generative AI tools such as chatt can achieve inaccurate or misleading results, which are referred to as AI Hallucinations. For example, if you use Genai for the creation or market research, you would like to check the performance of the AI ​​to ensure the accuracy. If the effort that cuts the review of the output too deeply into the time that your team could save, you may want to rethink.

• Cost. Carefully calculate the budget that is required for the use of your desired tools – especially for those who are calculated on use on use. Do you get the value you want to spend the tools for the amount you can afford?

4 .. Place a plan

As soon as you have outlined your vision, selected your tools and taken into account the risks, it is time to create a plan:

• Define the roll-out time and procedure. Insert a schedule for the introduction of AI tools to your team and make it clear when and how you can expect to use the new technology.

• Offer training. The AI ​​technology may feel very new in your team. So do the right training to use it effectively and responsibly. This should be approved (and not approved) applications, cover rules for data that you can (and can) give (and can) and with questions to whom.

• Create baking stops and checking processes. In view of the risk of hallucinations, create a fact check or other checking process for genai production.

5. Rate success

There is no one-size approach for AI. How to measure success depends on its original goals, and it improves productivity or increases customer satisfaction. Success also requires continuous monitoring and flexibility to refine or expand. Participate your team throughout the process to identify pain points and, if necessary, implement alternative strategies.

Even if you use a AI tool for tasks that are not directly generated in sales, it must still provide a clear value. Not every AI application will be a long-term success, and the enforcement of the introduction of AI, if it does not offer any real value, can cause more damage than benefits.