How AI tools are helping MSMEs increase efficiency

Introduction

In today’s competitive landscape, MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise) are continually striving to boost productivity, scale up their businesses, and bridge the gap between them and large companies across the globe. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming a useful arsenal for MSMEs to thrive and effectively establish a strong presence among the giants in the market.

According to a white paper titled ‘Empowering India’s Growth: Unlocking AI’s Potential for Tech-Enabled MSMEs’ launched by Meta along with the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), 94% of MSMEs believed in AI’s power to drive business growth and 87% of MSMEs acknowledged its capability to enhance overall productivity.

AI is aiding MSMEs to drive growth like never before through automation, data insights and customisation. It is safe to say that AI is revolutionising the way MSMEs operate and bring significant improvements in terms of productivity, efficiency, cost savings, and customer satisfaction. Keep reading to learn more about how MSMEs in India are leveraging AI for business to stay ahead of the curve in 2025.

How MSMEs Are Using AI for Business

Let’s break down how MSMEs are strategically implementing AI for enterprises to boost productivity, increase cost savings, and enhance customer satisfaction.

    ● Enhanced Customer Service & Engagement

Most MSMEs today deploy AI-based chatbots to answer customer queries, FAQs, and resolve routine issues promptly, often eliminating the involvement of a human customer care officer. This helps them stay on top of their customer engagement game and improve customer satisfaction with more efficient resource management. These chatbots also provide personalised recommendations based on customer history and purchase history, making it easier for employees to focus on other creative, analytical, and decision-making tasks.

    ● Optimised Operations & Supply Chain Management

MSMEs are turning to AI-powered tools to optimise their operations and supply chain management. AI-powered inventory management software to track real-time stock levels, optimise production schedules and predict inventory needs are being utilised. The deployment of AI in supply chain management helps improve efficiency, reduce costs, and boost overall business.

    ● Customised Sales and Marketing

MSMEs are leveraging AI in business to analyse customer purchase history, customer behaviour, and create targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with their target audience. This boosts sales and increases customer conversion rates substantially.

    ● Data-driven Decision Making

AI can analyse large data sets and provide detailed insight into customer behaviour and market trends. MSMEs are harnessing AI to make informed decisions for product development, marketing strategies, pricing strategies, etc. The use of AI in business helps to identify optimal price points, create personalised marketing campaigns and forecast inventory needs.

    ● Improved Talent Acquisition

MSMEs today deploy AI to streamline their recruiting process. Right from screening candidates, shortlisting the most suitable candidates and conducting preliminary tests to scheduling interviews, AI simplifies the hiring process for enterprises.

    ● Enhanced Productivity & Automation

AI helps MSMEs automate mundane tasks and free up time of their employees for high-value tasks that require human intervention. This helps MSMEs significantly boost their productivity and save on their operational costs.

    ● Accounting & Finance

MSMEs are utilising AI-powered platforms, such as Zeni and Zoho Books to name a few, to perform accounting tasks including but not limited to automating invoice generation and tracking expenditures. AI-powered cloud-based solutions also help MSMEs allocate their resources more efficiently and maintain better cash flow.

How MSMEs Can Overcome AI Implementation Challenges

If you are looking to tap into the complete potential of AI into your MSME, Implementing AI automation into your business in 2025 may come with a few challenges. Here are some of the obstacles that MSMEs face:

    ● Limited Technical Knowledge

Many MSMEs lack in-house technical experts who can deploy AI into their business strategy, and hiring experts can be a costly affair. The answer to this dilemma is to choose a reliable technology provider like Vi Business, which can guide you in choosing the right cloud firewalls, web security, email security, smart mobility services, etc. With the right partner like Vi Business, adoption of AI for MSMEs can be smooth and hassle-free.

    ● Data Security and Data Privacy Concerns

AI implementation comes with its own set of risks, like data breaches, hacking, viruses etc. Hence, it is pivotal that MSMEs take proactive initiatives to ensure that their digital infrastructure is well-protected. Investing in robust firewalls, using licensed software and regular security updates and measures are some ways to prevent data theft and breaches.

    ● Lack of Employee Support

Many employees fail to understand that AI implementation in their enterprise can translate to enhanced productivity and better results and look at AI implementation as a grave threat to their job security. In such scenarios, leaders need to encourage the use of AI to automate repetitive tasks like data entry, scheduling appointments, etc., thereby freeing employees to focus on tasks like creative thinking, decision making, etc.

How to Get Started with AI and Automation?

The good news is that MSMEs don’t need to go through a drastic change to integrate AI and automation into their business. A strategic step-by-step approach is the best way for MSMEs to leverage AI to boost their business.

Here are a few easy steps that MSMEs can consider taking to integrate AI into their daily operations:

    ● Identifying the Repetitive Tasks

Figure out the repetitive and time-consuming tasks in your organisation and try to automate them using AI. Some mundane tasks that can be automated with the help of AI are data entry, scheduling interviews, scheduling and managing calls, expense tracking, payroll processing, customer support, etc. 

    ● Start with Simple Projects

MSMEs must consider using AI chatbots to handle FAQs and customer queries before proceeding to deploy AI for more complex tasks. This will allow them to get more familiar with AI without feeling overwhelmed.

    ● Bridge the AI Skill Gap

The white paper by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) also shows that an overwhelming 91% of MSMEs advocate for accessible, affordable and more inclusive AI technologies. Furthermore, 72% of MSMEs highlighted the need for AI training programs to facilitate AI adoption in business.

Hence, it is critical that MSME founders facilitate proper AI training for their employees, which educates them on how AI is capable of boosting their productivity and performance. Once employees grasp how automation can increase their efficiency, they will be the biggest advocates of implementing AI at your company.

    ● Seek External Help

Today, some organisations specialise in providing tailored AI solutions for enterprises. MSMEs with limited technical expertise can partner with such companies to train their employees to adopt AI into their business seamlessly.

The Final Verdict

Many MSMEs today are struggling to execute AI deployment in their firms, despite having clear realisations as to how the use of AI could translate into improved employee performance as well as better business outcomes. The key is to start at a micro level, identify pain points, and adopt AI solutions that cater to your business needs.

Another key point that MSMEs might not immediately understand is that before joining the AI bandwagon, they must improve their data readiness. AI thrives solely on data insights. It is critical to ensure that your organisation’s data is accurate, clean, and accessible. The data needs to be labelled properly, a credible data pipeline must be curated, and the data must be of superior quality.

This is where Vi Business comes into the picture. Partner with Vi Business today to improve your data readiness and future-proof your business.

Why MSMEs Must Choose Vi Business

In today’s modern digital landscape, embracing AI for business is no longer a novelty but rather a need of the hour. With the right AI tools and a well-planned AI deployment strategy, MSMEs can unravel their full potential and boost their productivity and efficiency like never before.

Vi Business offers an impressive range of enterprise-grade solutions and services that can help MSMEs navigate this exciting AI revolution. Our products and service include enterprise mobility, enterprise connectivity, security, business communications, Internet of Things (IoT), and collocation and cloud services. We provide cutting-edge solutions like Google Workspace (G Suite) with Google AI, which enhances collaboration and streamlines operations. Vi Business’s robust security frames and solutions protect your valuable information in the cloud. Leverage our advanced enterprise connectivity solutions to ensure a smooth data flow and communication process across your organisation.

Vi Business ReadyForNext digital advisory is certified as India’s largest* digital advisory for MSMEs. [*Claim based on an independent third-party agency report.]

In the past 3 years, more than 2 lakh# + MSMEs across 15,000 pin codes and 16 sectors have leveraged this assessment to understand their digital readiness, identify areas for improvement, and implement new digital operations solutions to grow their business exponentially. [#Claim based on internal research data]

Take VI Business’s ReadyForNext digital assessment to get access to a customised report and a detailed insight that calculates the digital readiness score of your company and provides business advice on which digital operations solutions you need to focus on, to future-ready your organisation.

Contact our experts today to learn more about how we can help accelerate the growth of your enterprise.