In a recent Bredin Report, we discussed new research from the most recent wave of our SMB Pulse survey of 500 U.S.-based principals on how SMBs who aren’t yet using AI – but are interested in it – expect to benefit from it, and what’s keeping them from adopting it.
In that survey, we also asked SMBs who aren’t at all interested in AI why they aren’t.
It’s interesting to note that of the SMBs who aren’t at all interested in AI, the vast majority are very small businesses (VSBs, with fewer than 20 employees). Relatively few companies with 20 to 99 employees (small businesses, or SBs) and even fewer with 100 to 500 employees (midsized businesses, or MBs) are not interested in AI.
For those who aren’t interested, the reason is simple: they just don’t see the benefit. It hasn’t been made clear to them how their business will be better off with AI. The implication is that there is a huge opportunity for marketers to educate SMBs – especially smaller SMBs – on the applications and benefits of AI.
On the flip side – for SMBs who are using, piloting or interested in AI – we wanted to understand how many companies have created, or expect to create, an AI usage policy – for example, to prohibit the use of ChatGPT. These policies are not widespread among VSBs; only about two in five have or plan to have an AI usage policy, increasing to only 47% of SBs. Policy use is higher among MBs, at 63%, but that still means a third of companies with 100 to 500 employees don’t have an AI usage policy. This is another great educational opportunity for marketers who want to encourage successful use of AI by SMBs.
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