Canva, Copilot, ChatGPT: The AI toolkit MSMEs need today
Shivaami
, shares practical insights on how MSMEs can begin their AI journey, the tools they should prioritise, and the mindset shift required to thrive in an AI-driven future. Drawing from his experience working with over 20,000 SMEs, Thakkar emphasises that identifying pain points, aligning technology with business goals, and starting small with easy-to-use solutions can make AI adoption both accessible and impactful for MSMEs. Edited excerpts.
Economic Times: Where should an MSME start their AI journey?
Punit Thakkar (PT):
When it comes to AI, or in fact any technology, the start for any business should be to identify their pain point and then look at the solutions available. Let's simplify it by assuming a scenario that you have some repetitive tasks you want to get rid of and save cost. AI is the answer to that question. So, MSMEs should look at identifying the pain area first and then identify the solutions which AI can offer and then start by adopting it and aligning it with the business goals. Sometimes the business goal is saving, and sometimes the business goal is looking forward and taking the enterprise to the next level.
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ET: What are some of the AI tools that SMEs must leverage to grow further as a business enterprise?
PT:
I deal with 20,000 MSMEs and they are my customers. The first tool which I always recommend is Google Workspace and Microsoft
Copilot
right. These are the two tools which have an inbuilt AI.
Live Events
Again, if you look at the AI race, these are the two big companies who are in the forefront of it. So, Google Workspace has Google Gemini which helps you from drafting your mail to analysing and summarising it. Plus, you have document creation, etc which makes it a very good tool for collaboration and AI adoption
The second tool which I recommend to my customers is Canva. You can create whatever image you want, create it in just 5 minutes. Earlier you depended on graphic designers to create something and then here you are, with
Canva
you can just command and it does it for you.
The third tool that I insist on my customers to use is called Suno. It creates music for you- from simple prompts, images or videos, write original lyrics, create a playlist and many more such features. When the environment is musical, you are more productive right and I have used this tool to create so many songs for my own company. I just play it in my office and people love it.
Similarly, you can use the very popular
ChatGPT
, Google Gemini, Zoho has Zoho Zia for analysing our own CRM data, which essentially means there are multiple tools available in the market. Most of these tools are very easy to use, the technology is simple for anyone to understand and adapt.
ET: What strategies can SMEs deploy to integrate AI tech better into their businesses? What are some of the low hanging fruit adoptions that SMEs should consider in AI?
PT:
I deal with many MSMEs and what I have realised is that most of the time they look at the cost, but they do not look at the opportunity. AI opens the door for bigger and better opportunities, and if you want to win the battle of tomorrow, you need the tools of today. So, most of the time MSMEs do not invest, they look at the cost. Now let us take a simple example like WhatsApp. Can they have auto replies on WhatsApp? We can all have it, and that is a simple AI tool. Similarly, there are AI tools to help you when participating in exhibitions. For example, it will capture the details of the visitor and send them an email, WhatsApp, with the catalogue, price list, whatever the exhibitor wants. My company generates approximately 10,000 invoices daily via automated systems, yet only two people are involved in the process. These two employees are only needed to validate that these invoices are correctly generated and randomly checked for any discrepancies.
Similarly, you can use an AI chatbot on your website to answer simple questions that your buyer or visitor may have. Everything from automating WhatsApp to invoicing to chatbots are very simple tools today and these are not very costly. They are as pay as you go models and if you do not like them, you can cancel the subscription next month.
ET: Tasks such as inventory management, customer service and accounting can be automated using AI, freeing up valuable time for business owners to focus on strategic activities. Do you feel AI is the next frontier for the MSME sector?
PT:
First, it was the industrial revolution, then came the knowledge revolution, and today it is the time of the AI revolution. A few days ago, this report said Google took five years to get its first billion users, ChatGPT took hardly one year, So, practically it is 5X faster and if you look at the Chat GPT user base, India stands number one, followed by the US. We are in the frontier of AI and it is just that we need to change our mindset, especially when it comes to MSMEs prioritising their focus area, prioritising their investment, and making sure that they identify if AI can help them.
I feel we are in the forefront of AI and we are going to reap the benefits of it, but at the same time we have a challenge. We have a problem where many people are not IT-skilled or say AI-skilled and this means there is going to be a huge divide between AI-enabled and non-AI enabled companies.
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