Much can be said about the pros and cons of generative AI. But while we can all agree that it is widely-available and disruptive, surely we can also agree that it isn't the first emerging technology to be available and disruptive (nor will it be the last). It's just the one we're focused on right now.
To start to wrap your head around the possibilities of generative AI and the broader AI technology ecosystem, it’s best to start from the ground up. When you look up the definition of technology, it is “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.” With generative AI, we see a lot of scientific knowledge being shared. However, I don’t think many have fully cracked how it can be truly practical and useful in all industries that are exploring it today.
As an example, let’s look at the biggest workhorse for the world’s economies, small business owners. While many entrepreneurs are working tirelessly on their day-to-day operations, many are also hoping to find ways to use AI to boost productivity. And while it does provide some immediate benefits today, like quickly creating basic marketing materials or speeding up responses to some customer service queries, there is so much more potential. But accessing much of that potential requires more time, resources and expertise.
Small business owners deserve the world of emerging technologies to be shaped to their needs, rather than an expectation that they figure out how to make it all work for them on their own. If you're running a small business, you are already loaded up with myriad tasks you have just to keep the lights on. And of course, you shouldn’t have to do it all on your own.
Who can fix this?
The onus should rightfully be on those service providers in the small business ecosystem that are building the platforms and apps that business owners are using. This goes for the specialized companies like Xero, but also the likes of the consumer tech giants and platforms. We each have a part to play in the shaping process: developing the scientific knowledge of something like generative AI for its specific application for small business use cases, making sure we mold the 'raw material' of the technology into something that is directly useful for them. This means an open line of communication should be ever-present between us in the tech realm and our small business customers to ensure we are focused on helping with the tasks that they care about the most.
Also, knowing their key day-to-day tasks and keeping them at the forefront of the development process for AI tools is the best way to enable small business owners to be able to more easily take advantage of the technology in the everyday operations of their business, rather than its adoption being another job they have to tackle.
How do we fix this?
Tech players need to focus on finding, highlighting and amplifying the unique and valuable parts of being a small business. Coming from the tech ecosystem in New Zealand and Australia, we find our geographic distance from the rest of the world has historically enabled us to approach these sorts of challenges from a different perspective. So, that makes it a bit easier to zero in and identify the drudgery and toil tasks that small business owners would gladly outsource or eliminate if they could.
If tech leaders at all levels can take that step back and give small business owners the microphone to share what’s frustrating them, their technology solutions have a big opportunity to accelerate productivity for the small business ecosystem globally.
What does that look like?
Supercharging productivity might sound overly optimistic, but it’s certainly possible with the right approach. In speaking with accountants and bookkeepers as part of my role at Xero, I can see generative AI is already playing an increasing role in some of their workflows as they utilize it to sift through their clients’ data and generate reports quickly, for example. From assisting with preparing for in-depth forecasting meetings with clients to creating entire “fractional CFO” practices, many accountants and bookkeepers are targeting the removal of the tedium of purely manual data interpretation and finding the freedom to help embrace their role as knowledgeable financial advisors.
But they aren’t having to turn into AI experts overnight. To unlock these capabilities, accountants and bookkeepers have rightly placed expectations on the platforms they use - like Xero - to bring these capabilities to the fore. With the help of curated technology platforms and tools, accountants are bucking the common misconception of the accounting profession as a purely number-crunching role, and now have the bandwidth to provide more value and actionable insights for the business owners they support.
And this is just one example of the application of generative AI solutions for practical purposes in a particular industry.
What about the future?
The question remains: does this new technology mean that work as we know it will never be the same? Or will AI replace jobs in small businesses, or across the whole economy? We only need to look at past “revolutionary” technologies like emails, spreadsheets or smartphones to see that the former may be true, but the latter is less likely. Rather than entire jobs changing, the tasks that make up those jobs will evolve and shift.
So, generative AI is not about replacing the accountant, for example, but rather it is about providing more capability and capacity to the accounting profession to focus on higher-value advisory responsibilities. Additionally, the hard-earned trust that accountants have built with their clients won’t just go away and cannot be easily replaced by an algorithm, no matter how smart it is. Because, when the stakes are high and financial livelihoods are on the line, you want someone who is a partner to be alongside you. Someone who you can hold to account for their advice and guidance. And who is more accountable than your accountant after all?
Zooming out and looking at the wider small business landscape, the same logic applies. Having a “human in the loop” is a common discussion in the AI world, but it is table stakes. Humans won’t just be in the loop as a necessary safeguard - they will remain at the heart of every business and its value proposition. Generative AI won’t be taking the wheel away from small business owners, rather it can serve as a valuable collaborator that augments their capabilities and supercharges their productivity. until the next unforeseeable and revolutionary technology comes along to take us to the next level.
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