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AI Adoption in SMBs: Key Trends, Benefits, and Challenges from 100+ Companies
With larger competitors already using AI to streamline operations and gain a competitive edge, SMBs can’t afford to fall behind.
But for many, adopting AI is easier said than done. Limited budgets, lack of in-house expertise, and the fear of wasting time and resources on the wrong tools often leave business owners stuck in decision paralysis.
The truth is, while AI offers a world of possibilities—automation, data-driven insights, personalized customer experiences—the road to effective AI implementation is filled with challenges.
How do SMBs overcome integration issues? How do they find the right AI solutions that won’t drain resources? And more importantly, how do they ensure these investments actually drive growth?
These are the questions we sought to answer in partnership with multiple partners. Together, we surveyed over 100 SMBs to find the key trends in AI adoption, the most significant benefits, and the challenges that keep these businesses up at night.
Let’s check it out.
Our research highlights some key trends that provide a snapshot of how companies are leveraging AI and what challenges they still face.
For better context, most of the surveyed companies we talked to have up to 50 employees.
With 88.99% of the respondents stating that they already actively implement AI in their business operations, it shows that AI is no longer a niche tool but a mainstream solution for SMBs.
Most companies are currently using Generative AI (e.g., for content creation, design, etc.) – 87.16%, while 42.72% of the respondents plan to start using Custom AI Solutions.
Interestingly, not all areas of automation are seeing widespread adoption yet. Most companies (66.99%) don’t plan to start using Robotics Process Automation (RPA), indicating that while AI is growing, some forms of automation may still be perceived as too complex or unnecessary.
Looking ahead, it looks like SMBs are optimistic about the future of AI in their operations. When it comes to companies’ outlook on AI technology for their businesses in the next 2-3 years, 41.28% stated that they plan to expand AI use across more business areas.
We asked companies that aren’t yet using AI (12 of them) to select repetitive or time-consuming tasks that are currently part of their business operations – half of them opted for Customer Inquiry, Support Handling, and Marketing Activities (e.g., email campaigns, social media updates).
One of the biggest barriers to AI adoption remains a lack of internal expertise.
More than half of surveyed companies that aren’t yet using AI perceive a lack of in-house AI expertise or understanding as the biggest challenge (or concern) when it comes to implementing AI in their businesses.
When it comes to current applications of AI, 93.48% of the respondents selected Marketing (e.g. content personalization), 54.35% Customer Service (e.g. chatbots), and 54.35% selected Sales (e.g. lead scoring). These areas represent the primary use cases where AI is proving most effective.
As for the ways that AI impacted the growth of the selected aspects of their business, the most positive impact has been detected in Employee Productivity, Marketing Effectiveness, and Operational Efficiency, though AI has positively influenced every aspect we examined.
But what’s motivating businesses to adopt AI?
The main motivation for the largest portion of surveyed businesses to integrate AI technologies is to streamline operations (36.96%) and to improve marketing efforts (36.96%).
Finally, when it comes to employee training for AI utilization, the largest portion of surveyed companies (35.87%) encourage self-learning and provide resources for employees to learn about AI.
This survey is also connected to the Benchmark Group Google Analytics 4 Benchmarks for Companies with <250 employees.
For those of you who join, you’ll get the opportunity to anonymously compare your own results with other companies (if you connect your tools to the Benchmark Group).
The group has more than 6,000 contributors and shows metrics from Google Analytics 4, such as Sessions, Average Session Duration, Engaged Sessions, Views per Session, New Users, Active Users, Bounce Rate, Views, Engagement Rate, and User Engagement.
AI adoption in SMBs is transforming various aspects of business operations – from improving customer experience to streamlining internal processes.
Below, we explore the key business functions where our respondents say that AI is making the most significant impact.
AI is making it easier than ever for SMBs to communicate with clients around the world by removing language barriers.
With AI-powered translation tools and chatbots, businesses can communicate with clients in their own languages and provide real-time support without needing a big team.
James Williamson of Flintec explains how, in his global company, they “previously relied on local sales colleagues or external agencies to ensure translations were accurate and preserved the original meaning of our content.”
“However, this was challenging, particularly with complex products, as external translators often struggled to grasp the full context. While tools like Google Translate were used, they were inadequate for our needs, as they provided literal translations that missed local nuances and technical terms.
With AI, we tested its ability to translate content from English into various languages, subsequently seeking approval from local colleagues. We’ve found AI translations to be of very high quality, capturing language nuances while maintaining the original meaning. Often, these translations are approved with minimal or no changes. We now regularly use AI to translate content into German, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Korean, Vietnamese, and Portuguese.”
AI is making content creation a lot easier for SMBs by taking over tasks that used to take a lot of time and manual work.
Whether it’s brainstorming ideas, writing drafts, or optimizing for SEO, AI tools help businesses churn out great content more quickly.
These tools analyze data to understand trends, audience preferences, and keywords, so businesses can create content that resonates with their target market and leads to conversions. It also speeds up the editing process by providing grammar and style suggestions, ensuring the final product is polished and professional.
Maciej Fita of Brandignity says that “blogging has been a big area. Don’t get me, wrong my writers were great to work with but you can’t beat the quickness of AI when it comes to blog writing. No more waiting a week or two for a batch of content, now with some good prompts you can get an excellent piece of content in minutes.”
Drew Medley of The Diamond Group also shares how “AI implementation has had a positive effect on our agency’s content creation process.”
“For example, creating blog content on a monthly basis can be completed in a fraction of the time without additional hiring or outsourced resources. AI also allows our agency to serve more clients because of the time saved by integrating AI into our processes.”
And the technology isn’t limited to blog content – you can use it for other types as well.
For example, Patrick Dean Hodgson of Admax Local shared how their “agency focuses on hyper-local marketing for mostly franchise and SMB-type businesses. One of the best AI integrations we’ve had was through ChatGPT and Julius AI when it comes to QBR content.”
“Before, an account manager and the reporting team might spend an average of 5-10 hours depending on client and content requirements. By implementing these two tools, the time spent on these reports has been reduced by half because the analysis and trends are identified more quickly through ChatGPT with trained promotes and memory.
Moreover, the data visualization of campaign data through Julius AI turns the data into stunning graphs. The other aspect is that these have created more collaboration and impact because the data visualization is easily understandable by our clients and makes for more time for problem-solving or scaling positive results.”
AI-powered chatbots are a great way to improve your customer support by offering quick, personalized responses around the clock.
SMBs can use chatbots to handle common queries 24/7, and also reduce wait times, and improve customer satisfaction. These bots can even gather and analyze data from customer interactions, helping businesses spot common pain points.
When you automate routine tasks, AI chatbots free up human agents to focus on more complex issues.
Georges Fallah of VBOUT says that “after implementing our AI chatbot, we reduced the need for human support and increased customer engagement by 20%. Our customers appreciate the quick responses to their queries and the ability to perform actions like adding or removing contacts from their lists without waiting for a support agent.”
Alex Trueba of Trueba Media also talked about how “AI has significantly improved our chatbox by answering common questions and even generating leads for calendar appointments.”
Charles Musselwhite of Musselwhite Marketing shared how “many of our small business clients, struggled with timely and effective customer interactions.”
“Potential leads often slipped through the cracks due to delayed responses, especially during off-hours. This resulted in missed opportunities and lower customer satisfaction. We’ve been implementing AI-driven chatbots on their websites using our Persystent AI platform. These chatbots are designed to handle common customer queries, provide information, and even capture lead information 24/7.”
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With AI, SMBs can now create highly personalized campaigns tailored to individual customer behaviors.
It can analyze things like purchase history and browsing habits to make sure each person gets content that’s relevant to them. This leads to better open rates, more clicks, and stronger relationships with customers.
AI can also automate the timing and frequency of emails, ensuring that messages are sent when recipients are most likely to engage.
Scott Cohen of InboxArmy talked about this:
“We brought in AI to tackle our email marketing challenges, more specifically the personalization aspect of it. What stood out thanks to these tools were the specific send times. Before AI, we sent emails based on guesswork and general schedules. Once AI stepped in, it analyzed when our customers were most active. We adjusted our email schedules based on these insights, and the first campaign saw open rates jump by 20%. It was like discovering a new continent for us. This move made our emails hit inboxes at the perfect moment, making our interactions more personal and, what’s most important, effective.”
Scott Cohen
CEO at InboxArmy
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AI-powered tools can quickly process large volumes of data from various sources, such as surveys, reviews, and social media, to find and pinpoint patterns that you can use to make better decisions.
This helps businesses make better decisions and adjust their strategies to what customers really want.
What’s more, AI helps analyze sentiment in feedback, giving businesses a clearer understanding of customer satisfaction levels.
Axel Lavergne of Reviewflowz says that “AI implementation significantly improved our review monitoring process. By integrating AI-driven sentiment analysis, we could quickly identify and categorize customer feedback. This allowed us to respond to negative reviews swiftly and enhance our customer service. It also helped in identifying trends and common issues, leading to product improvements.”
Jonathan Feniak of LLC Attorney shared how they used it for lead scoring:
“Implementing AI-driven tools for lead scoring has significantly improved our marketing strategy. By using AI to analyze historical data and predict which leads are most likely to convert, we’ve been able to prioritize our efforts more effectively. For example, we integrated an AI tool that identifies patterns in client behavior and engagement, which allowed us to focus on high-potential leads, resulting in a 30% increase in conversion rates. This targeted approach has not only saved time but also increased our overall efficiency in acquiring new clients.”
Alan Parkes of Colorado Springs Roofing also mentioned how they “use AI to analyze customer data and predict which prospects are most likely to need roofing services based on factors such as property age, weather patterns, and online behavior.”
AI-based tools can quickly scan resumes, match qualifications to job requirements, and rank candidates based on their fit.
These tools also tap into broader talent pools by analyzing profiles across multiple platforms, helping businesses find qualified candidates more efficiently.
Plus, some businesses use AI to handle initial screening interviews, letting HR teams focus on bigger-picture tasks.
Reyansh Mestry of TopSource Worldwide shared how “integrating AI into our recruitment marketing strategy has significantly improved our candidate sourcing process.”
“We implemented an AI tool that analyzes job descriptions and candidate profiles to match the best candidates to open positions. This has reduced our time-to-hire by 40% and improved the quality of hires, as the AI system identifies candidates who are not only qualified but also a good cultural fit for our clients.”
AI definitely isn’t just a buzzword that marketers throw around anymore—it’s delivering real results for real businesses around the world.
Below, we’ll check out some specific examples of how AI is making a measurable impact across different industries.
AI is giving SMBs the edge when it comes to speeding up deliverables and saving time.
By using AI tools for things like project management, companies can automate tasks that used to take forever, like assigning resources and tracking progress. For instance, AI can update schedules in real-time, helping teams avoid delays and keep everything on track.
In industries like logistics, AI is optimizing routes and managing inventory, so deliveries are faster. In manufacturing, AI helps keep supply chains running smoothly by optimizing schedules and reducing delays.
Noel DeLisle of GO2 Partners explained that “since integrating AI into our operations, we’ve seen several positive changes in our business. One of the most notable results is the significant time savings across the board, with each team member saving several hours per week.”
Anthony Milia of Milia Marketing had similar experiences:
“We automated over 1200+ hours of task work across the team using existing tools or adopting 1-2 more tools. We are already a process-forward agency and we had a lot of automations in place. We were still able to identify opportunities where we can automate further.”
Anthony Milia
Owner at Milia Marketing
Manoj Kumar of Orderific has seen similar results with their product:
“Since we launched our AI technology, the results have been incredible! We’ve made order processing 410% faster, cut errors by 98%, and increased sales by 35% for our clients. Customer satisfaction is through the roof, because of our faster and more reliable service. These aren’t just numbers—they’re setting a new standard in the restaurant industry. I’m genuinely excited about the future for small and medium-sized businesses. This is just the beginning, and the best is yet to come!”
Alex Matvieno of Aquaresscue shared that “thanks to AI, we were able to free up about 30% of the time that in the past was used to come up with content ideas and content writing. The team can now use this time on other projects.”
AI tools help businesses understand customer behavior and preferences, making it easier to send personalized, targeted emails.
Furthermore, AI also helps with things like choosing the best subject lines, timing emails for when people are most likely to open them, and keeping the content just the right length.
Scott Cohen of InboxArmy shared that “since AI “joined” our team at InboxArmy, the results have been, I must say, amazing.”
“Our email open rates increased by 25%, and click-through rates went up by 15%. More importantly, our conversions soared by 10%, all thanks to AI’s ability to personalize our messages precisely in seconds. We noticed a significant drop in the time we spent on manual data analysis – about 40% less. This huge chunk of time gave our team more time to focus on creativity and client engagement. For me, it felt like switching from a bicycle to a sports car!”
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AI is making reporting much more accurate for SMBs by automating data collection, analysis, and presentation.
AI-driven analytics tools can pull data from multiple sources, cross-check for inconsistencies, and generate real-time reports with actionable insights. This ensures that businesses have a clearer and more reliable view of their performance metrics, from sales and marketing efforts to operational efficiency.
What’s more, AI can spot trends and anomalies that might be missed by manual reporting.
Michael Sawyer of Ultimate Kilimanjaro is one of our respondents who talked about this:
“The use of AI means there’s less room for human error, and with reporting, that is monumental. Now we can use AI to track inventory and costs without the mistake that a person can make. Not that using people to count inventory and estimate and analyze numbers is a bad thing, but AI can do it more efficiently and accurately. We get reports back 2x faster and more accurate than ever before.”
AI content tools can quickly analyze industry trends, keywords, and audience preferences to generate relevant content – whether it’s blog posts, social media updates, or product descriptions.
You can also use AI to help with repurposing existing content and turning a single piece of content into various formats.
Eleanor Bennett of Trash Cans Warehouse shared how their “content generation has increased by 50%, allowing us to produce more marketing materials and reach a broader audience. AI has also streamlined our content creation process, reducing the time spent on these tasks by 40%, which allows our marketing team to focus more on strategic initiatives.”
Through AI-driven customer insights, businesses can now tailor their marketing efforts based on individual preferences, purchase history, and behavioral patterns.
Chatbots and product recommendation engines also step in to offer real-time support and suggestions, keeping customers more engaged.
Brooke Webber of Ninja Patches talked about how they used chatbots to increase customer engagement and overall sales:
“Integrating AI into our marketing strategy through chatbots has significantly improved our customer engagement and sales. We implemented an AI-powered chatbot on our website to handle customer inquiries and provide personalized product recommendations based on browsing behavior.
This tool has not only enhanced the customer experience by offering immediate assistance but also increased our sales by 25% as it effectively guided customers towards making a purchase.”
AI is making customer segmentation and targeting a lot smarter for SMBs.
Companies can now use AI tools to quickly analyze large amounts of data to spot trends and patterns that might go unnoticed otherwise. You can break customers into segments based on real-time data like demographics and buying habits, and use it for more targeted marketing.
This kind of laser-focused strategy leads to better engagement and more sales since customers are getting content that speaks to them directly.
Brandy Hastings of SmartSites shared how “our approach has improved our ad targeting and ROI by 35%, as we can now deliver highly personalized ads to the right audiences. The AI insights have allowed us to optimize our strategies and achieve better results for our clients.”
Mark Pierce of Wyoming Trust also says that “implementing AI-driven customer segmentation has significantly refined our marketing strategies. We used AI to analyze client data so we could segment our audience more accurately and tailor our marketing messages accordingly.
This approach led to a 20% increase in client engagement and a higher conversion rate for our financial services. The precision of AI in identifying and targeting the right clients has been a game-changer for us.”
Rich Brooks of Flyte New Media explained how they used it for more targeted landing pages:
“By properly training an LLM in our client’s ICP and their pain points, and feeding it technical data sheets on the client’s products, we were able to quickly create three variations of a landing page to support their Google Ads campaigns. We reviewed the content before launching and made edits with the client’s input as well. All 3 landing pages performed above the previous page for conversions.”
AI is just getting started and SMBs can’t afford to stay on the sidelines anymore.
But with advancements in predictive analytics, data reporting, creative work, and dozens of other areas, following the updates isn’t exactly simple.
Here’s what our respondents predict about the future of AI in SMBs and what to focus on:
Predictive analytics is one of the most talked about AI trends, and for good reasons.
For SMBs, predictive analytics will provide them with insights into what’s coming next by analyzing past data, customer behaviors, and current market trends.
This means businesses can make smarter decisions about everything from inventory to marketing.
For example, Scott Cohen of InboxArmy shares that they “plan to use AI for predictive analytics to foresee customer needs and trends before they happen. This will help us offer even more personalized services and strengthen customer loyalty. We will put pressure on ‘pain points’ before the client even recognizes them. “
Anant Jain of Creole Studios says that their plan is to “apply AI in business intelligence. We want to leverage its predictive models to forecast our growth and highlight the areas of improvement. We basically want to chat with our data and get insights in real-time.”
With so many businesses relying on AI tools, we could see the web flooded with the same cookie-cutter content, making it harder to stand out.
Search engines and platforms might start giving preference to original, human-driven work, pushing AI content to the sidelines.
For SMBs, this means getting back to creative, unique ideas that AI can’t quite replicate.
Vicky Sidler of Strategic Marketing Tribe puts it like this:
“We’ve seen a trend in customers specifically looking for human-written content, and that’s something we’re planning to lean into going forward.”
As AI gets better at understanding what people want, businesses will be able to offer real-time recommendations, customized content, and personalized solutions that keep customers coming back.
For SMBs, they could use it to create super-targeted marketing campaigns, automate one-on-one interactions, and even adjust pricing based on individual customer profiles.
Axel Lavergne of Reviewflowz is one of our respondents who talked about this trend:
“AI will drive personalized customer experiences. By analyzing customer data, AI can tailor interactions and recommendations, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty. This personalized approach will be key to retaining customers in a competitive market.”
It’s expected that more business tools across various industries will start to integrate AI features. From CRM systems to project management software, AI will become a standard feature in the marketplace.
The future of SMB operations will likely involve AI-powered tools as the norm, rather than the exception.
Yoram Baltinester of Trilogy shared an interesting perspective on this topic:
“AI will ‘disappear’. I am not saying it will cease to exist. Rather, it will blend into the rest of the technologies being used and enhance their capabilities. Tools not using AI will become subpar and be phased out and when everything incorporates AI features like generative AI, ML, and NLP, no one will think twice about it.”
As AI adoption becomes more widespread in SMBs, the challenge isn’t just implementing it—it’s tracking the right data and making sense of it all in real-time.
That’s where Databox Dashboards come in.
With Databox, you can easily pull data from over 100+ integrations like Google Analytics, HubSpot, and more, to track all your AI-related performance metrics in one place.
Whether you’re measuring customer engagement, tracking revenue growth, or optimizing internal processes, Databox helps you visualize it all with no coding required.
Databox Dashboards also make monitoring your AI initiatives simple by offering real-time insights and automated reports. You can even schedule snapshots to keep your team updated, compare performance across time periods, and access all your metrics on the go with mobile-friendly dashboards.
When you consolidate your data in one place, Databox ensures you’re never scrambling for insights and can adjust your strategy as needed.
And if you want to compare yourself to other SMBs, there’s also the Benchmark Groups product where you get instant performance comparison insights. It’s free and all you have to do is connect your data to get started (100% anonymous for everyone involved).
So, are you ready to finally make sense of your data and stop juggling through multiple spreadsheets every month? Sign up for a free trial and take Databox for a spin.
Are you maximizing your business potential? Stop guessing and start comparing with companies like yours.
At Databox, we’re obsessed with helping companies more easily monitor, analyze, and report their results. Whether it’s the resources we put into building and maintaining integrations with 100+ popular marketing tools, enabling customizability of charts, dashboards, and reports, or building functionality to make analysis, benchmarking, and forecasting easier, we’re constantly trying to find ways to help our customers save time and deliver better results.
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Filip Stojanovic is a content writer who studies Business and Political Sciences. Also, I am a huge tennis enthusiast. Although my dream is to win a Grand Slam, working as a content writer is also interesting.
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