What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks include learning from experience, recognizing patterns, understanding natural language, making decisions, and solving complex problems.

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), AI represents an opportunity to automate routine tasks, gain insights from data, improve customer experiences, and compete more effectively with larger organizations. Modern AI systems can analyze customer behavior, predict market trends, automate administrative work, and personalize communications at scale.

AI technologies range from simple rule-based systems to sophisticated machine learning models that improve over time. Common business applications include chatbots for customer service, predictive analytics for sales forecasting, automated data entry, and intelligent document processing. The key advantage for SMEs is that many AI tools are now available as affordable cloud-based services, eliminating the need for significant upfront infrastructure investment.