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Rising business costs are the main reason why more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) than ever before are adopting a cautious business outlook in 2024. That is according to a . The same report also found that nine out of 10 local firms acknowledged the importance of business transformation, with cyber security and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) among the top areas of concern.  As SMEs look to transform and upgrade their businesses while keeping an eye on costs, they must choose wisely and invest in the right AI tools to help improve work productivity and increase revenue. The has helped businesses, especially SMEs, achieve productivity gains with its evolving approaches to emerging technologies. Its recent launch of Slack AI is one way it has made AI work for businesses. For firms to successfully adopt AI, they need a strategic touch. Slack believes SMEs can begin by asking three important questions. This was the question that New York-based Beyond Better Foods had to ponder when its fully remote teams began facing challenges coordinating logistics and freight planning.  For a long time, the food start-up had key logistical details stuck in disconnected silos, which meant tracking down information was slow and impossible to scale. Employees were making decisions without having the right information and data-driven insights at hand, which felt like working in the dark. However, this changed when they switched to Slack as their primary communication platform, which is now the central hub for knowledge sharing across the organisation.  They were also one of the first businesses to use Slack AI in their day-to-day work, taking advantage of its . This allowed staff to ask Slack AI questions in plain language, and receive clear and concise answers fast.  As a result, Beyond Better Foods could easily access accurate and contextual logistical information and make more informed decisions quickly.  “The enhanced search capabilities of Slack AI have been really helpful to fast-track answers, especially when it comes to logistics,” notes Mr Andy Kung, vice-president of operations at Beyond Better Foods. “When I need to get my CEO a fast answer at 2pm on a Friday, I can use Slack AI’s search function. I’ve only been using Slack AI for about a month, but it’s already helped me quickly find answers countless times and is saving me at least 30 minutes a day.” “All companies have a rich source of unstructured data, such as conversation threads featuring an assorted content of videos, audio, images and text, that already exist within Slack,” says Mr Ramesh Gopal Krishna, Slack's Asean regional lead at Salesforce.  This unstructured data, Mr Ramesh explains, provides important background context to structured data, which are standardised datasets like customer or sales records. This helps generative AI produce trustworthy answers to key business questions based on the latest conversations between employees and stakeholders.  He adds: “Generating an email response or building a presentation with AI is great. What’s even better is for generative AI to reference the customer records and history and create tailored responses that are grounded with context from rich unstructured data. “Slack AI is helping companies of all sizes access their organisational knowledge to enhance their workflows, boost productivity and ultimately drive growth amid Asean's competitive business landscape.” Despite the hype in generative AI tools, more than half of global employees say they have no idea how their company is using AI, according to a .   But it is not just about awareness: Out of 545 full-time workers in Singapore, , Salesforce reported. Clearly, SMEs need an AI tool that is not only easy to use but also valuable to employees. This includes tools that employees can adopt quickly without extensive training and knowledge in computer science and coding skills. “We designed Slack AI for the everyday person learning how to use AI in the workplace,” explains Ms Jackie Rocca, Slack’s vice-president of product management. “Our goal was to make it accessible and easy to use in your daily workflow.” To reduce the barrier to AI adoption for businesses, Slack designed its AI functionality with an intuitive interface that does not require users to learn complex prompt engineering to get the answers they want. Search queries are automatically enhanced with Slack AI with no additional inputs, so users can reap the benefits without extra steps.  And by powering the AI with existing unstructured company data within the Slack ecosystem, businesses can drive productivity immediately where employees are already working.  Conversation summaries also work in a user-friendly manner. With one click on the Slack AI icon, users can specify a custom duration for their search window. After that, Slack AI generates an accurate, reliable summary with citations to specific users and messages.  “Slack AI gets people accurate information faster, from any channel,” says Mr Taylor Keck, senior engineer at Boston-based digital furniture marketplace Wayfair. “When employees don’t have to do as much tedious research, it translates to a happier and more productive workforce.” Slack AI has also been built with trust in mind, using industry-standard, privacy-protective machine learning techniques. These are the that customers expect from Salesforce, Slack’s parent company. “We think Slack AI can work for all kinds of knowledge workers because it is built so that it complies with all of Slack’s enterprise-grade security and compliance requirements out of the box,” comments Ms Rocca, highlighting that employees can feel more assured when using the tool for work. “We have self-hosted models, which are within our virtual private cloud, which means that no customer data is leaving Slack’s infrastructure. Our customers are aware of when AI is used and can be confident that their data is still housed within Slack.” As AI technology develops, companies of all sizes and their employees will have to adapt and upskill. However, the SBF found that close to a third of Singapore businesses struggle to train their staff to keep pace with new technologies. SMEs can tap into cost-effective AI tools and training opportunities that can translate into positive business outcomes, which could include improved productivity and new revenue sources. To successfully reap the benefits of AI, organisations must find easier and faster ways to equip their employees with AI skills. Salesforce’s free online learning platform helps break down the barrier to understanding AI and empowers employees with in-demand skills in this domain. For lean, cost-conscious SMEs, such resources, alongside and online community, are a stepping stone to a competent workforce.  With employee feedback, AI tools can also be adjusted or improved. For instance, users can rate the utility of Slack AI’s outputs and give suggestions on how they can be improved.  Understanding the value of AI is akin to hiring a new team member. Companies can leverage AI more effectively when they understand the specific role it will play in the organisation and how they fit in with existing work dynamics.