How AI Innovation Will Elevate SMB Business Outcomes

AI-enriched networking, security, and observability solutions were the stars of Cisco Live—and for good reason. Technology advancements that were previously inconceivable are now possible—and easily accessible.

Small and medium business leaders can benefit from cutting-edge enterprise capabilities thanks to the proliferation of AI. And they don’t have to build a sophisticated LLM or develop detailed generative AI prompts to deploy them. They can simply tap into the robust AI features available in Cisco solutions to achieve their desired business outcomes.

SMBs are embracing AI

It should come as no surprise that small and medium businesses are bullish on AI and the opportunities it provides them. According to a study from the Connected Commerce Council (3C), 55% of SMB leaders say AI will be critical to their business’s success over the next two years. The 3C study also found that SMBs who typically have lean IT teams and limited budgets, are primarily looking to AI to help them:

• Achieve positive business outcomes. Among SMB leaders using AI in their businesses, 82% have already seen positive outcomes for their businesses because of AI.
• Increase productivity. 40% of SMBs see an increase in productivity with AI-assisted tasks.
• Save time and money. AI tools reduce time SMB staff spends working on repetitive tasks, accelerate and scale content creation, provide online support via chat bots, and more.

As AI capabilities evolve at warp speed, we anticipate that SMBs will increasingly turn to AI platforms to automate time-consuming tasks, allowing IT leaders more time to focus on high-value initiatives that grow their business. But like all technology, AI is only a means to the end. Before adopting AI tools, you must determine your destination.

How can SMBs explore the right AI innovations?

It’s easy for anyone to get distracted by shiny AI objects, such as gravitating toward building LLMs or deploying generative AI platforms. But to succeed, you must look beyond the latest cool AI feature and ask yourself: What business outcomes do I want to achieve with AI? By starting with the business outcome, you will have greater success in choosing the right AI tools.

Cisco makes this easy. You can simply turn to your favorite Cisco products and explore the robust AI features already integrated in the platform—the same platform you deployed to help you meet your business goals.

At Cisco Live, we announced many ground-breaking AI innovations that will enhance hybrid, secure, remote, and smart SMB experiences. Here are the highlights.

AI for hybrid work experiences

For your employees to succeed in a hybrid work environment, you must provide seamless collaboration from any location. AI and machine learning capabilities in Cisco Webex Suite significantly enhance the hybrid work experience, saving time and boosting productivity.

Now available to SMB customers, AI Assistant for Webex can take notes, summarize your meeting, and send the summary to participants after the meeting—in a couple of clicks. This means your attendees can focus on the discussion instead of writing notes or sending out action items.

New capabilities in Cisco’s Webex Contact Center will also be a game changer for SMBs. They will help IT teams design and manage conversational self-service experiences, provide an AI Assistant for contact center agents, and integrate third-party virtual agent solutions.

AI for security

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 73% of small business owners have experienced a cyberattack. These breaches are becoming more frequent, more targeted, more complex, and more devastating. SMBs require sophisticated security solutions to protect their people, devices, and assets anywhere. But they often lack the enterprise-level resources to deploy them.

Cisco Talos is one of the largest commercial threat intelligence teams in the world. It processes more than 600 billion DNS requests, 650 billion security events, and 2.8 million malware samples per day. AI can consume and analyze all the data Talos collects, then convert the data into insights that inform all Cisco security products. No other company can build a model this massive on their own, and SMBs now have access to it.

Talos insights fuel all of Cisco’s security products, including Cisco Firepower, Meraki MX, Umbrella, ThousandEyes, and Secure Endpoint—each informed by AI at a speed that’s beyond a human’s capabilities.

AI for networking

Remote SMBs must ensure that employees are productive with secure and reliable connectivity anytime, anywhere. For an SMB with a small IT department, multiple locations, and many applications, a great remote work experience is easier said than done. How can an SMB leader address this challenge? With intelligent automation.

Cisco Secure Connect is a cloud-based service that provides secure connectivity for remote workers and branch offices. It employs AI to protect against malware, inform DNS lookups, and more. After Secure Connect is deployed, IT teams can easily prioritize key applications and provide access to them quickly and securely. Using the power of the Meraki platform, they can also enable device management across all devices, improve safety with video analytics, and protect employees with physical security capabilities.

AI for a smarter workplace

Smart workplaces enhance productivity and operational efficiency with smart digital automation. To achieve this, SMBs need to transform physical rooms, buildings, and spaces into assets that provide insights and inform smarter business decisions.

Cisco Meraki sensors and cameras use AI in unique ways to provide valuable insights. Put a Meraki camera in a warehouse, and it can analyze an image and alert you when a worker walks through the door without wearing a required hard hat. Install a Meraki sensor in a retail environment, and through motion detection and AI it can provide insights on foot traffic to inform product placement. Use an air quality sensor to monitor a storage facility and send alerts in case of a spill. These examples only scratch the surface of what’s possible with Cisco’s AI-powered solutions for a smarter workplace.

Building a bright future. Together.

Cisco provides a multifaceted approach that includes everything your SMB needs to build your future with AI:

• AI investment. In June 2024, Cisco Investments launched a $1 billion global AI investment fund to advance industry innovation and customer readiness, and support Cisco’s strategy to connect and protect organizations in an AI-powered future.
• Continuous product innovation. When you buy a Cisco product, subscription, or a license, you are buying into Cisco’s continuous innovation. You will benefit from AI features in Cisco platforms today, as well as future features you haven’t even imagined yet.
• Cisco AI specialization for partners. With this new specialization, we will equip Cisco partners with the knowledge needed to master AI solution implementation in, on, and through Cisco platforms. If you work with a partner, or are seeking a partner with AI specialization, you can be confident that they will have the knowledge to guide you along your AI journey.

Count on Cisco to deliver continuous innovation that leverages the power of AI. Whether you’re providing seamless collaboration, enabling business continuity, boosting your security, or creating a smarter workplace, our groundbreaking technology and AI specialization will continue to deliver enhanced experiences for your employees and customers—in infinite ways.

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