Adoption Pressure: SMEs Navigating Technology and AI
- Lindsey Wallett
- Feb 25
- 3 min read
Business Tech published an article in collaboration with Yobi Code about the increasing burden on companies to adopt technology and evolve their technology, titled More tech: a growing burden for South African businesses.
They are right. There is a burden, both financial and cognitive, on businesses in this tech awakening.
Large corporates are asking questions about the latest AI-enabled CRM or ERP tools that promise more insight, clarity, hyper-automation and better decision-making support. Small and medium businesses are faced with similar questions, just with tighter budgets.
What does AI and technology mean in the context of my business?
Yes, I use ChatGPT or similar large language models. Is that not enough?
What about these AI agents? How will they help me?
There are industry and global pressures that make it seem like you need to do something now or you will die.
While there is truth to the urgency - remaining competitive, responding to customer insights faster, being more efficient equals better profit margins - urgency does not remove responsibility or the need for the right use case.
Many off-the-shelf tools used in small businesses, like ClickUp or Monday.com, now have AI-enabled capabilities and offer automated workflows.
It still leaves the real questions:
· How does this make sense for my business?
· How do I implement it properly?
· How will it add measurable value?
Then there is the doom-and-gloom messaging that everyone will lose their jobs tomorrow. Questions come up:
· How will this impact my staff and their roles?
· Can I trust these tools?
Wait, I need to make payroll this month. This can wait.
For small and medium businesses, these decisions are extremely costly. There is no large budget to pilot endlessly or onboard whichever technology. There is a real cost to time spent away from operations to understand these tools and the value they add.
The world has changed and will continue to change with newer technology and expanding AI capability. It is important to stay abreast of what is happening, what is on the horizon, and what that means for your business. When you add technology, how you add it, and which technology you pick – what matters is the felt experience.
Shameless plug, this is where See-Contact Solutions fits in. We first understand your business! Then we determine what, and if, technology is what you should be focusing on right now.
If it helps, we do not recommend rushing to implement technology!
We think of your business as the center of an ecosystem, your customers, your employees, your suppliers, government, and you as the owner.
When we consider what technology makes sense, one of our key questions is: how will this enable your business to better navigate and serve the ecosystem it is part of?
For business owners, here are a few questions to consider, these questions will help you check the temperature before implementing technology:
1. Processes
Where in your core operations do tasks routinely get delayed because approvals, handovers, or due to rework?
How often are your standard operating procedures used, updated, and measured against outcomes?
2. People
Do your teams understand how their daily output connects to revenue, cost control, or customer experience metrics?
When performance dips, do managers default to firefighting or structured root-cause analysis?
3. Technology
Are your core systems integrated in a way that removes manual duplication?
Can leadership access real-time operational data without requesting manual reports from analysts?
4. AI Maturity
Are you using AI for isolated productivity wins, or is it embedded into decision-making workflows with measurable impact?
Do you have governance in place for AI usage, including data security, ethical guardrails, and measurable ROI tracking?
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