AI is everywhere right now, but for most SME owners it's still unclear what's hype and what's a valuable investment. Each new tool and new trend brings a promise of overnight success, but chasing them all creates complexity without adding value.
This session cuts through the buzzwords and enterprise-level case studies with a simple and practical principle. AI is genuinely useful for small businesses, but only when it solves a real, frustrating problem, not when it's bolted on because everyone else is doing it.

Attendees will get a walkthrough of three real-world ways small businesses can use AI today, without a data team, a big budget, or a full tech overhaul:

1. Keeping leads warm. Workers spend 5.6 hours a week on avoidable admin, and good prospects go cold simply because nobody got around to chasing them. AI can help here by streamlining that admin, without losing your voice.

2. Spotting deals at risk. Rather than relying on gut feel or combing through spreadsheets, AI can surface stalling pipeline activity automatically and flag the patterns you might otherwise miss.

3. Scaling customer service without scaling headcount. Practical automation that handles call logging, relationship summaries, and routine follow-up can take roughly half the admin burden away, freeing people up for the conversations that genuinely need a human. For cash-poor startups, done well, it can even delay a first hire.

The session is led by Steve Ledgerwood, CEO at Capsule CRM, whose team recently surveyed 500 small business users about how they actually use AI. The results ranged from fully automated prospecting pipelines to businesses avoiding AI entirely for valid reasons like data security, and the session draws honestly on both the wins and the hesitations, including what hasn't worked.

Attendees will leave knowing which of their own admin headaches AI can realistically resolve, which ones it can't yet, and how to tell the difference the next time a tool promises to transform everything.