AI for SMBs: Some of the Learnings
AI for SMBs:Finding Signal in the Noise AI interest was relentless through 2025. If you’re feeling the pressure to do something with AI, but don’t know where to start then this is one way in which I think about it. Most SaaS vendors have made the pivot to be an AI powered SaaS service. If you’re already on the platform, it’s usually fine. The improvements are welcome. It’s not too often the AI addition is getting in the road of how it’s already being used. Naturally Ohnyx has been on the journey with Microsoft’s Copilot. Looking at 2025 as a whole Copilot has shown improvement. The quality is inconsistent, but pull in files to generate summaries, cross analysis from within OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint is quite handy. Where AI Delivers Real Value – And Where It Doesn’t Enterprise level organizations – the government, banks etc – benefit from AI. A 1-2% improvement across 1000’s of people is a decent gain. A PwC report showed revenue per employee jumped 27% in AI exposed industries between 2018 to 2024. This is a measurement of large enterprise. It’s a different story at the small business level. The government has some 200+ AI use cases now. A small business won’t find it’s ROI through scale like enterprise. And over investing in AI can show a negative return, such as 8 disconnected AI tools which adds to training overhead, administration, subscription creep, and context switching. Think instead about a well integrated system, driving and supporting every day workflows. Handling document intake, extracting data, drafting reports, and then pinging clients or staff with an update. Start With Automation, Then Let AI Do the Heavy Lifting An example might be a broker converts their existing client list into a database. An AI agent monitors renewal dates and triggers a workflow a month or two out. Pulls the clients policy terms, updates against market rates, drafts a comparison report highlight key points, and sends it to the broker. A small business may find the scale benefits this way through allowing the policy per broker ratio to increase. Most of what was just described is automation. The AI part kicks in for pattern recognition, drafting, summarising. Tasks which previously needed a human in the loop. Anyone on Microsoft 365 already has the backbones for automation available to them. If you’re an owner or manager feeling pressure to explore AI, it’s normal to feel unsure about where it actually fits in amongst the marketing hype. The use cases and statistics are often enterprise scale, and the practical path for a 10-20 person business isn’t obvious. Start with the workflows that already frustrate you. The ones with manual steps, repeated tasks, or information that sits in someone’s head until they remember to act on it. That’s where automation pays off. AI just makes it possible to include steps that used to need a person, such as reading a document, drafting a summary, reporting back with data, spotting what’s changed. You know when AI is working when it’s taken stuff off your plate. Citation The main PwC AI Jobs Barometer page: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/artificial-intelligence/ai-jobs-barometer.html The full 2025 report PDF: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/artificial-intelligence/job-barometer/2025/report.pdf The press release with the 27% stat: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2025/ai-linked-to-a-fourfold-increase-in-productivity-growth.html If you want to chat about how you can use AI for your business, please get in touch. Book a Time to Talk Or call us on 0800 646 994
AI Workplace Policy
Crafting a Responsible AI Policy for the Modern Workplace Like many businesses, your team is most likely using, or discussing, AI. The opinions remain wide ranging with some people refusing to engage, while others – and enterprise! – are fully committing. What I want to suggest, and you can skip straight to the bottom and fill in the form if you like, is taking AI seriously enough to adopt an AI policy for your workplace. One area I use it is the gym. I’m not a physiologist, or a trainer, but I know what I want to achieve, I just don’t know how. Using a tool like Perplexity or ChatGPT gives me the means to scan whitepapers, collate perspectives from experts in the field, test my theories against a simulated point of view (such as Dr Mike). I recently connected my Hevy app to ChatGPT which gives access to my actual training data. This not only improves the AI results, but I can discuss what I want (for example, bicep curls – yes, face pulls – no). It will then go create the routine in Hevy. It saves me the time researching by keeping me better informed, does the data entry work, and I feel more versatile ‘when’ I turn up to the gym. There are plenty other uses like this. When it comes to business you want to encourage the use of AI – especially for your experts and admin staff. Most businesses have staff already using AI – what we call shadow IT. That’s where information technology is being used within an organization without explicit organizational approval, oversight, or awareness. These people are, benefit of the doubt, wanting to be more productive in their work. Make these people champions as they can provide insight, and ideas, into how to make AI best work for you. You want to do this within the framework of a workplace policy. A good policy will cover what tools to use, who approves it, real-work scenarios. It also protects the company against brand damage, cyber security, potentially leaking personal/client data and IP loss. Businesses should always keep in mind how to protect their company data. An AI workplace policy will support both benefits of AI, while mititgating the risk from the cons. What I suggest is you get an AI policy put in place which tells the organization the overall stance on AI. Find the people using it already, and see if their use cases present real opportunities. Then include those in the AI policy, and have them become champions on it. The policy should also contain what ‘not’ to use it for. This should better protect you from the risks outlined above. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, send us an email, or down the bottom of this post is a form. Fill that in and we’ll send you out our Small Business template. If you would like to discuss the in’s and out’s we’d be happy to find a time to meet. All the best, Phil AI policy template for small business To get your AI policy template for small business, email us or fill out the form and we’ll email you the document. [email protected] 646 994 Fill out this form to receive your AI policy template for small business. Join our newsletter Contact me for follow up
What is an MSP? (And do you actually need one?)
What Is An MSP? (and do you actually need one?) Change occurs when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain to change. Let’s be honest—running a business means wearing a lot of hats. Some fit well, others feel like a stretch, and a few are just plain frustrating. Unless you genuinely enjoy tech, managing your company’s IT is probably one of those hats you’d rather not wear. What starts as a few email accounts and some productivity tools can quickly snowball into cybersecurity, customer data protection, server maintenance, updates, backups, insurance, and the occasional $500 headset that decides to stop working. And let’s face it—you’ve got better things to do. That’s where a Managed Service Provider (MSP) comes in. MSP = Managed Service Provider An MSP is an IT company which has structured itself to manage the IT of other businesses through service plans. The plan outlines what’s needed to keep your systems running smoothly and securely, charged at a monthly fixed fee. An IT company not setup as an MSP is most likely operating on a “break-fix” model. You call them when something breaks, they respond. There is often no monthly fixed fee, so it can seem cheaper. Over time, if you’re not looking after it adequately, your IT will suffer from lack of maintenance, inefficiences through down time and lack of expertise in areas, missed updates, and security gaps. With an MSP, you get proactive care—your computers, network, and servers are patched, monitored, and managed without you needing to think about it. The aim should be to ensure your IT is always running, with any breakages resolved more efficiently than you could yourself. Your business = the car IT = the engine MSP = the mechanic who keeps it tuned, reliable, and ready to use as needed Why Consider an MSP? At some point, every business needs to rethink how it handles IT. You’ve got three options: Keep doing it yourself (or delegate to Jeff in finance or Linda in marketing). Hire an internal IT person. Partner with an MSP. Hiring internally can work—but it’s another salary, and it’s tough for one person to stay across the ever-changing tech landscape. They’ll be good at what they know, and will get familiar with your setup. They won’t know what they don’t know, and will miss broader trends, security shifts, and often underdeveloped in some areas which would be beneficial to the business objectives if known. An MSP, on the other hand, brings a team. At Ohnyx, we cross-train our staff so if one person doesn’t know something, they know who to ask. Our account managers stay close to your business goals and help you find the right tech to support them—without needing to send us on training courses. If you’re nearing or past the 100-user mark, that’s a good time to consider hiring internal IT—and having them partner with us. We become their backup, their toolkit, and their sounding board. Do You Need an MSP? Here’s a quick self-check: Are you tired of reacting to IT problems instead of preventing them? Is your business growing faster than your tech setup? Are you relying on a “tech-savvy” team member to handle IT? Do you want better security but don’t know where to start? Are you using Microsoft 365 but unsure if it’s set up right? If you answered “yes” to any of these, it might be time to explore an MSP. What Makes Ohnyx Different? At Ohnyx, we’re not just about tech—we’re about people. We’re approachable, authentic, and focused on building real relationships. No jargon. No tucked-in shirts with pulled-up shorts (unless that’s your thing). Our mission is to help your business become more productive, profitable, and future ready. We’re here to help you feel confident in your technology and supported in your goals. Our clients across Wellington, Wairarapa, and beyond experience: Reduced downtime Stronger cybersecurity Confidence in their technology Smooth staff onboarding/offboarding And most importantly—peace of mind We have offices in Wellington and the Wairarapa for local, on-site support. We support clients all over New Zealand as well. IT doesn’t require local offices anymore. If any of this resonates, or you have questions, please use the booking form below and we’d love to hear from you. All the best,PhilDirector P.S. Want to know more about me? Head over to our About Us page