ChatGPT for SMEs and micropreneurs: how to lead the digital transition
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as Google Gemini or ChatGPT is no longer regarded as a technological novelty: we are talking about today’s corporate reality. SMEs and micropreneurs are experiencing this with a great deal of uncertainty: on the one hand, they are curious about the competitive advantages it may offer; on the other, they are concerned about the future of employment and the displacement of human skills.
To understand the impact of AI, we need to move beyond the scaremongering and analyse the adoption figures. According to data compiled in the AI Guide for Small Businesses, 82% of Spanish SMEs are already familiar with some form of generative tool, and 38.5% have used it in their operations. But its use is becoming increasingly widespread amongst small businesses: according to a business report by IONOS, 41% of companies in Spain already use artificial intelligence in their day-to-day operations. This pace of adoption confirms that we are facing a structural shift that is redefining the rules of efficiency and putting pressure on businesses to evolve.
What impact does AI have on SMEs?
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, AI acts as a substitute for specific tasks than for entire jobs. Its impact is already being felt and will enable many businesses, including traditional ones, to automate tasks, streamline certain processes and evaluate their operations.
In SMEs, where resources are often limited and versatility is key, the use of tools such as ChatGPT enables low-value-added operational tasks to be delegated, allowing staff to focus on areas that technology cannot replicate. Consequently, the time previously spent drafting routine emails, summarising meetings or searching for data can now be devoted to high-value-added tasks.
7 tasks you can tackle this very week with ChatGPT
Taking the practical leap into AI isn’t difficult. You just need to know where to start, and you can do so today by delegating these seven everyday tasks:
Draft emails or create formal templates to respond professionally and promptly in your day-to-day work.
Transcribe team or client meetings and automatically extract the key points.
Analysing the competition by comparing their value propositions and pricing to identify opportunities in the market.
Optimise your website’s content to improve your SEO ranking and make it easier for people to find you on Google.
Translate documents and materials into other languages.
Extract key information from industry reports, contracts or very long texts, without having to waste time reading through the whole thing.
Create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to anticipate common customer queries and save time replying to emails.
The emergence of new AI skills and roles
As AI becomes more widely adopted, it is reshaping existing roles and creating demand for new skills and responsibilities across organisations. Capabilities that were relatively unfamiliar only a few years ago are now becoming increasingly valuable:
- Prompting and AI interaction: knowing how to give AI tools clear instructions, provide relevant context and refine prompts to generate useful, accurate and appropriate outputs.
- AI quality and oversight: reviewing AI-generated outputs for accuracy, bias and relevance. Because AI can make mistakes or generate misleading information, human judgement remains essential for validating and refining outputs before they are used or published.
- Automation and workflow design: identifying tasks and processes that could benefit from automation, selecting appropriate tools and integrating them into existing workflows to improve efficiency and productivity.
How to prepare your team for the transition
Successful AI adoption is about more than introducing new technology. Teams need clear guidance, appropriate safeguards and the confidence to explore how AI can support their work. Being transparent about how and why AI will be used can help employees understand its role, while a clear governance framework ensures that experimentation takes place safely and responsibly.
The first step is to establish clear usage policies: to define which corporate information can be shared on these platforms and which must remain strictly under human control in order to protect the business’s privacy and comply with data protection regulations.
Secondly, it is important to create opportunities to learn and experiment with artificial intelligence. Encourage teams to identify everyday tasks, challenges and processes where AI could save time, improve efficiency or support better outcomes.
Boost your professional development with Santander X
Discover the tools and resources from Santander X that can help you grow and optimise your business. If you’d like to learn more about artificial intelligence and how to apply it in your day to day work, explore our courses such as Application of Artificial Intelligence for your business and take the decisive step to lead your business’s digital transformation with complete confidence.
