The Value of Upskilling Your SMB’s Employees in Generative AI

Businesses of all sizes and industries are tapping into generative artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline operations and foster creativity, deliver exceptional customer experiences with personalization, and gain valuable insights by analyzing conversational interactions and data.

Many small and medium businesses (SMB) find themselves wondering how to effectively harness the power of generative AI to their advantage, drive organizational success, and level the playing field to compete with large corporations. Limited resources and skills gaps in utilizing AI tools and technologies are hindering organizations from reaching their potential.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the critical importance of upskilling your organization’s talent in generative AI. We’ll dive into the transformative potential of this cutting-edge technology, the tangible business benefits it offers, and the steps you can take to empower your workforce with the skills needed to leverage it effectively.

Why is now the best time to embrace generative AI?

Generative AI offers a wide range of applications that can offer solutions to existing business challenges such as limited customer support staff, automating repetitive workflows, finding trends in large volumes of data when internal resources or budget lack access to analytics support.

A survey conducted by Deloitte and the MIT Sloan Management Review found that 79 percent of respondents believed that AI will have a significant impact on their industry within the next three years. Furthermore, the survey revealed that SMBs are more likely to adopt AI technologies, such as generative AI, to gain a competitive advantage and meet customer demands.

Another study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) found that by 2025, around 85 million jobs across various industries could be impacted by AI and automation technologies. This underscores the importance of upskilling and reskilling employees to work alongside AI technologies to remain relevant and competitive in the job market.

Upskilling employees to leverage AI is crucial for long-term success. As the technology continues to evolve, businesses that invest in training their workforce to effectively collaborate with generative AI will be better positioned to adapt and thrive in the ever-changing business landscape. By equipping employees with the necessary skills and knowledge, SMBs can leverage generative AI to its fullest potential, fostering a culture of innovation and staying ahead of the competition.

Customer highlight: How Neural.love scales generative AI services on AWS

SMBs can unlock a world of opportunities by leveraging the power of generative AI to their advantage by producing high-quality content such as, blog posts, social media captions, emails, and more, in a fraction of the time and cost compared to traditional methods. This game-changing capability enables SMBs to scale content production and fortify their digital marketing strategies without the need for large budgets or dedicated content teams.

Recognizing the immense potential of generative AI for SMBs, Neural.love, an EU-based company, has built a platform on AWS that simplifies AI adoption by offering a diverse range of solutions. From text-to-image generation to image, audio, and video enhancements, Neural.love’s offerings empower businesses to enhance content engagement, streamline workflows, and create customer-centric experiences.

For instance, Neural.love has assisted museums with creating immersive content, aided printing companies in optimizing their workflows, and supported app developers in crafting personalized, user-friendly experiences. Soon, the company will have 2 million registered users, who together have created 40 million images using their tools. Neural.love decided to partner with AWS to manage an infrastructure that allowed them to affordably scale their AI strategies. Watch Neural.love’s journey scaling Generative AI Applications on AWS.

How to upskill your SMB talent with AWS

Develop a structured learning path that includes both foundational knowledge and advanced skills in AI. Ensure the training is aligned with real-world applications to facilitate immediate practical application of learned skills. Regular workshops, webinars, and hands-on labs can significantly enhance the learning experience, providing your employees with the confidence to apply AI technologies in daily tasks. By investing in the upskilling of your current employees, SMBs can not only fill the skill gaps efficiently but also enhance team cohesion and morale.

To effectively upskill your SMB’s workforce and empower them to harness the capabilities of generative AI, consider implementing a multi-faceted approach leveraging the comprehensive resources and ecosystem provided by AWS:

1. Assess and identify skill gaps: Begin by assessing the current skill levels within your organization and identify the gaps related to AI technologies. This will help tailor your training programs effectively to meet your specific business needs.
2. Communicate with your teams: Clear communication is crucial in alleviating any apprehensions about new technologies. Explain how new technologies like generative AI will complement their current roles, improve productivity, and open new career opportunities, ensuring your team understands that these tools are here to assist, not replace them.
3. Leverage tailored AWS training programs: AWS offers a range of training and educational programs that can be customized to your business size and needs. Robust training and educational programs such as AWS & Deeplearning.ai training provide comprehensive learning paths from beginner to advanced levels, focusing on practical applications of generative AI.

To create a comprehensive learning path for upskilling your SMB talent on generative AI with AWS, leverage the expansive suite of educational offerings, including:

• “Learn AI” website: This platform offers extensive resources to deep dive into AI coursework, hands-on tutorials, and more with options to select customized learning styles geared for different paces.
• Generative AI with Large Language Models course: This new course developed by AWS and Deeplearning.ai is specifically designed to give hands-on experience with the latest in generative AI technologies, focusing on large language models (LLMs). It’s an excellent resource for both new learners and seasoned professionals looking to expand their expertise.
• AWS Skill Builder Team subscription: To foster continuous learning and development, consider enrolling your team in the AWS Digital Team subscription. It offers a range of learning content tailored to help your team grow their cloud and AI skills effectively, transforming your business and maximizing your technology investment.
• Generative AI for Executives: This course explores what generative AI is, how it can address executives’ concerns and challenges, and how it supports business growth. There is also a deep dive into how generative AI has the potential to revolutionize numerous industries.
• AWS free resources and workshops: Explore additional learning resources from AWS for generative AI including demos, tutorials, blogs, and workshops.

AWS makes it easy for SMBs to build and scale generative AI solutions customized for your data, use cases, and customers.

• Amazon Q offers a transformative solution for quickly deploying a secure, generative AI assistant that enhances creativity, productivity, and efficiency. Seamlessly integrating with over 40 enterprise data sources, it provides users with personalized responses, summaries, and task completions, while ensuring enterprise-grade security and access controls
• Amazon Bedrock easily build and scale applications with language learning models, foundation models (FMs), and generative AI tools
• Amazon SageMaker offers access to hundreds of pretrained models, including publicly available FMs, that can be deployed with just a few clicks

Learn more about ready-to-use generative AI solutions, guidance, and tools for your business on the Smart Business hub including the Generative AI Application Builder on AWS with implementation guide to rapidly develop and deploy production-ready generative AI applications.

Next steps

Generative AI holds immense potential for SMBs, offering a range of applications to streamline processes, enhance productivity, and drive innovation. Now is the opportune time for SMBs to embrace this technology and upskill talent. If you have questions or need guidance, don’t hesitate to contact us.