Predictions for Small Businesses and AI in 2025

By Raju Vegesna In Technology Trends
Small Business Trends | Originally published: Dec 26, 2024

Last year, I predicted that 2024 would be the year small business case studies defined AI’s path forward as an invaluable support tool. The technology did not disappoint, and small businesses of all stripes benefited from revenue forecasting, enhanced grammar suggestions, automated inventory management, and more.

Now, looking ahead to 2025, I expect AI to dive into more mission-critical tasks, such as data privacy and security, and laying a foundation from which small businesses can scale while smoothing any bumps in the road.

Here’s more on where the industry is headed in 2025 and how AI will rise to these new challenges:

Increased data privacy and security threats met with new, AI-enabled solutions

It’s frightening to think how much easier, faster, and better scams have become just in the past year. Generative AI has enabled bad actors to draft and launch convincing, personalized phishing attacks with little effort and on a mass scale. Likewise, by leveraging advanced AI and ML tools, a savvy scammer can now create deep fakes of innocent people whose only crime was posting a handful of personal photos and 30 seconds of their voice online. Those deep fakes can then be weaponized to fleece friends, family, or even employers out of money or sensitive information.

The coming years will see a proliferation of privacy and security tools imbued with AI capabilities to ensure greater protection from attacks. These solutions, be they new apps from challengers or improved solutions from legacy vendors, will use AI advancements around computing power, language models, and threat/anomaly detection to automatically identify and thwart malicious cyber attacks and phishing schemes.

While these solutions may appear geared for enterprise businesses, SMBs remain a soft target for bad actors whose successful attacks endanger not only the business and its employees, but also any and all customers. By installing the proper protections, small businesses can rest assured they’re on a growth path without too many unwanted detours…[MORE]

+

To read the entire article by Raju Vegesna at the Small Business Trends website, visit: Predictions for Small Businesses and AI in 2025