Jon Stojan
Image credit: Helen Wu
Artificial intelligence is changing the way businesses work. From automation to data analysis, AI offers opportunities for simplifying operations, enhancing decision-making, and driving business growth. And while big businesses have used it for decades, the AI revolution is democratizing the technology and making it more available to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). However, there are a few barriers that keep SMBs from embracing and using AI to its fullest potential.
Amber AI is a Y-Combinator and General Catalyst backed startup that recognizes the underserved nature of the SMB market and aims to help them optimize customer interactions, reducing the need for costly manual processes while enhancing communication and customer support. By offering intuitive, user-friendly tools, Amber makes AI easy and accessible.
Learn more about Amber AI’s approach to creating a more inclusive market and addressing the challenges faced by SMBs.
Journey Into Entrepreneurship
Originally from New Zealand, Helen’s interest in technology and entrepreneurship started in earnest when she was a student at Stanford. “Stanford was a turning point for me,” Helen explains. “It was where I realized that I could combine my technical skills with my entrepreneurial ambitions to create something meaningful.”
Before founding Amber AI, Helen gained valuable experience working at Microsoft and Lyft, where she worked on AI-driven products and honed her skills for building and shipping features that customers loved. At Microsoft, she contributed to the personalization strategy for Xbox Game Pass, while at Lyft, she was part of the Dispatch team, responsible for the matching algorithm and platform.
These experiences, combined with her academic achievements, such as receiving the Outstanding Project Award in Andrew Ng’s deep learning class at Stanford, solidified Helen’s expertise in artificial intelligence and her understanding of the challenges faced by businesses in the tech industry. “My time at Microsoft and Lyft showed me the incredible potential of AI to transform businesses and improve customer experiences,” Helen notes. “However, I also realized that SMBs often lacked access to these powerful tools, putting them at a disadvantage compared to larger enterprises.”
The Tech Problem Facing SMBs
Small and medium-sized businesses represent a significant potential for technological transformation, with approximately 33.2 million SMBs in America alone. However, SMBs face a few specific challenges that hinder their ability to leverage advanced technologies.
For example, many SMBs lack the expertise required to adopt these advanced technologies. While artificial intelligence may be more available and cheaper than ever before, AI tools are often designed for companies that have specialized talent. To make matters worse, unlike larger enterprises, SMBs often do not have dedicated teams to manage their tech stack.
Furthermore, AI solutions are typically built to suit a wide range of business functions that are often more relevant to large enterprises, neglecting the specific needs of small businesses. This mismatch results in suboptimal support and engagement, exacerbating churn and reducing net revenue retention (NRR) for SMB tech companies.
Finally, there is the problem of acquiring AI solutions in the first place. In comparison to large enterprises, SMBs typically see low average contract values (ACV) — the average revenue a business can expect from a customer contract over a year. This makes it difficult for companies to justify the cost of developing, acquiring, or using sophisticated software solutions.
These oversights leave SMBs struggling to integrate and leverage artificial intelligence. And when AI could help solve problems like low-value accounts and high churn rates, it represents a huge missed opportunity for SMBs.
Emerging Tech Opportunities
Despite these challenges, several emerging tech trends are beginning to shift the focus toward SMBs, presenting new opportunities for growth and innovation. One of the most significant trends is the increasing availability of open-source AI tools and user-friendly platforms, making it so that even SMBs with limited technical expertise can leverage these technologies to improve efficiency and drive growth.
The growing number of SMB owners interested in tech is another factor driving this shift. With more business owners understanding the potential benefits of technology, they are more willing to invest in advanced solutions. This tech-savvy mindset is creating a fertile ground for innovative software solutions that cater specifically to the needs of SMBs. Consider also the generational shift that occurs as older business owners hand over their operations to younger, more tech-receptive successors, accelerating technology adoption among SMBs.
Given the number of SMBs in the market and how much they can contribute to economic growth, it is inevitable that more tech companies will develop tailored solutions for this market segment. One such provider is Amber AI.
Amber AI’s Innovative Approach to Customer Management
Amber AI is the account manager’s co-pilot that was built with the modern SMB in mind. It uses large language models (LLMs) to provide automated, personalized account management that allows a minimal team to effectively meet the needs of thousands of accounts simultaneously. This ensures that each client receives quality attention, not just the high-value ones.
It achieves this by continuously evaluating the state of your accounts and determining what actions need to be taken, whether it’s automatically adjusting marketing strategies, providing pricing recommendations, or flagging issues for human intervention.
For example, if a restaurant’s orders are dipping, Amber can investigate the cause. If it determines that it’s due to pricing issues relative to competitors or market trends, it will suggest new pricing strategies. This kind of proactive support helps SMBs stay competitive, reduces churn, and increases revenue retention.
Amber also takes the reins and creates meaningful, non-transactional conversations with SMBs, gathering high-value data that can be used to tailor customer support and identify selling opportunities.
By acting as a business partner rather than just a service provider, Amber AI fosters more robust and resilient relationships between SMBs and their customers.
From the Sidelines to the Spotlight
Solutions like Amber AI are putting SMBs in the spotlight, empowering them to leverage artificial intelligence like an enterprise would. With advanced AI tools like Amber at their disposal, SMBs can streamline operations, personalize customer interactions, and make data-driven decisions, gaining a competitive edge in the market.