For years, artificial intelligence (AI) felt like something built for Silicon Valley or massive enterprise companies with huge budgets and technical teams, but that’s starting to change. Today, AI tools are becoming more accessible, practical, and potentially far more impactful for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) competing in an increasingly fast-moving market.
Joining us on the latest episode of Business Trends Today is Rob Collie, CEO of P3 Adaptive, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Data and AI that builds custom AI solutions for companies ranging from the mid-market to the Fortune 1000.Â
Before founding P3 Adaptive, Rob spent 13 years at Microsoft and was one of the founding engineers behind the technology that became Power BI. He is also the author of several books on data and analytics, including the best-selling Power Pivot and Power BI, as well as the upcoming book, Fair Game: Customizing AI to Your Business Is Easier Than You Think.
The barrier to entryÂ
Collie says the biggest barrier keeping small business owners on the sidelines is not cost or complexity. It simply is awareness.Â
As the CEO of a 50-person company himself, he has faced the same reckoning many SMB owners are now confronting, and what he found surprised him.
“I’m surprised at how long it has been accessible to companies of our size, but without us realizing it,” Collie said.
To explain AI’s potential for smaller businesses, Collie draws a parallel to the PC and spreadsheet revolution. Just as those tools gave small businesses the equivalent of an entire accounting department without the overhead, he argues AI agents are doing the same thing again, putting capabilities once reserved for companies with million-dollar budgets within reach of nearly anyone.
Where to startÂ
One of the more common points of confusion Collie addresses is the difference between off-the-shelf tools like ChatGPT and a truly customized AI agent. He says the magic people experience using consumer AI tools does not automatically translate to business use, and too many owners blame themselves when it falls short. The fix, he says, is simpler than most expect.
"All you really need to do is customize the AI... teach it about your business. And it's really kind of shockingly easy to do that."
For owners looking for a starting point, Collie points to marketing and sales as one of the most accessible entry points, where AI can take on the grunt work of content creation while reflecting a company’s actual voice and brand. Beyond that, he says any process that would benefit from more human attention but rarely gets it is a strong candidate.
Avoiding the wrong investmentÂ
On the question of where to invest, Collie cautions owners against letting a single line-of-business vendor, such as a CRM or accounting platform, become the center of their AI strategy. Locking into one silo, he says, limits what AI can actually do across a business. Platform-level vendors are a different conversation, but the goal should be flexibility.
His upcoming book aims to give business owners the framework and the muscle memory to spot where AI fits, get started without a grand strategy, and build from there.
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