Does your SMB have the foundation in place for GenAI?

The extraordinary potential of generative AI (GenAI) has seen businesses scrambling to adopt the technology and realize untapped opportunities. But building an AI strategy is more than just deploying the newest GenAI tools. A robust foundation, one founded on a digital workforce and an AI-optimized infrastructure, is necessary to reap the technology’s outsized rewards.

Creating this foundation is increasingly crucial in today’s evolving digital landscape. Employees who wish to boost their efficiency through AI can benefit not only from upskilling, but also be supported with the right data, applications, and collaboration tools. For organizations, this means modernizing IT to support a digital workforce so teams can embrace new, flexible ways of working and collaborating.

The benefits of a digital workforce  are manifold:

• Enhance productivity: Employees equipped with tools that automate repetitive tasks and deliver capabilities such as improved data analytics can devote their efforts to more strategic work.
• Reduce costs: Organizations can see long-term cost savings by investing in technology that boosts workplace productivity and reduces labor costs.
• Drive agility: An empowered digital workforce allows companies to adapt and thrive in a fast-changing business landscape as they accelerate performance and minimize risks that may result from human error.
• Retain talent: The ability to embrace hybrid work without sacrificing productivity and enable more streamlined processes will keep employees engaged while reducing turnover.

Building a strong foundation for GenAI

Then there’s the often-overlooked issue: integrating GenAI within the infrastructure. Even as an emerging technology, modernizing your business for GenAI need not be complex, particularly for small and medium businesses (SMBs). An initial step is to leverage powerful workstations—long-favored for developing AI models—that cater to the demanding needs of AI. Typically built with high-performance components, workstations are useful for a variety of AI functions such as AI services, Edge AI, and AI operations.

For a start, businesses can consider workstations that can support compute- and data-intensive AI workloads. Dell Technologies’ range of AI PCs are examples of how they can utilize AI to amplify performance and collaboration while simplifying and securing IT—and without incurring high costs. Dell Precision workstations , for instance, can deploy and manage cognitive computing made for data science and AI, including machine learning, GenAI, and computer vision. Its recently launched Copilot+ PCs are further designed to deliver even more robust AI experiences, with a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard to quickly launch Copilot in Windows.

Security risks are another AI bugbear that businesses should keep in mind. GenAI models consuming text, images, code, and other forms of unstructured, unmanaged data have expanded the attack surface for businesses, increasing the risks of data breaches. That is why endpoint security is essential to prevent confidential data from being exposed.

Businesses should consider endpoints with built-in security, rather than devices with security features bolted on in later stages. Dell Trusted Workspace  is a portfolio of endpoints crafted for modern cyber threats, including the risks of AI. Dell Technologies devices are produced with a three-pronged approach to cyber defense—software security, built-in hardware and firmware security, and supply chain security—that can mitigate threats as they happen.

Keeping costs low

To further streamline costs, there is also PC-as-a-Service (PCaaS), which lets businesses lease hardware at a single, predictable cost every month. While the cost of AI-ready technology can be a significant barrier to SMBs, there is a way to simplify deployment and scale of their resources for AI. Flexible hardware and lifecycle solutions like Dell APEX PCaaS  can help businesses accelerate their access to AI-optimized endpoints at a predictable monthly cost, with a broad portfolio of endpoints to choose from. At the same time, companies are free to scale dynamically their use based on business needs.

With this strong foundation in place, organizations can implement the right AI tools  to deploy GenAI across their operations. These include:

• Automating manual tasks, such as transcriptions, emails, and proofreading for high quality work
• Generating new images and art with ease
• Developing SEO-friendly digital marketing content
• Deploying personal assistants for succinct responses to queries such as internal resources, meetings, and projects

Find out more about building a strong foundation for GenAI with Dell Technologies.