ARTICLE | Dec 15, 2025

For years, business leaders wondered when AI would finally become practical. That moment has arrived. AI is now woven into the tools people already use every day — from email and messaging apps to CRM systems, spreadsheets, and even industry-specific workflows.

What’s different today is not just the technology, but its accessibility. Platforms like Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini no longer require data scientists or custom development. They fit naturally into small and midsize organizations that want to work smarter, strengthen security, reduce manual work, and unlock insights from the data they already have.

And the organizations benefiting most from this shift aren’t necessarily the largest. They’re the ones nimble enough to adopt new tools thoughtfully and quickly.

AI Agents Are Becoming the New Standard for Everyday Work

Businesses are moving beyond simple chat-based AI. A new wave of “agentic AI” is emerging — systems that can analyze information, make decisions, and take actions with minimal supervision.

You can already see this in action across today’s major AI platforms:

• ChatGPT can generate workflows, extract insights from large data sets, or build custom AI assistants for internal use.
• Gemini can interpret documents, images, and videos to help frontline teams work more efficiently.
• Claude excels at deep reasoning and long-form analysis, making complex research or policy work dramatically faster.
• Microsoft Copilot integrates seamlessly with current business tools like Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint, allowing employees to work faster without needing to learn a new platform.

These aren’t futuristic concepts. They’re here now, and adoption is accelerating. Analysts predict massive growth in businesses using AI to automate routine decisions, reduce operational drag, and improve efficiency.

AI Productivity Is Real — But Only When the Foundation Is Ready

Even the most advanced AI systems rely on something simple: your underlying data and infrastructure. Organizations that see the strongest ROI tend to have modern, secure environments where information is well organized and easy for AI to access responsibly.

Teams running outdated versions of Office or relying on patchwork storage solutions often find that AI cannot reach its full potential. Modern tools — Microsoft 365, cloud file systems, identity-based security models — act as the substrate for every future AI capability.

Security is equally central.

AI doesn’t replace basic cybersecurity — it magnifies the importance of having strong identity protection, secure devices, and well-governed data. Many of the privacy concerns businesses associate with generative AI disappear once the right guardrails and compliance frameworks are in place.

The Most Meaningful AI Wins Come From Everyday Workflows

Although large enterprises often invest in massive AI initiatives, the most impactful changes for SMBs usually come from automating simple, frequent tasks.

A few examples:

• Copilot can summarize meetings, draft proposals, clean up spreadsheets, or generate reports by pulling from existing files and emails.
• ChatGPT helps teams refine communications, build policies, or analyze text-heavy material in seconds instead of hours.
• Claude is widely used for processing long documents — contracts, handbooks, research — or turning complex topics into clear business language.
• Gemini helps teams working in the field by extracting insights from images or PDFs and supporting mobile-first workflows.

In each case, the pattern is the same:

AI removes friction. People reclaim time. Processes become more consistent. Decisions become more informed.

Not because of one disruptive change, but because dozens of micro-improvements compound over time.

Low-Code + AI Is Quietly Transforming Lean IT Teams

One of the most overlooked trends is how AI now accelerates low-code tools. Microsoft Power Apps, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio — along with non-Microsoft tools like Zapier AI — allow staff without development backgrounds to build lightweight applications, automate approval processes, or connect siloed systems.

For resource-constrained small businesses, this is transformative.

Instead of waiting months for custom software or living with inefficient manual steps, they can create solutions on their own timelines with AI acting as a guide or co-builder.

AI Success Requires a Strategy — Not Just Access to Tools

Many organizations start experimenting with AI organically. Someone tries ChatGPT. Another builds a workflow in Power Automate. Copilot appears in Teams. Value emerges — but often haphazardly. Organizations that scale AI effectively tend to follow a more deliberate pattern.

Step 1: Identify high-impact use cases: Look for processes that drain time, create bottlenecks, rely on manual steps, or generate inconsistent results. These frustrations often become early AI wins.

Step 2: Ensure systems and data are AI-ready: AI performs best when data is secure, unified, and accessible. Modernizing core tools often yields more benefit than adopting a new AI app.

Step 3: Train teams on how to use AI responsibly: Employees need guidance on what data can be shared, how to structure prompts, and how to validate AI-generated outputs.

Step 4: Time to experiment: Create scheduled time for your team to work with the tools, build agents, and just play.  It requires dedicated time to see the power and start to imagine how it can improve our lives.

Step 5: Build repeatable processes: Once a use case works, document it. Create templates, recommended prompts, and workflows that others can reuse.

Step 6: Measure, iterate, expand: Successful organizations treat AI as continuous improvement — not a one-time project.

Small Businesses Are Especially Well-Positioned to Benefit. Why?

Large enterprises have the resources but lack speed.

SMBs have the speed but historically lacked access to enterprise-grade AI. That gap is quickly closing.

Recent market data shows that SMBs are embracing AI faster than many expected, with a majority planning formal adoption within the next two years. Many are already piloting tools or launching targeted automation projects.

For SMBs, AI is not only a way to improve operations — it’s a strategic differentiator against competitors who are slower to adapt.

The Bottom Line: AI Is Ready for Your Business Today

With Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and a growing ecosystem of AI-driven tools, businesses now have access to capabilities that streamline work, reduce risk, and support better decision-making. But the organizations that benefit most are not the ones that chase every new feature — they’re the ones that take a thoughtful approach:

• modernize their tools,
• secure their data,
• focus on meaningful use cases, and
• support their people through the transition.

AI isn’t about replacing jobs or adding complexity.

It’s about giving teams the capacity to do their best work — and giving leaders clearer visibility into how their business operates.

The next three to five years will separate companies that use AI thoughtfully from those that wait for some hypothetical “perfect” moment. The organizations that thrive will be the ones willing to take practical, measurable steps now.

To learn more about how Larson Gross or LGIT Solutions can help your business get started with AI, please visit https://lgitsolutions or fill out the form below.