At Creao AI, we are on a journey to empower teams to easily develop their own apps and tools, to unleash productivity and accelerate business growth.

A recent MIT study proclaimed significant AI initiative failure at the corporate level.  But as Venture Beat noted the study really revealed that, while top-down initiatives struggled, AI value is being driven from the bottom up. 

“But a closer reading of the 26 page report tells a starkly different story — one of unprecedented grassroots technology adoption that has quietly revolutionized work while corporate initiatives stumble..” 

The report goes on to suggest that “The highest returns, it turns out, come from unglamorous back-office automation that receives little attention.”

This insight validates our belief that platforms like Creao, which offer non-technical users the ability to create and use their own productivity apps, represent a significant opportunity. Teams and owners can now gain the scaling benefits of technology, with lower investment levels and faster iteration cycles than ever before.

Insights from the Frontlines

To keep our pursuits grounded, we recently spent another day out visiting with SMB owners and leaders. We listened to their ideas and explored the opportunities for democratized software building. The experience was both validating and inspiring. Once they got rolling, participants readily generate many ideas for tools they could create to solve productivity issues throughout their process’.  Live, we built a few apps together, and we were relieved at the results and the excitement the tools generated.

From left to right; Outlook connected quote tracker and follow up, field annotation and report generation, multi department multi-media development collaboration.

What we gained was a better understanding at just how unique a business can be. While there are common workflow patterns, the specific details like compliance requirements, supplier relationships, logistics, client profiles, or trade secrets, are what truly make a business carve out its spot. The idea of easily adapting tech tools to represent a business’s unique approach was welcomed by everyone we spoke to.

Expertise as a Competitive Edge

It was also apparent that deep knowledge and experience are significant competitive differentiators for these businesses. Clients trust businesses that demonstrate reliable expertise and outcomes.  By moving software development to the frontline, and blurring the line between developer and practitioner, we believe we can help businesses create faster, more precise solutions that unblock that allow this edge to scale.

Here are a few things we learned that will guide our development:

• Make it intuitive: Even prompting can be daunting. The platform needs to help me get started, and help me get the right result.

• Make it fit in: Existing processes are familiar. Change should be incremental. Tools aim to enhance, not replace. There is little room for risk or disruption in an SMB.

• Support it: This is a new capability. As a partner we need to truly be a partner and support their journey.

Bringing back-office productivity to SMBs is a rewarding journey. We will continue to co-create with this unique and vital community and will update you on our progress, sharing both the positive and the negative along the way.