How Regional SMBs Can Use AI to be Competitive

Running a small or medium business is challenging anywhere, but regional businesses often face an extra layer of pressure. Longer travel distances, rising transport costs, skills shortages, limited access to training and infrastructure challenges can all affect how efficiently a business operates. In Episode 12 of I Am Not a Robot, Justin Melton and Luke Taylor speak with Rod Barnaby, Regional Director of Business NSW for the Mid North Coast, about these challenges and where AI can realistically help regional businesses compete.

For Rod, one of the biggest opportunities is also one of the simplest: giving business owners time back. Many small business owners wear multiple hats, moving between operations, customer service, administration, compliance, marketing and everything in between. Rather than trying to transform the entire business with AI overnight, Rod suggests starting with predictable and repetitive tasks. Prioritising emails, drafting routine responses, summarising lengthy documents, taking meeting notes and identifying actions are all practical examples. Even saving an hour each day can give a business owner more time to focus on customers, staff and the next challenge facing their business.

AI can also help regional businesses make more of the people and resources they already have. Skills shortages remain a major issue outside metropolitan areas and finding appropriately trained staff can be difficult. The answer, however, is not simply replacing people with technology. Rod highlights the opportunity to use AI to reduce administrative workloads so employees can spend more time on work that genuinely requires their skills and experience. In industries such as aged care, health and education, reducing time spent on paperwork and compliance could allow employees to focus more attention on the people they are there to support. The human connection remains essential, particularly in regional communities where businesses are closely connected to the people they serve.

Rising costs provide another reason for regional businesses to explore AI. Rod shares the example of a regional tradesperson who used AI to reorganise daily jobs based on their proximity to one another, reducing unnecessary travel and fuel costs. The same thinking can be applied across a business. AI can help analyse workflows, review contracts, examine major expenses and identify opportunities to operate more efficiently. Instead of approaching AI as another piece of technology to implement, businesses can start with a specific problem: Where are we losing time? What is costing us the most? What process could work better? AI can then become a tool for exploring possible solutions.

For regional SMBs unsure where to begin, Rod’s advice is straightforward: start small, get advice and build confidence. Begin with internal tasks before moving into customer-facing applications and make sure privacy, security and information protection are considered from the beginning. Most importantly, AI should support the relationships that make regional businesses successful rather than replace them. Used thoughtfully, it can help smaller teams become more productive, reduce pressure and compete with much larger organisations while keeping the local knowledge, trust and human connection that set regional businesses apart.

Watch the podcast: https://aitogo.au/podcast/