Immense benefits of AI for small businesses

AI is no longer exclusive to large corporations

Many small businesses face the same problem. Operations have grown over the years, but the tools in use no longer support daily work in the best possible way. Information is scattered across Excel spreadsheets, emails, sticky notes, and employees' minds. At the same time, ready-made systems on the market feel too cumbersome, expensive, or rigid.

In our company, too, we ended up thinking about how we could improve production management without investing thousands of euros and a long software project. - Jari Toivonen

The goal was not to build software for the sake of software. The goal was to gain better visibility into the production situation, streamline information flow, and reduce manual work.

Traditionally, such a project would have meant:

software vendor tender
long specification meetings
months of development work
a significant budget

Now we approached the matter differently, and VIBE programming and Lovable changed everything

In development, we utilized AI-assisted VIBE programming and the Lovable platform.

In practice, this means that the system is built by discussing, describing needs, and iteratively developing solutions with AI.

Instead of writing thousands of lines of code ourselves, we focused on explaining:

what problem is being solved, how the process works, what information is needed, and what kind of user interface would be functional for the user,

AI helped turn these ideas into functional features.

What have we achieved?

During the project, we have built a system that specifically supports our way of working.

Benefits include, for example, better visibility into production. Information is no longer scattered in different places. We see the work situation, production progress, unfinished tasks, and potential bottlenecks through one entity. This means less manual work.

Many previously manual steps can be automated or at least simplified. This means less data transfer, fewer errors, better data quality, and faster decision-making.

When up-to-date information is easily available, decisions can be made faster.

There is no need to investigate the situation from several different sources before knowing where things stand.

A system tailored to the company's own operating model

One significant observation has been that we have not had to change our operations according to the software. Instead, the software has been built to support our processes. This is a huge difference compared to many off-the-shelf systems.

The biggest benefit may not be technology

During the project, we noticed something surprising. The biggest benefit may not be the finished system. The biggest benefit is that we have had to rethink our own operations in a new way.

When describing a process to AI, one quickly notices:

what works well
where unnecessary work arises
what information is actually needed
what could be done better

AI has also become a sparring partner for business development.

Why is this important for small businesses? In small businesses, resources are limited. Often there is no in-house IT department, software developers, or a large development budget. Previously, this meant that digitalization progressed slowly. AI has changed the situation.

Now, even a small business has the opportunity to develop its own systems, automate processes, test new ideas quickly, and build a competitive advantage without massive investments. This democratizes software development in a way we wouldn't have thought possible a few years ago.

Encouragement for other entrepreneurs

If you are considering utilizing AI in your business, our advice is simple:

Don't start with technology. Start with a problem.

Think about what takes time, causes errors, or slows down operations. Describe the problem to AI as accurately as possible and start building a solution step by step.

You don't have to be a software developer. You don't have to know how to code. You don't have to do everything at once. It's enough to get started.

The competitive advantage of the future may not come from who is the biggest. It will come from who learns to utilize AI most boldly and practically.

Vilikkala is located in Halikko, Salo. The company specializes in acoustic products, textile industry subcontracting, and felt products. The company is part of Rester Oy's network utilizing recycled textile fibers. Textile lamination and CNC cutting, as well as felt production from waste textile fibers, are Vilikkala's special expertise. Textile circular economy services and life cycle design include using discarded textiles, such as workwear, as raw material for new products for the company's own use.