Transforming Small Businesses 2025

3.2 Framework to accelerate AI adoption Applying the IMPACT AI framework to India’s SMEs An analysis of possible AI applications for Indian SMEs provided several lessons and, above all, underlined the need for a generic framework to guide the development of an AI ecosystem for SMEs. The AI landscape is changing quickly because of activity by governments, start-ups, digital giants, business and academia. Attempts to regulate AI prematurely will thwart innovation, but a laissez-faire attitude is not the right approach either. The goal must be to tread a middle path that will allow stakeholders to harvest AI’s benefits while preventing the downsides. What is needed is a framework that balances the major stakeholders’ interests as well as their concerns. This is why the report team developed the Inclusive Multistakeholder Pathway for the Accelerated Convergence of AI Technologies – IMPACT AI, for short. IMPACT AI will guide the stakeholders in the ecosystem to unify their efforts to achieve a common goal: AI for all. It will unite them in taking specific actions and playing a positive role in AI’s development and deployment and will accelerate the responsible development and deployment of AI at scale. Using the IMPACT AI framework will: –Accelerate speed-to-market and speed-to-benefit –Establish a multistakeholder environment that is conducive to coopetition, an approach that combines cooperation and competition –Increase the demand for AI solutions, enabling the creation of markets and allowing all of the players to gain a larger piece of the growing pie –De-hype the AI market and provide for realistic expectations by demonstrating the real nature and size of AI’s benefits through use cases –Provide a mechanism for balancing the demand for and supply of AI applications The IMPACT AI framework depends on principles that must be binding on all the players in the AI ecosystem. These include: –Public interest and safety must be prioritized over everything else. A do-no-harm norm must prevail over design and development decisions –A risk-based approach must be adopted to design regulations. Self-regulation will be the norm except for the most sensitive areas –Governments must act as facilitators to develop the AI ecosystem through legislation, policies, data access and the creation of a level playing field –Governments must create catalysts for the development of the AI market by executing capstone projects in social sectors such as healthcare, education and social protection for the public good –A transparent, rigorous and effective system of testing and validating solutions must be developed to create a trusted AI market An analysis of possible AI applications underlined the need for a generic framework to guide the development of an AI ecosystem for SMEs. Transforming Small Businesses: An AI Playbook for India’s SMEs 38