Mid-market businesses should feel proud of the way they have responded to AI.
Like all middle children, they occupy a no-man’s land between the largest firms and the startups, where they lack the resources of the former or the freedom from expectation of the latter.
Despite this, it is gratifying to see mid-sized firms fruitfully experimenting and trying to figure out where AI can make day-to-day work better.
As that early enthusiasm turns into formal strategy, I worry that some of the character of the mid-market could be ironed out.
The temptation will be to copy the enterprise version of AI adoption (a formal, company-wide strategy with bigger programmes, heavier processes) along with the boilerplate language about transformation.
This approach does not make as much sense as it first appears, as it risks making these businesses give up the advantages their size has afforded them....
