Building small business utopia: how artificial intelligence and Big Data can increase small business success

Abstract

Alex hears a chime, looks up from her espresso machine, and glances at the clock. Her coffee shop opens for the day in half an hour. As she finishes steaming her milk, she leans over to check her phone and investigate the source of the sound. It's a notification from her Small Business Insights dashboard: "Alex, it's time to order new water filters, descaling powder, and cleaning tablets for your annual spring cleaning." Alex walks over to the café's counter and consults her dashboard. She clicks the reminder on the home screen and takes a sip of her coffee as the machine quickly analyzes her past buying behavior and scans for the best deals online. She then reviews the bot's suggestions for purchases. Seeing that she is getting a great price and the fastest shipping available, Alex happily taps the "buy" button. In a split second, her order is placed, and the real-time cash flow projections on the right side of her screen update to reflect the latest expense.With 15 minutes to go before the shop opens, Alex takes a moment to review the messages in the "employee" tab of her dashboard. There are two alerts that require her attention. It looks like Sean, a barista, cannot make his shifts this weekend. The platform received his request for a shift trade last night, pinged available employees based on their schedules, and found a replacement who could handle the busy weekend hours. All Alex has to do is approve the switch. Alex then asks her dashboard to estimate what her cash will look like after she pays her employees this week. The projections look positive, so she authorizes the machine to send out paychecks tomorrow morning.The second alert informs Alex that she may need a loan at the end of the month. The town is holding a summer fair and her business will be featured with its own booth. She will need to pay for extra employees that weekend to staff both the café and the booth, and she will need to make additional inventory purchases of ice and coffee beans for cold brew, as the weather is sure to be warm. "Don't worry!" Alex's bot chirps. "It looks like you'll need about $4000 to prep for the fair, but you are preapproved for several loans and the terms are good. We can touch base again in a week."Alex returns to the "home" screen and scans the various graphs predicting cash flow and highlighting future spikes in spending. Her dashboard bot, an animated coffee mug, pops up on the screen to give her a weekly industry update: "Alex, as I mentioned to you last month, cafés