AI and Competitiveness for Medium-Sized Enterprises: Where is the real gain?
Fabio Mezzarano – Partner at DMS PARTNERS
Artificial intelligence can increase the competitiveness of medium-sized companies by reducing costs, improving processes, bringing them closer to customers, accelerating innovation, and expanding market intelligence. But the result doesn't come from simply hiring AI tools. It comes from identifying where the technology can generate the greatest impact for the business.
Artificial intelligence has definitively entered the executive agenda. But there is an important difference between using AI and transforming AI into a competitive advantage .
For an average company, this difference can represent millions in opportunities or investments that do not produce the expected return.
The starting point should not be:
Which AI tool should we hire?
The most important question is:
"In which dimension of our competitiveness can AI produce the greatest gain, with the least risk and in the shortest time?"
This shift in perspective completely changes how the company should evaluate its technology investments.
How can AI increase a company's competitiveness?
AI can generate competitiveness in four main areas: operations, products and services, customer relationships, and competitive intelligence. The priority depends on the company's strategic objectives and where the greatest opportunity for gain exists.
In Operations Excellence , AI can automate tasks, reduce errors, support financial forecasting, improve productivity, and free up professionals for higher-value activities. Human capital remains a fundamental part of this dimension: technology should enhance the capabilities of teams, and not be treated in isolation from the knowledge and decisions of people.
In Products and Services , it can accelerate innovation, development, and testing.
In terms of customer proximity , it can support segmentation, personalization, pricing, and retention.
In Competitive Intelligence , you can analyze competitors, prices, trends, and market opportunities.
Why are some companies unable to achieve results with AI?
Because they adopt the technology before clearly defining the problem they need to solve. Initial costs, disorganized data, lack of training, and team resistance can also reduce efficiency during the early stages of implementation.
The DMS Partners report identifies these factors as some of the main obstacles to AI adoption by medium-sized companies.
Therefore, the question shouldn't be "which AI should we buy?" , but rather:
"Where can AI generate the greatest competitive advantage for our company?"
Is AI already part of the reality for Brazilian companies?
Yes. According to Cetic.br , 17% of Brazilian companies will have used Artificial Intelligence in 2025, compared to 13% in 2024. Among large companies, adoption reached 50%.
This progress shows that AI is rapidly entering the Brazilian business environment.
But there is a difference between adopting AI and using it strategically .
Technology can be accessible to everyone. The difference lies in how each company integrates it into its processes, data, people, and business model.
How should a medium-sized company get started?
The first step is to identify a relevant problem, assess the potential impact of the solution, and begin with a controlled-scope pilot project. The goal is to prove results before expanding investments and transforming the initiative into a permanent capability.
The approach proposed by DMS Partners starts with strategic clarity, moves on to prioritizing and preparing data and people, and progresses to pilot programs and monitoring of results.
This prevents the company from turning AI into a collection of tools unconnected to its strategy.
Furthermore, AI can support management by indicators itself , facilitating the definition, organization, analysis, and monitoring of the company's key performance indicators. With more accessible data and faster analysis, managers can track deviations, identify trends, and make decisions more quickly.
An important fact
Among Brazilian companies that used AI in 2024, 63% stated that they used the technology to automate processes and workflows .
Automation is therefore one of the main gateways to enterprise AI.
But competitiveness goes beyond reducing costs.
The company needs to understand what value it delivers to the customer and where it can be better than its competitors .
Is AI a technology or a strategy?
AI is technology. Competitive advantage comes from strategy, execution capability, and the combination of technology, data, people, and processes.
If any competitor can buy the same tool, the tool alone does not represent a sustainable advantage.
The key difference lies in the company's ability to apply AI more intelligently to its business.
As highlighted in the DMS Partners material, technology without strategic clarity can become an underutilized resource.
Does your company know where AI can have the biggest impact?
Before choosing a tool, it's worth answering:
Where are we losing competitiveness today?
Is it in costs? In productivity? In profit margins? In innovation? In customer acquisition and retention? In the speed of decision-making? In knowledge about competitors?
Based on these answers, it becomes possible to identify where Artificial Intelligence can truly contribute.
DMS Partners helps entrepreneurs and executives transform strategic challenges into action priorities.
The next step isn't buying AI. It's discovering where it can generate value for your business.
Schedule an initial session and talk to our experts about your company's competitive challenges.
DMS Partners can also support the company in implementing the proposals and priorities identified from the AI and competitiveness roadmap , connecting planning, execution, indicators, and monitoring of results.
FAQ
Is AI suitable for medium-sized businesses?
Yes. AI can be applied to operations, finance, sales, customer service, products, and competitive intelligence. The most important thing is to select applications aligned with the company's strategic objectives and execution capabilities.
What is the first step in implementing AI?
Identify a problem that is relevant to the business. Then, assess the impact, available data, implementation effort, and potential return. A pilot project can be used to validate the opportunity before a larger implementation.
Does AI reduce costs?
It can reduce costs through automation, process optimization, and error reduction. However, it can also contribute to revenue, innovation, customer relationships, and decision-making.
Do you need a lot of data to get started?
Not necessarily. Some AI applications can be implemented quickly. However, more sophisticated predictive projects typically require organized, high-quality historical data.
How to transform AI into a competitive advantage?
Integrating technology into strategy, processes, data, and people. The tool can be bought by the competitor; the organizational capacity to use it efficiently is more difficult to replicate.
Discover the DMS Partners ebook.
This article presents the main concepts from chapters 1 and 2 of the ebook "AI and Competitiveness for Medium-Sized Enterprises in Times of Crisis ," developed by DMS Partners.
The material delves into the four dimensions of competitiveness, the applications of AI in each of them, and the main challenges of adoption. Following this, the roadmap presents a practical path for prioritizing and implementing AI , including self-diagnosis, a prioritization matrix, indicators, pilot projects, and a 90-day plan.
Do you want to understand how to apply this roadmap to your company's reality?
And if your company needs support to transform the identified priorities into concrete actions, DMS Partners is available to support this implementation phase as well.
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