Your opportunity to really stand out as a small/medium enterprise in Central and Eastern Europe in the age of AI
If you run a small or medium-sized company in Central-Eastern Europe, this may sound familiar: AI tools are everywhere, it is the talk of the town, endless webinars, countless podcasts, a million LinkedIn posts, and more unfulfilled promises that you could count. And yet, so far, what do we see AI being implemented most of the time for? To cut costs, automate a few things, reduce staff fees, and speed up mundane tasks. But how many of those AI conversations include investing in your people? Real skills. Culture. Resilience.
You should insist they do. Because while AI can slice away inefficiency, it cannot replace what actually builds a robust, adaptable business: human talent.
What we already know (but don’t always act on)
Recent surveys show that 77%+ of SMEs in CEE say they use some form of AI. But only about 25% are using it at scale. Meaning: many see AI as a novelty or a quick fix, or use it on an individual basis (many times, maybe even without their employer knowing about it), but not necessarily as part of a company-wide strategy.
So what’s holding back most? Not always the tools. It’s a lack of skills, unclear leadership direction, and low readiness within teams to think and work differently.
In Hungary, for example, AI is mostly used for marketing, sales support, and financial planning. But many SMEs say costs are too high, they don’t have staff with enough expertise, and they don’t know how to make AI more than a fun side project of a few tech-savvy team members.
The risk of treating AI only as a “cost-cutting tool”
It’s tempting: overheads, salaries, manual tasks: all look like fair game. But if you focus only there, your company becomes fragile. Here’s why:
- Efficiency alone kills opportunity. If you strip everything to the bone, you may save money but you also reduce innovation. Have you seen a washing machine that came up on its own with a new way to do your laundry quicker? An exaggerated example, of course, but it shows nicely that you need people who can rethink what the business could be, spot new trends, and adapt when markets shift. AI doesn’t do that alone, and least not the ones that are widely available and mostly in use these days. And even the advanced agentic ones require human input from time to time.
- Talent backlash. In CEE, people are cautious about AI. Many see it as a threat to jobs rather than a helper. If you bring in tools without clarity, training, or communication, you risk fear, mistrust, and maybe losing the employees who are your most loyal or most capable. You can very easily “shoot yourself in the foot” and find yourself with a higher turnover than usual, which brings about high costs to replace outgoing and valuable talent.
- Regulation, reputation, risk. Laws are tightening. Companies unfamiliar with compliance, ethics, or risk frameworks may end up paying penalties and/or lose credibility. Investing in people also means building ethical awareness and compliance literacy. That’s not optional. You can’t just throw your team in at the deep end of AI, because most people will not “learn to swim”.
Why talent still wins
Here are three reasons why putting people first beats the “cut-everything” angle over the long run:
- People imagine what the AI can’t. Machines follow data, patterns. They cannot question assumptions, see blind spots, and they especially cannot bring emotional intelligence. The ones who do that are your people.
- Adaptability under pressure. Markets change fast. Disruption doesn’t wait. The more skilled, curious, empowered your people are, the faster you’ll pivot, recover, or even lead disruption.
- Trust and relationships. Clients, employees, partners: the number one source of revenue of 99% of companies still. And they very much continue to care about human relationships. Trust doesn’t come from efficiency alone. It comes from consistency, values, and culture. Those are built by people, with people.
What SME leaders in CEE can do differently, starting now
You don’t need huge budgets to shift the balance toward talent. Here are practical moves:
- Audit what AI can augment, not replace. Identify routine tasks to automate, but then think: what new responsibilities or roles could that free your people for? Strategy? Customer relationships? Process improvement? And with this one, rely heavily on your people. Policing them to log their freed-up extra time will only create an extra layer of mistrust and make them much more reluctant to use AI. Have ideation workshops instead and discuss together what efficiencies and new innovative approaches you as a team can come up with.
- Someone doesn’t want to join? Fine! But don’t force them to. This might sound contra productive, but forcing AI implementation is probably one of the worst things you can do, and could really permanently damage your culture. Introduce them to the benefits, show them how it could make their life easier – but don’t make them switch by all means necessary. Instead appoint 2-3 ambassadors who seem especially eager to come up with new ways of working, and believe me, sooner or later, 90% of people will join in once they see those people actually making bigger progress, scoring bigger sales targets, having easier days, maybe at the end of the even being able to go home earlier than the others.
- Commit to building skills. Even low-cost training, peer learning and mentoring (by your ambassadors, see above), and external workshops. Don’t assume people “pick up AI tools by themselves.” Build their confidence and competence. And as mentioned above: make them interested in doing that.
- Make leadership visible in this journey. Share your vision: how AI fits, what changes are coming, what investment in talent means. Clarity dispels fear. Communication preempts gossip. And openness creates trust.
- Measure what matters. Alongside cost savings, track things like staff satisfaction, time saved and rather spent on creative or relational work or even free time, and list innovation outcomes. Those aren’t just “nice to have” they are your key indicators of future strength.
- Embed ethical, regulatory thinking. Whether it’s data privacy, GDPR, or just general fair business practices. Build that into your teams. It’s a differentiator, especially with wary customers and partners.
The bold question
Here’s the challenge you should be asking yourself: are you investing in your people as much as you’re investing in tools?
If your response is “not yet,” know this: every euro, forint, koruna, zloty or leu you save by cutting corners is an opportunity cost. Because sooner or later, you’ll pay for short-term savings with missed opportunities, reduced morale, or being beaten to market by more nimble, human-centred competitors.
Conclusion: talent + AI = forever forward
AI and AI-augmented work are here, and they’re here to stay. The cost-cutting stories are tempting, and sure, there are some real savings to be had. But in our markets, where trust, relationships, adaptability, and culture run deeply, companies that treat people as central will win.
Don’t let AI become an excuse to shrink your vision. Let it be a reason to amplify what your people already do best. Because in the age of AI, talent isn’t just a cost, it’s your chance and edge to really stand out and get ahead.
