Digital technologies have led to the application of new-age technologies that operate with minimal human intervention. And while they may heighten productivity and drive growth, any failure can pose a significant challenge for IT and DevOps teams to resolve. An incident or service disruption is an IT manager's worst nightmare. Very often, factors such as cybersecurity breaches, human error, and the accelerated pace of innovation place significant pressure on enterprises' IT infrastructure, leading to system failures and outages impacting the bottom line. According to the ITIC 2021 Hourly Cost of Downtime Survey, 44% of participants (of 1,200 global organizations) said that hourly downtime costs anywhere from $1 million to over $5 million.

There are stories across business-focused media about how companies should be leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to streamline operations, improve customer service, boost marketing campaigns and more. Smaller businesses may well want to get in on the action and tap into the capabilities of AI/ML, but their leaders may think it's simply too expensive and, therefore, out of reach. Even if a small business can't make instantaneous, sweeping changes through AI/ML, it may still be the right time to take the first steps on the journey of building a strategy. Or, there may be AI/ML tools already in the marketplace that can help a small business make targeted, but meaningful, improvements. Below, 16 members of Forbes Technology Council share a variety of tips for small businesses interested in leveraging the power of AI/ML, from the best ways to get started to recommendations for the functions they might want to consider improving first.

It's hard to attend any conference, webinar, or technology briefing these days without hearing ambitious, even bullish, predictions about the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) across a full spectrum of technologies, including digital process automation, content management, and robotic process automation. Almost everyone agrees that AI/ML will alter the state of the digital process automation market, whether the focus is on customer experience, business operations, e-commerce, or consumers. It's still early days for mapping out how AI/ML will be used with digital process automation. For example, one executive observed, "there's still a lot of [buyer and vendor] confusion about what is the role of AI, and what is the role of AI in digital process automation." AI/ML is already being used for specific business processes in business and government agencies – and has been for some time.