Towards actionable AI implementation capability maturity assessment for SMEs

Abstract

AI implementation is a critical survival factor for all the companies. SMEs lag in the AI adoption and need a tool support for assessing and developing AI implementation capabilities. The analysis of industry needs provided the following key requirements for this tool: 1. Ability to suggest and select improvement actions (prescriptive functionality) in addition to the assessment of current state (descriptive functionality); 2. SMEs-focused, which is mostly reflected in the selection of maturity assessment indicators and emphasis on low maturity levels; 3. Completeness justification of AI implementation capability maturity dimensions. Additionally, the tool must be well-documented and available for use. The existing AI maturity models do not satisfy these requirements, so there is a need to develop a new tool. The paper presents an ongoing research project aiming to create an AI implementation capability development planning tool for SMEs (AICapDev), which includes a capability assessment part (the primary focus of the current text) and a roadmap creation part. The current paper presents the preliminary research results, more specifically for: (1) Problem Definition, (2) Comparison of existing Models, (3) Determination of development strategy, (4) Model development steps. Future research directions are also highlighted in the conclusion.