Risks and Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in Small-and-Medium Sized Enterprises.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is developing fast. The set of AI, Machine Learning and large-scale data analysis, often referred to as Big Data, are having an ever-increasing impact on our future lives and businesses. Rapid enhancement produces the technologies more accessible and applicable to SMEs, the backbone of German industry. However, AI is rarely used by SMEs in the northern Rhineland-Palatinate. This paper reviews perceived risks and benefits of AI by decision-makers of SME and compares them with the result of an assessment among leading researchers in this field. Results show that an information gap exisits. The opinion of researchers on risks is largely in line with those of the companies that intensively deal with AI. For the majority of SMEs, however, a clear difference shows in the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]