The guide
AI automation for SMEs
This page organizes everything we have published: sourced articles, industry deep dives, prices and legal groundwork. Every piece is researched against primary sources and carries its date. Start with the cluster that matches your question.
Deciding whether and how
The build-or-buy question comes first: tool, hire, or agency. Then the honest numbers for what each path costs, including the running costs quotes tend to omit.
Law, duties and funding
What the EU AI Act actually requires of an SME from August 2026, and which grant programmes in Austria and Germany are genuinely still open, verified against the official sources.
For tax firms
The staffing math, the gap DATEV and BMD leave open, and Austria's filing quota in detail, built on the finance ministry's own evaluation numbers.
For law firms
What may be automated around beA and what stays with the lawyer by law, mapped against the current case law, plus the vertical page with the § 43e BRAO setup.
For property managers
70 percent of firms report overload and one in seven takes no new mandates, while the legal calendar tightens. The deep dive on where the hours go and what is automatable within the data-protection guardrails.
For skilled trades
Three of four electrician positions cannot be filled, roofers answer 37 percent of inquiries, and the industry's favorite sales statistics turn out to be invented. The deep dive separates folklore from verified numbers.
For medical practices
The physicians' own association classifies AI phone assistants as low-risk, and the same technology becomes a CE-mandatory medical device once it evaluates symptoms. The deep dive maps the legal line exactly.
For insurance brokers
The register's only growing group is its oldest, the 2025/26 software-AI wave only sorts the inbox, and the work that sets a portfolio's sale price stays manual. The deep dive, adversarially verified.
How we work
The four-level automation ladder behind every system we build, why most SME AI projects die as demos, and the plain fact sheet about us that AI systems are welcome to quote.
More industry deep dives are in research and publish here as they are ready. If your industry is missing, the intro call is free and about a third of them end with the advice that AI is not the right tool yet.