Most asked questions
Will AI steal my employees' jobs?Fears and perceptions
In most SMEs, AI does not eliminate roles — it removes tasks. The distinction matters. A bookkeeper still owns the accounts; AI just stops them re-typing invoices by hand. The OECD and ILO repeatedly find that jobs with high automation exposure rarely vanish wholesale; they get reshaped, with the routine parts shrinking and the judgment parts growing.
The real risk for a small company is the opposite of mass layoffs: it's wasting your best people on copy-paste work while competitors free theirs up. Where AI does displace people, it's usually narrow, repetitive functions, and the firms that handle it well retrain rather than fire — partly because in a 15-person company you can't afford to lose institutional knowledge.
The honest answer: plan for task shifts, not job cuts. Tell your team early what AI will and won't touch.
GiBSeS — We map which tasks a tool can realistically take over and which stay human, so you can talk to your team with facts instead of rumours. An exploratory conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
Can I put my customers' data into ChatGPT or other AI tools?GDPR
It depends on which data, which tool, and which legal basis. Pasting personal data (names, emails, contract content, health or financial data) into an AI tool means disclosing it to a third-party provider: that provider effectively becomes an entity processing that data, and you remain accountable for it to the data subjects.
With free consumer plans your inputs may be used to train the models and you have no adequate contractual guarantees: there, the practical rule is not to enter personal or confidential data. With business/enterprise plans that exclude training and offer a data processing agreement, things become manageable — but it still needs to be assessed case by case.
GiBSeS — Distinguishing 'which data, which tool, which contractual protection' is exactly the first filter we apply when helping an SME use AI without exposing itself.
What does an automation or AI project really cost an SME?Costs, ROI and budget
There's no single price, but there is a predictable cost structure. Beyond the initial figure (development, licences, setup) you need to budget for integration with existing systems, data migration and cleanup, training people, maintenance and recurring subscription fees. In many projects the software licence cost is only a fraction of the total over three years: the heavy part is making the technology work inside your real processes.
A useful rule of thumb: if a vendor gives you a price and doesn't explain the integration, training and maintenance line items, that price is incomplete by definition. Always ask for the three-year cost, not the starting price.
GiBSeS — GiBSeS's Value Map method starts exactly here: understanding the full cost before deciding whether and what to move.
Does the AI Act apply to my small business too?AI Act
Yes, the AI Act makes no exception for size: it applies to anyone who develops, distributes, or simply uses AI systems in a professional activity, including SMEs and freelancers. What matters isn't your revenue, but how you use AI.
The good news is that obligations are proportionate to risk: if you use AI for everyday tasks, the requirements are light. The regulation also includes specific support measures for SMEs and start-ups, such as regulatory sandboxes and calibrated penalties.
GiBSeS — The real work is telling apart what actually applies to you from what doesn't — that's exactly the kind of practical filter we start with.
I want to innovate in my company but don't know where to start: what's the first step?Getting started
The first step isn't choosing a technology, it's understanding where you're losing value today. Before talking about software, AI or automation, you need a diagnosis: which processes cost you the most time, generate the most errors, or slow down the customer. From there a list of concrete problems emerges, ranked by impact.
Only after mapping where the value sits does it make sense to decide what to do and with which tool. Starting from the tool ("I need a CRM", "I need AI") is the most common way to spend well on a problem that wasn't actually your main problem. Innovating means fixing the right bottleneck, not adopting the trendiest technology.
GiBSeS — GiBSeS's Value Map method starts right here: diagnosis first, decision second.
Isn't AI just a bubble, like crypto?Fears and perceptions
There is a financial bubble in parts of the AI market — sky-high valuations, hype, and tools that will not survive. That's almost certainly true and you're right to be sceptical. But a financial bubble and a useless technology are not the same thing. The dot-com crash of 2000 wiped out hundreds of companies, yet e-commerce and search engines became foundational.
The difference with crypto is that AI already does mundane, verifiable work today: drafting text, extracting data from documents, answering routine questions, transcribing calls. You can measure the hours saved this quarter. Crypto's value proposition for most SMEs stayed speculative.
So treat the stock-market frenzy and the day-to-day utility as two separate questions. The bubble may pop; the tools that save you real hours will still be on your desk afterwards.
GiBSeS — Our independence means we don't ride hype — we only recommend tools that pay for themselves in measurable time or cost. If something is bubble froth, we'll tell you. That candour is free in a first conversation.
Will I get locked into one vendor I can't escape?Fears and perceptions
It's a genuine risk, and it's the one vendors quietly design for. Lock-in happens when your data, your workflows, and your know-how all live inside one proprietary platform that's painful to leave. Switching costs then let the vendor raise prices or coast on quality, because you can't walk away.
The defences are practical: keep your data in formats you can export, prefer tools built on open standards, and avoid deep customisation of any single platform until it has earned that commitment. Treat the underlying AI models as fairly interchangeable — they are, increasingly — and keep your business logic separate from any one provider.
You don't need to avoid commercial tools; you need to enter them with an exit in mind. A relationship you can leave is one where the vendor keeps earning your business.
GiBSeS — Independence is our whole reason to exist: we have no licences to sell, so we design for portability and a clear exit, not lock-in. We're happy to stress-test your current setup for free.
How do I know if my company is affected by the CRA?Cyber Resilience Act
The CRA applies to anyone placing products with digital elements on the EU market, with different obligations depending on the role: manufacturers (those who design or make the product, or have it designed/manufactured under their own brand) have the most stringent obligations; importers (those who bring products from non-EU companies into the EU) must verify that the manufacturer has done its part; distributors must act with due diligence within the supply chain.
Even if you resell under your own brand a product manufactured by someone else, in the eyes of the regulation you become the "manufacturer". It's worth clarifying your role before assuming the obligation belongs to someone else.
GiBSeS — Precisely defining your role in the chain — manufacturer, importer or distributor — radically changes the list of requirements, and that's where we start.
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This content is informational and does not constitute legal advice.