How AI is transforming SME communication in the UAE

Eman Murad, director of marketing communications – business, du/Image: Supplied

Small and medium businesses in the UAE are navigating one of the most competitive and culturally diverse markets in the world — and their ability to communicate clearly, consistently and personally has never mattered more. As AI reshapes how brands understand and engage audiences, SMEs are beginning to adopt tools that help them personalise content, streamline customer interactions and scale their presence across platforms. In this interview, Eman Murad, director of marketing communications – business, du, shares her perspectives on how AI is transforming customer connection, the communication challenges SMEs face today, and the best practices that can help them build meaningful, tech-enabled relationships with their audiences.

As an expert in marketing communication, you constantly blend creativity with technology to craft memorable experiences and marketing campaigns, how do you see AI reshaping the way Small and Medium Businesses (SMEs) connect with their audiences?

Imagine you are in a busy marketplace and there are dozens of shops, with each shopkeeper calling out to customers, asking them to purchase goods from their shop. How can the shopkeeper get the customer to stop and pay attention? By creating a deeper connection with them.

Marketing communication is the bridge that connects the brand to the people. And now, with the advent of AI, instead of using the traditional one-size-fits-all approach, AI can help you craft personalised messages tailored to customers, that too in real-time. AI can help brands zero in on the target audience’s patterns, moods, wants, and preferences, and create campaigns and communications that appeal to them. To put it simply, AI can give you a sneak peek into the customer’s mind, and you can now call out to each customer individually.

I believe that AI is more than just automation. In an increasingly advanced world, using AI-driven insights, coupled with creativity and human understanding, can reshape communication. This is the perfect way to create true, meaningful connections with people.

You design campaigns that resonate with both businesses and individuals. Can you tell us how AI tools are elevating the way SMEs communicate with diverse audiences?

The list of tasks that AI can perform, particularly for communication with customers, is long and continues to grow exponentially. AI is now capable of powering everything from predictive analytics to process automation. AI tools offer insight mining, helping you deliver hyper-personalised messages that resonate. Another huge advantage is real-time language translation tools, which help connect with international consumers.

For SMEs in a fast-paced multilingual market like the UAE, these tools are a game-changer.

UAE SME owners understand this. A 2025 YouGov survey commissioned by SAP revealed that 94 per cent of enterprises in the UAE believe AI will be a key driver of business expansion. And with an estimated impact of $320bn impact of AI for the Middle East by 2030, AI is here to stay and grow.

What are some of the unique communication challenges that SMEs face today, especially in a market like the UAE?

The UAE market is dynamic and cosmopolitan. We have a population from more than 200 nationalities living and thriving here. As a result, businesses have to navigate many languages and cultural nuances while communicating with their diverse customer base.

E-commerce has further blurred geographical boundaries, leading to stiff competition, making SMEs work harder to stand out. SMEs also work with limited budget and resources, which is always a challenge.

How can SMEs use AI to deliver personalised customer communication across platforms like Instagram, Botim, and email—without losing brand consistency?

With the help of tools that extract customer data and insights, SMEs now have the option of interacting with the customer throughout their journey with the SME. This means AI can be used to deliver everything from product recommendations to email campaigns, newsletters, promotional offers, and follow-up messages.

While social media has made customer interactions easy, it is important to centralise these interactions through AI-powered unified platforms while maintaining a consistent brand voice. Moreover, AI can also be used to generate social media posts or email templates as per customer interests. For multilingual customers, SMEs have the option of implementing voice-to-text AI, adding another level of personalisation.

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What role does AI play in enhancing customer support through chatbots, voice assistants, and sentiment analysis, and how does this improve overall customer satisfaction?

Using AI enables SMEs to make the interaction faster, smoother, and more personalised. This is a huge asset in the digital age, when the customer demands instant attention and solutions. Chatbots and voice assistants help SMEs do just that. Sentiment analysis allows businesses to gauge customer satisfaction levels and improve products and services based on feedback. I believe that using these tools together can help any SME scale up easily in today’s digital landscape.

As a marketing communication professional and an experience architect, can you share some tips for SMEs to help them leverage AI to generate engaging content that resonates with their target audience?

To SMEs aiming to leverage AI for communication, my first advice is to start small. Pick one AI tool and focus on just one part of your communication process. Identify the area that causes the most delay, and pick an AI tool that addresses it.

For instance, several manhours are lost to repetitive tasks, answering enquiries, and endless follow-ups. To address this, an SME could deploy a WhatsApp chatbot that picks and answers from a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

Here are a few tips to help SMEs navigate AI to communicate effectively with stakeholders:

• Choose tools with multilingual capabilities.
• Train your AI tool with your brand voice to maintain consistency across all platforms.
• Integrate AI with existing platforms.
• Before you invest in a complete tech upgrade, track the results after AI adoption, then fine-tune your setup.

What best practices should SMEs follow when implementing AI communication tools?

When it comes to implementing AI communication tools, it is not about applying the most advanced tools or even the largest number of tools. Instead, what matters is how intelligently you integrate AI to address your communication needs.

No matter the size of the SME, some best practices stand out:

– Prioritise privacy and compliance. SMEs deal with a lot of sensitive customer information, and remember, trust is hard-earned. Therefore, ensure you safeguard every customer interaction through end-to-end encryption. Additionally, ensure the SMEs adhere to UAE data regulations and compliance requirements.
– Train AI to avoid jargon, too many abbreviations, and to avoid using the language used in internal communications, which the customer may not necessarily understand.
– Balancing AI with human empathy is non-negotiable. Any chatbot or virtual assistant deployed should be able to seamlessly transfer conversations to humans when an escalation is required.
– This brings me to the next best practice, which is to invest in upskilling the existing team to harness technology most efficiently.