There are growing signs that artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer reserved for large corporations: tools that speed up administration, improve customer service, support sales and partly alleviate labour shortages have become accessible to Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Portfolio will address the realistic benefits and implementation considerations for Hungarian SMEs at its "Lendületben a hazai vállalkozások 2026" conference on September 9.
Market developments enabling wider use
Potential stock market listings of large language model providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic could mark further milestones in the everyday business use of AI. Investment into data centres also remains substantial. At the same time, SMEs need to recognise that AI goes far beyond large language models and that the entry threshold has fallen compared to previous years.
Tangible improvements from focused projects
Often a narrowly targeted solution can deliver measurable results: less manual data entry, faster proposal creation, more efficient customer communication, and more accurate inventory or capacity planning. Portfolio speakers have advised companies to prioritise finding suitable use cases, developing an AI strategy and measuring return on investment rather than adopting technology for its own sake.
Agentic AI and automating ‘invisible’ office work
The emergence of agentic, agent‑based AI models gives new meaning to process automation. Many SME tasks — replying to emails, preparing proposals, initial contract review, summarising minutes, organising grant documents or processing customer requests — can be automated. A well-configured AI assistant does not replace decision-makers but prepares work by summarising, searching, drafting suggestions and organising data.
In sales and marketing, AI can help form customer segments, draft personalised messages and analyse past campaigns. Final messages, pricing and legal claims should, however, always pass human approval.
Knowledge retention and customer support
Search-and-response systems built on internal document repositories, product descriptions, price lists, internal policies or service records can greatly reduce time spent on repetitive inquiries. This is particularly valuable for companies where critical know-how is concentrated in a few people and where staff turnover or growth makes training newcomers harder.
More complex—but higher-return—industrial and logistics use cases
Industrial, commercial and logistics SMEs can also pursue more complex opportunities with potentially larger returns: demand forecasting, inventory optimisation, image-based quality control, predictive maintenance and analysis of energy consumption patterns. Regional SME forums this year repeatedly raised adapting to energy prices, conscious digitalisation and prudent AI adoption as competitiveness priorities.
Start by identifying pain points and shadow AI
Experts recommend starting small. Company leadership should first identify the most critical pain points: where time is lost, where errors are frequent, where customer service is slow or where decision-making lacks data. A simple prioritisation should follow: what is the business impact, how easy is it to prepare the data, what are the risks, and who will be the internal owner.
Organisations should also assess the extent of "shadow AI" — the degree to which staff use AI tools for tasks without management’s knowledge.
Where Hungary stands in numbers
According to Eurostat, in 2024 enterprises with at least 10 employees that used some form of AI amounted to 13.5 percent across the EU, compared with 7.4 percent in Hungary. PwC’s 2025 global CEO survey found that among leaders using generative AI, 56 percent reported improved efficiency, 34 percent saw gains in profitability and 32 percent experienced revenue growth.
Short-term competitive advantage is realistic
At the Debrecen Economic Forum in June, participants argued AI should be treated not as a standalone IT project but as a new efficiency layer in company operations. The lesson was that a blanket "automate everything" approach is a mistake; it is more profitable to focus on the biggest friction points. When goals are clear, AI can appear as a productivity investment for SMEs and quickly open the way to a competitive edge.
Further discussion at the September forum
Portfolio will explore practical AI adoption for SMEs, financing and competitiveness questions in more detail at the "Lendületben a hazai vállalkozások 2026" conference on September 9, aiming to provide actionable guidance for Hungarian companies seeking to adapt and grow.
