AI Application in commerce and marketing for SMEs development (the evidence from Central Asia)

Abstrak

In this study we examined if lowcost, accessible artificial intelligence applications could improve commerce and marketing outcomes for small and mediumsized enterprises in Central Asia. A sixmonth field intervention (March to August 2025) was carried out with 52 SMEs, which deployed a chatbot, a recommendation engine, and a predictive dashboard. A sample covered retail, food and beverage, and personal services enterprises. Quantitative results showed that monthly online orders increased by 18.5 units (from 38.2 to 56.7, p < 0.001), average order value rose by 3.50 dollars, and customer inquiry response time fell from 142 to 47 minutes. Conversion rates improved from 2.10% to 2.85% (p < 0.001). Owners reported nearly 1.5 hours of daily time savings, and 90% said they would continue using the tools after the study. These firms showed the largest gains (58.7% increase in orders), though differences across countries were not statistically robust. The findings suggest that basic AI applications, when introduced with modest training and support, can meaningfully enhance SME performance in emerging digital economies without requiring expensive infrastructure.

Identifier

• OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W7171319746
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.21003/ea.v217-09