AI for the everyday business

Practical thinking for SMEs doing AI for the first time

No hype, no Silicon Valley framing. Just what actually works for a small business in Singapore and APAC — written by someone who's spent 25 years selling to and operating in this market.

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Alvin Kiew · Founder, SplashSocket · 25 years in APAC technology — Microsoft, Plantronics, Alcatel-Lucent
Getting started

Do You Need a Developer to Add AI to Your Business? (Honest Answer)

The assumption that AI requires an IT team or a development project is the single biggest reason SMEs delay getting started. Here's what actually needs to happen — and what doesn't.

Apr 2026 6 min read
Proof

What 40% Lead Capture Actually Looks Like on a Dashboard

A representative example: a Singapore property agency went from capturing almost no leads after hours to capturing 40% of all inbound enquiries. Here's what changed operationally — and what the dashboard showed.

May 2026 5 min read
Compliance

PDPA and AI: What Singapore SMEs Actually Need to Check

Most AI chatbot vendors treat PDPA as a footnote. Here's a plain-English guide to what PDPA actually requires from an AI deployment — and what most vendors quietly skip.

Jun 2026 7 min read
WhatsApp

WhatsApp vs Email for Customer Engagement — The Numbers That Changed Our Mind

We spent years assuming email was the right channel for business communication. Then we looked at the open rate data side by side. This is what we found — and what it means for how you reach your customers.

Jul 2026 5 min read
Case study

How a Product Launch Team Handled 400 Enquiries Without a Support Team

A marketing team launching a new product received over 400 inbound messages in 72 hours. They had two people. Here's how they handled it — and what they would have lost without AI in place.

Aug 2026 6 min read
Operations

Why Your Staff Keep Asking the Same Questions (And What to Do About It)

If your team keeps interrupting each other to ask questions the answers to which already exist somewhere in your business — that's not a training problem. It's a knowledge access problem. Here's the difference.

Sep 2026 6 min read

AI for the Everyday Business — the newsletter

One email a month. No product pitches. Just what Alvin's learned from deploying AI in real SMEs across Singapore and APAC.