Empowering Small-Scale Industries with AI-Enhanced Digital Marketing Strategies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing digital marketing by enabling businesses to better understand consumer behaviour, deliver personalized content, automate campaigns, and strengthen customer engagement. While its use is widespread among large corporations, small-scale industries (SSIs) are still in the early stages of adoption, largely due to budgetary, technical, and skill-related limitations. This study explores the potential of AI applications—such as chatbots, predictive analytics, recommendation engines, sentiment analysis, and programmatic advertising—in enhancing marketing efficiency, precision targeting, and overall competitiveness within SSIs. Employing a mixed-methods research design, the analysis draws on survey data from 50 micro and small enterprises, three detailed case studies, and relevant secondary sources to examine key adoption drivers, barriers, and performance impacts. The results indicate that AI- powered personalization can raise conversion rates by up to 20%, while automating repetitive marketing activities significantly reduces workload and optimizes resources. The paper offers practical, cost-effective strategies for AI integration, skill enhancement, and policy measures to accelerate adoption in the SSI sector.