Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term used to describe any type of computer software that mimics human behavior or decision-making. It performs tasks in a manner that closely resembles the way humans do them.
AI is quickly becoming one of the most important tools for business growth. Some of the most common applications of AI include self-driving cars, facial recognition systems, and digital assistants like Siri and Amazon Alexa.
In this article, we will outline how AI can be used to power your future business. First, let us dive into the advantages of using AI.
Benefits Of Using AI In Your Business
There are several benefits to using AI in your business. For starters, it can help automate your everyday tasks so that you can focus on running your business. For instance, if you are running a restaurant, you can make use of smart appliances to operate ovens effectively to increase output and reduce costs.
It can also allow you to generate insights and predict customer’s behaviour that you might not be able to get otherwise. These insights can be used to make data-driven decisions to improve your marketing campaigns and overall customer experience.
Finally, it can also help you save money by eliminating inefficient processes and reducing human error.
Existing Use Cases Of AI
There are many different types of AI solutions available today. Let us discuss a few examples of these solutions:
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Recently, there have been a lot of startups in the Natural Language Processing (NLP) space. NLP is a sub-set of AI that analyzes large volumes of unstructured data such as emails, social media posts, and customer complaints.
Since most data collected by businesses is unstructured, text classification needs to be done to categorize this data into predetermined categories. If you are interested in the field of NLP or machine learning (discussed in our next point), you need to learn what is text classification.
After data is classified, it becomes useful and can be used in sophisticated algorithms. NLP applications can identify common patterns in the data and extract useful insights from it.
However, it should be understood that natural language processing is still in its infancy. It is a field which has a long way to go before it can live up to its full potential, so it is a good space for doing future business.
An idea for future business is to transform unstructured data into structured data that can be suitable for further analysis. The structured data can then be used in machine learning algorithms.”
Machine Learning (ML)
According to Phi Dang, CEO of Sidepost, “…your future company can provide machine learning (ML) services to help businesses in predicting future trends and making data-driven decisions.” This is especially true for expanding businesses that need to make location-based decisions accurately.
ML, another subset of AI, is an advanced technology that uses mathematical models and algorithms that make use of large amounts of data from which patterns are deduced. The patterns look at past behaviour which can help in forecasting the effects on the business when a certain variable changes in the future.
For example, ML can be used to identify which customers are likely to return and buy more products based on historical sales data. It can also be used to optimize business processes by identifying optimal pricing and service strategies to boost revenues.
Your ML business can also operate in the field of healthcare. Models can be created that help in predicting outbreaks of diseases. Personalized medicines is also another field that is gaining traction. ML can power your future business by analyzing the genetic data of patients to tailor cures specific to each individual.
Similar to NLP, ML is also used to perform text classification to categorize words to gauge the sentiments of customers.
Chatbots
These are digital personal assistants that can interact with your customers by responding to their inquiries via text or voice. The chatbots can help your customers quickly find answers to their questions by providing self-service options or by routing them to the appropriate person in your customer service department.
However, they usually have limited conversational abilities and are not good at recognizing complex or emotional conversations. This can sometimes lead to dissatisfied customers in the long run if companies solely rely on chatbots for customer service.
Automated chatbots have become ubiquitous on social media platforms such as business pages on Facebook and Twitter in recent years.
For example, Facebook pages of large companies typically receive a lot of messages per day. This means that these pages have to hire a large number of customer service representatives to handle all the incoming messages. This is obviously a very expensive way to handle customer support.
However, by using automated chatbots, pages with thousands of followers can drastically reduce their customer support costs while improving the overall customer experience.
Virtual Assistants
Virtual assistants are usually cloud-based software applications that can perform a wide range of tasks including answering customer queries, scheduling meetings, managing your emails and providing suggestions on appropriate courses of action. They can also collaborate with human workers to make better decisions and reduce errors.
AI assistants can be trained to answer customer queries, so that you can focus on more important tasks rather than doing monotonous, repetitive tasks. In this manner, your future business can become efficient.
Although virtual assistants have various uses, they tend to have a poor understanding of context and can only be programmed to perform a handful of pre-defined tasks which can limit their usefulness in many situations. However, the technology is constantly improving with more and more people training to make AI bots as human-like as possible.
Cybersecurity
AI plays an important part when it comes to cybersecurity. Cyber crime detection and online security are very important use cases of AI. Hackers generally leave digital footprints, so your business can provide cybersecurity services to other companies.
Not only can AI help in identifying cybercrimes, but it can also be used in facial recognition to identify suspicious people from CCTV camera footages.
Additionally, cybersecurity experts are already scarce in the market, so AI can help to bridge the gap between supply and demand. In fact, the demand for cybersecurity professionals is likely to grow in the future. Therefore, AI can help counter the ever-growing threat in this field so that companies can preserve their infrastructure from hackers and people with malicious intent.
Starting a business that uses AI to tackle cybercrime has the potential to be one of the most lucrative businesses of the future.
Robotics
If your business is in providing logistics services, AI can be very useful in the field. For instance, AI is used to make warehouse robotics that carry racks from one place to another in large warehouses.
These robots are trained to follow designated paths and to operate in collaboration with other robots. The robots are artificially intelligent due to their obstacle avoidance algorithm that ensures that the robots do not crash into one another or into other workers.
Amazon makes use of warehouse robots in what is known as “a goods-to-person” analogy. The robots carry racks (which contain products) and bring them to people at specific locations who then pack and send them forward.
Similarly, AI robots are also used to carry belongings of soldiers in the armed forces. Due to the assistance of robots which carry their payloads, the maneuverabilty of soldiers improves.
In short, AI robotics can be used in different verticals to do mundane tasks, so a business in this field has potential for a lot of growth.
Wrapping Up The Ways To Use Artificial Intelligence For Business
In conclusion, it can be said that AI has the potential to make businesses better in numerous ways. The possibilities discussed above are the ones that are existent in the current era. The technology is advancing at a rapid rate, so opportunities for new businesses are expected to grow.
For instance, your future business can be managing the customer service aspect for businesses in which AI helps in handling the tasks easily even when the support requests become abundant.
Depending on your business model, there will be new jobs created. The jobs can be related to managing AI systems, machine learning engineering, data science, programming new AI systems and their respective applications etc.
Adopting to new ways of doing business can help you give a competitive edge. Taking a decision to adopt AI and invest in it can give you the first-mover advantage that could take your future business to new heights. Remember, you are only limited by your imagination.
Author Bio:
Osama Zahid is a technology content strategist who is passionate about content marketing and all things SEO. He has helped various companies rank their content on the first page of search engines. In his free time, Osama loves to play football and travel.
