AI (artificial intelligence) goes far beyond the realm of robots, virtual reality, and voice recognition. In today’s world, more and more businesses are utilizing AI to automate their recruiting process, streamline logistics, and predict customer behavior. This informational guide tackles all you need to know when it comes to AI and how it can further boost your business.
What is AI?
Before integrating AI into your business, let’s take a quick look at how AI works. AI is a branch of computer science that simulates advanced behavior in computers.An artificially intelligent program or device can receive multiple different pieces of data, find connections between those pieces of data, and draw conclusions much like a human would.
Once relegated to sci-fi books and movies, AI is now a part of our everyday lives, especially when it comes to smart devices and cell phones. Artificially intelligent algorithms shape what we see on social media and in web search results. They also monitor real-time traffic and use GPS to map out the best driving routes to reach our destinations. Any time you use the internet to connect your devices, you’re engaging in the vast world of artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach to Business
Nearly every business can benefit from AI in some way. For example, when it comes to recruitment and hiring, many organizations now use AI to analyze, filter, and sort resumes. In fact, AI can even automate communications with candidates leading up to an interview. Once hired, artificially intelligent onboarding platforms guide hires through the necessary documentation and training to get them working sooner.
Artificial intelligence also offers a modern approach to logistics. For example, predictive AI software can anticipate demand and capacity and inform decisions about how much product to ship, how many trucks to load, and how full to keep warehouses. Internet of Things (IoT) devices can track assets and communicate with AI telematics tools that use that data to act as another set of “eyes” on operations. Because AI is capable of machine learning, it can identify patterns (and breaks in patterns) to inform and alert business leaders. And of course, let’s not forget to mention autonomous and connected vehicles, which are only possible with the help of AI.
Finally, businesses use AI to perform data analysis. In the age of Big Data, leveraging customer and operational data to grow your business is critical to staying competitive. Human resources can only analyze so much information so quickly, and are prone to making errors. With AI, data analysis is automated and far less error-prone. While AI shouldn’t necessarily replace human decision-makers, it can certainly inform them faster than ever before.
Industries Benefiting from AI Today
While just about every business can benefit from AI, a few industries in particular are already making it a core component of their operations today. Here are just a few:
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Information Technology
Cloud technology, the IoT, and other digital tools have risen rapidly in availability and accessibility over the last decade. IT businesses have had to evolve quickly to meet demand. To keep up, they use AI to automate everything from cybersecurity to reducing infrastructure downtime.
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Customer Service
Increased technological accessibility means customers today expect to be able to contact customer service for help 24/7. With artificially intelligent call centers, chatbots, and email campaigns, customers can receive answers to their most common questions and be informed of available add-ons and upgrades without having to talk to a person. In fact, according to IBM, chatbots can answer up to 80% of routine customer service questions. If a customer has a question that can’t be answered by an AI tool, they can be automatically patched through to a human representative. This reduces demand on human resources, saving businesses time and money.
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Tech
While the tech industry birthed AI, it’s also benefiting from its own invention. Artificial intelligence software today selectively mines important business data and leaves the rest behind, saving tech businesses time, energy, storage space, and data management resources. After data mining, AI can perform data analysis on customer trends, security issues, productivity, and more to inform business decisions.
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Healthcare
We’d be remiss to ignore the increasing presence of artificial intelligence in healthcare. According to an article by the Future Healthcare Journal, several types of AI are already being used in healthcare for diagnosis and treatment recommendations, patient engagement and adherence, and administrative activities. Expect to see an increased presence of machine learning, natural language processing, robots, and robotic process automation as artificial intelligence in healthcare becomes more widespread.
How to Integrate AI into Your Business
Integrating AI into your business may be easier than you think. In fact, you may already be doing it. There are many business tools available today that automate marketing, customer relationship management, billing, and more with the help of AI. If your customer service team is under a lot of pressure to meet customer needs, look into chatbot providers. If your business utilizes IoT devices but isn’t leveraging all the data they produce, invest in software that can mine, manage, and analyze it.
As we look to the future of AI, one way business leaders can stay ahead of the curve is optimizing their website for voice search. According to eMarketer, voice search is increasingly popular with consumers thanks to smart home assistants and hands-free smartphone technology. It may not be long before a majority of web searches are conducted by voice.
The Future of AI in Business
With change often comes discomfort, and many worry about the data mining and security issues presented by businesses leveraging AI. In order for artificial intelligence to remain a modern approach to business into the future, business owners will need to demand that their AI tools meet high security and ethics standards. As a result, expect to see increasing pressure on AI developers to build security and ethical stopgaps into their software.
AI Tailored to Your Business
Whether your business is within IT, customer service, tech, healthcare, or even a more traditional vertical, all companies can benefit from artificial intelligence to help maximize growth and profit. Take time to find the AI tools most relevant to your business, from AI-powered cloud technology that stores vital information and promotes cyber security, to customer service chatbots, and even machine learning algorithms that sort through potential applicants.
