How Businesses Can Utilize and Benefit from AI
There's no denying that AI has experienced a boom in recent years, and its present and wide range of features allow it to be molded into various applications, which have slowly infiltrated both personal and professional lives. While there is an important debate around the ethics of AI and its potential use and future developments, there is no denying that it can make life both easier and more complex at the same time.
For business owners, the strategic use of AI in various applications and functions can yield significant benefits. Millions of businesses worldwide are leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance their operations and achieve superior results. These benefits can manifest in various forms, from bolstering security and accuracy to driving efficiency and cost savings.
The specific advantages of AI adoption within your business will depend on your unique use case, industry, and the effectiveness of its integration.
Let's take a brief look at some of the various uses and applications currently employed by businesses worldwide.
Cybersecurity
AI plays a pivotal role in cybersecurity, employing its analytical capabilities to decipher algorithms, identify patterns, detect and thwart threats, and address vulnerabilities. This robust use of AI is instrumental in fortifying businesses against cyber threats.
Implementing cybersecurity software enables you to protect your business against cyber-related threats. Always running in the background, AI proactively protects your business and collects data that can help you reinforce your cybersecurity defenses. AI has been instrumental in shaping cybersecurity due to its vast capabilities. From detecting threats in real-time to enabling a rapid response in the face of perceived threats, the use of cybersecurity software is constantly evolving to match the level of threat and the development of cybercriminals and their activities, by learning from data and predicting and protecting against existing and new threats.
AI for Personalization
Personalization is a cornerstone of modern business, particularly for digital-only enterprises like e-commerce. Customers increasingly demand tailored experiences and seamless access to relevant information. AI is the key enabler of this trend, empowering businesses to deliver high levels of personalization.
Let's take a look at a few examples you might be familiar with. Ever received those emails from Amazon suggesting items you’re looking for based on your search history? Did you notice your previous shopping trips on your homepage and related product suggestions? This is AI-increasing personalization using your browsing habits on Amazon. The same phenomenon also occurs on Netflix. This is when you see your recommended-to-watch list of shows and movies, curated based on your previous viewing habits to build personalized content. The list delivers titles that you might not have otherwise discovered and are more likely to enjoy, based on your previous viewing choices or ratings.
Creativity
AI in creativity isn't new. It has long been a valuable tool for generating ideas and suggestions to aid in a wide range of tasks, including creating content, refining content, generating article ideas, designing products, and editing images and videos.
For instance, when encountering roadblocks or bottlenecks, AI can help troubleshoot and find creative solutions to seemingly intractable issues. AI has been advancing the creation of unique, information-rich content that can be utilized for articles. Tools like ChatGPT can assist you with content strategies, identifying topics related to your website or business that are ranking well, creating lengthy articles, and more. Other sites like Lucidpic help you with creating imagery to accompany blog posts, mock-up product dies, deliver headshots, and more to help you find the perfect look and feel for both your website and your social media content.
Market Research
Due to its ability to process vast amounts of data in relatively fast amounts of time compared to human skills, AI for market research can take your results and findings or help you uncover them and deliver reports based on these results that you can practically use to improve your business.
To provide a few examples, Quid analyzes social media conversations to help you gain deeper insights into users' sentiments about your business. The AI-driven solutions from Nielsen help businesses understand purchasing patterns, enabling more informed buying decisions and faster demand meeting.
Quality Control and Assurance
Machine vision is a form of artificial intelligence (AI) that has been in use for many years. Its ability to deliver faster results with greater precision is a valuable tool that helps eliminate mistakes and defects in processes and product design, reducing waste and enhancing functionality and customer satisfaction. With the recent addition of quality control software, companies can establish standards that must be met, and technology can be programmed to operate within these parameters. These days, you don't even need to set this; deep learning models can create their own rules to assess and implement quality standards, working towards them.
Increased Efficiency and Productivity
One of the most common uses for AI in businesses is for increased capabilities. This means using AI to automate tasks that are repetitive or labor-intensive, thereby removing the human element from the process and achieving results faster. As AI can work faster than humans, you can process more data and deliver more exact results thanks to artificial intelligence. This means you can reduce the time wasted completing these tasks manually and work to a greater volume than you can by human hands alone.
Training and Learning
AI software has evolved to enable companies to create personalized training programs to help each employee on a more personal level. Since a blanket approach isn't ideal for every employee, you can utilize AI to enhance how your employees learn in a way that benefits them. By understanding the person's experience, knowledge level, and approach to learning, you can create more effective training programs that cater to everyone at their own level.
Knowledge Base
Providing an extensive knowledge base for customers means enabling an FAQ section on websites and using tools like chatbots or live help to deliver the information customers need. They head to the FAQs to search for their query and find an answer, or head to your chatbox to enter what they're looking for or need an answer to, and to have it delivered to them. AI chatbots can be programmed with answers to the most commonly asked questions, while for live help, the query can be sent to the right person to deliver the answer and assist the customer.
On the other hand, an increased knowledge base for employees is vital to them in areas where they may be getting stuck or are unsure, especially for new hires.
Generative AI helps employees search through vast amounts of information to find the answers they need faster. While it is not yet 100% there, ChatGPT is a case in point. When used in conjunction with a human overview, it can reduce research time and provide a faster way to gain and develop knowledge and skills than searching through it personally.
Decision Support
Intelligent decision support systems are systems that sort and analyze data sets, offering suggestions based on this analysis. While it shouldn’t be used to make decisions for you, it can be used to collate and understand data, providing you with information that supports your decision-making in any area. Doctors and accountants have long used it as an example to help them find the right solutions. For tax accountants, DSS can review tax laws and then help identify the best course of action for their clients, utilizing the most effective tax strategies tailored to their specific circumstances.
