The term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ often trips up business leaders in industries which don’t intersect directly with technology. It can invoke images of robots and feelings of machines stealing the jobs of humans. The reality is that AI can help to make their professional and personal lives run more smoothly by removing a lot of the tasks which were previously done manually.
A great deal of education needs to be done to help business leaders understand the importance and positive impact of utilizing AI in business. Arguably one of the biggest factors to consider is time saved. Adoption of AI will only continue to grow as business leaders continue to understand why investing in AI tools will remove unnecessary work from their plates.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence (commonly referred to as AI or A.I.) is a wide-ranging area of computer science focused on building smart machines which are capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. Artificial intelligence refers to when machines mimic the cognitive functions of the human mind, such as the abilities to learn and problem solve.
Typically, AI is being utilized to analyze the environment it’s placed in and make calculations or take actions in that environment to maximize the chance of success. AI often is built around the use of algorithms. These AI algorithms are capable of continuing to learn and do so from data. Therefore the more an AI matures and is used, the better it will perform for increased chances of success.
Why is Artificial Intelligence on the rise in business?
AI is helping companies and business leaders meet three specific needs, all while saving them time, money and energy. AI can easily automate many business processes, help leaders gain insights through improved data analysis and help businesses better engage with customers and employees. As more use cases arise for how AI can help businesses with these three main tasks and everything that falls within them, the more its use will continue to rise.
If businesses can utilize AI to perform menial tasks they need fewer workers to complete them. If they can use AI to understand which strategies are working and resonating with their clients and consumers, they can spend less money on advertising and guessing games with clear data to back up success. They can also better analyze more data to prevent future failures and wasted spends.
What are some Artificial Intelligence uses in businesses, and how does AI impact efficiency?
AI has a seemingly endless array of use cases for business. You can begin by thinking of the office itself. Businesses can utilize AI tools to employ ‘smart building’ techniques to track the energy usage of their offices for improved efficiency. For example, AI-based smart building tools can allow leaders to turn off all office facilities not being used at nights and on the weekends and do so remotely. They can analyze energy usage month-to-month to catch differences as well. With effective AI tools in place, they can have better access to analytics and forecasting tools and methods to uncover ways to keep costs down.
In a commercial business, such as a restaurant or grocery store, they can receive alerts when a unit like a refrigerator stops working to send someone to fix it before all of the food within it is spoiled, also saving them significant money. Even more, access to these tools provides business leaders with more peace of mind.
Businesses can utilize AI tools for improved security, such as being alerted of potential physical break-ins, as well as for cybersecurity measures, such as fraud detection.
From an external standpoint, AI can also be used to help with marketing and sales efforts. AI can be used to manage customer service calls of stores, airlines and general enterprises in the form of phone calls and chatbots on their websites. The use of AI can greatly reduce the need for a full customer service workforce and rather allow businesses to assign a manager to ensure the AI and chatbots are working effectively and serving their client and customer needs.
Additionally, AI can greatly help businesses ensure that internal and external communications remain smooth, especially in the new world of remote work. For example, nearly every business is adding captions to their marketing videos on social channels and otherwise. These captions are often generated by AI, specifically automatic-speech-recognition tools. These tools utilize AI to detect speech and quickly transform it into text.
These speech recognition tools are being utilized for videos that were previously produced and being pushed out to spread a brand’s message or offerings. However, they’re also seeing greater use cases in live settings. For example, captions and transcriptions are now available on Zoom or web conferencing calls as they happen live. They’re also being used at events and for livestreams of the events themselves. These tools are based on AI and provide a strong visual aid to back up what any speaker is saying and ensure communication channels remain clear.
Additionally, they’re being used in many settings to aid individuals with disabilities, such as hearing loss. These settings include education of employees and students, where courses and training sessions are happening both in-person and virtually by offering note taking tools and means for more accessible materials. The use of Artificial intelligence in business management means more leaders can utilize it to save time, train employees and set themselves up to be employers who are committed to ensuring equality of employees despite their disabilities or specific learning needs.
They’re also being utilized in the legal field in the realm of digital court reporting, which uses AI to produce word-for-word transcripts of everything said in a legal proceeding. Verbit is one company helping with all of these use cases and helping its users easily utilize AI technology to achieve high accuracy, which isn’t always a given with AI and speech-to-text tools.
Artificial Intelligence impact on business will be long-term
Artificial Intelligence in business and its use cases are virtually endless. AI in business will continue to grow and be adopted by nearly every company in every industry. That might seem like a bold statement, but its use cases apply to so many manual tasks that affect our professional and daily lives. Not using AI in business will only put professionals at a disadvantage as their competitors who utilize it will continue to save time and resources.
AI technology in business will only help companies to streamline their communication both internally and externally, and communication is essential during these unprecedented times with the need for social distancing. Artificial intelligence and business will continue to work together hand-in-hand.