How AI is Transforming Businesses
Last updated on November 29th, 2023 at 03:31 pm
We are all current citizens of the digital world and as technology is getting smarter, it is permeating every aspect of our lives. Smartphones already had people pretty bewitched with their wholesome functions but post-pandemic the world was forced to change the way it works. Today the whole world is online and more accepting of new technologies and how they make our lives easier. Right from Alexa playing your favorite music while you work from home to automated cars with self-driving functions that take you from one place to another, there is no industry that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has spared to transform from its disruptive technology.
When you think of ways in which AI can help transform businesses, your brain might automatically think of automation first and foremost, but that is only one of the benefits of integrating AI into your business functions. Let’s discuss the most essential and intriguing ways in which AI companies are helping businesses across the world transform the way they work.
1. Enhancing Customer Service
Today most of the shopping we do is done online through various m-commerce apps and platforms. Hence there are times when we might face difficulties with our orders and require online assistance from customer service. AI chatbots are the new customer service agents these days. Whenever you visit any website the first pop-up to greet you is the AI chatbot. AI chatbots have now become an integral part of online customer service and are the most common example of customers interacting with AI for online retail experiences.
One of the key benefits of using AI chatbots is 24/7 availability to customers alongside convenience. Customers don’t need to search the website to seek the assistance they require and the quick response time of the chatbot with updated FAQs also helps to make the interaction efficient. AI chatbots are a great initiative to increase customer and website engagement as well since they constantly analyze chat data to improve their service for customers.
2. Helps in Holistic Decision Making
AI is renowned for processing and analyzing huge amounts of data, a powerful feature that outperforms any human’s efforts to do the same. Such accurately processed data produces highly useful information that managers and leaders can use to optimize business strategies. For example, AI can process historical sale data, profit margin, supply cost, and other variables to forecast future sales estimates, and leaders of the organization can draw upon this information to create different pricing strategies to maximize profit and other organizational goals.
AI combined with edge computing can also help businesses save a ton of money in operational costs by helping maintain and regulate production devices or manufacturing machines remotely. The IoT sensors can sense the performance of machines and relay that information to executives to adjust maintenance cycles and production capacity. In this manner, AI helps improve and strengthen the decision-making process in organizations.
3. Creating The Best Marketing Strategy
Adopting AI algorithms in marketing allows companies to tap into enhanced marketing tactics such as push notifications, product recommendations, personalized content for users, etc. AI can give users a hyper-personalized website/ app experience based on their previous interactions and searches within the app or website as it uses machine learning to understand the intent behind the usage. It can significantly improve the customer’s shopping or browsing experience resulting in repeat use of the app or product simply due to convenient features and welcoming UI. Therefore, investing in content marketing is the key to winning over your competitors.
AI can analyze market trends and forecast market conditions which can help marketers create suitable marketing strategies. Market planning and research contribute significantly to designing a successful marketing campaign and AI can help gather and process the demographic information required for that location-wise for higher accuracy and impact.
4. Optimizing Supply Chain Operations
AI has much to offer in terms of optimizing supply chain operations for all types of businesses irrespective of their industry. AI can predict consumer and supplier behaviors and patterns, sales, weather conditions, traffic, and logistics, amidst other variables to create different supply chain models that will produce the most optimal results for the business.
Such a holistic approach toward supply chain management can reduce many risks and challenges faced by businesses daily due to the lack of proper simulation. AI-powered simulation models can help eliminate many such challenges simply by training and upskilling employees to monitor and analyze such patterns. Not only will this help improve delivery and consistency in the supply chain but it will also allow businesses to shift their focus to scaling growth.
5. Modernizing Operations Through Automation
Smarter operating systems in businesses today allow the automation of a lot of routine tasks. Automating business functions like accounting and payroll will save companies time and cost while simultaneously improving efficiency and accuracy. Files can simply be uploaded on the server or cloud and the AI algorithm can read and classify them into suitable data folders.
Repetitive and tedious tasks take up a lot of time of the employees but modernizing business functions through automation can help organizations utilize the true skills and potentials of their human resources above basic data entry tasks. Automating such processes through AI will help businesses significantly improve the daily productivity of their employees. AI can also be implemented in the protocol of IT compliance and regulation to speed up regulatory checks and processes and decrease any risk of noncompliance.
6. Strengthening Cybersecurity
With all the data and information online, cybersecurity has always been a big challenge for organizations. AI companies can offer high-end data protection and cybersecurity solutions to businesses to protect and securely store their company and client data. Many fintech companies rely on AI for protecting the financial data of their customers from any theft or leakage as well as for fraud detection.
Biometric login in online payment apps is one such example of AI protecting your financial data from unauthorized users. Cyber thefts are not limited to ransomware and monetary theft, there can be identity theft and account hacking as well which might result in the loss of critical information on the user’s side. AI software can easily deal with such cybersecurity threats by analyzing user interaction and behavioral patterns to avoid any type of online phishing attacks.
7. Improving Employee Retention and Recruitment Strategies
Post-pandemic, organizations across the globe had to adapt to different working environments and implement new, more hybrid work policies to accommodate the extenuating circumstances of the world. Virtual recruitment became a thing and software developers found another field in which AI could prove helpful. AI software that can help assess and match candidates as per their experience and skills to the job openings in the company, acting as a filter for recruitment executives to focus on proper job applications.
Segmentation of job profiles, candidate applications, and even recommending potential candidates for certain job roles by extracting data from job portals can considerably lighten the burden of the recruiters. Apart from recruitment, employee retention is another vertical where AI can prove to be useful for organizations. AI can gather and process methods of retention, suggest appropriate rewards and recognition for employees based on actionable tasks and achievements as well as analyze employee performance and behavior patterns such as absenteeism to predict future actions.
8. Boosting and Forecasting Sales
The predictive technology of AI is quite useful for the sales department of any business. Sales forecasting is essential for long-term business growth and strategy. AI can be used to forecast sales based on historical records of past purchases, client behavioral patterns, and current market conditions. It can be used in demand forecasting in a complementary manner.
Accurate sales forecasting helps businesses allocate their resources effectively and through AI businesses can also fix the gaps in their sales strategy to produce better results. AI can also be used to improve lead generation and score convertible leads for the business. It not only helps in foraging potential customers but also creates new ones through algorithms such as product recommendations on various social media platforms and other online channels.
Wrapping Up
A lot of people speculate that AI is here to put humans out of jobs but the way businesses aim to augment AI in their business functions is to integrate human and machine work. If your business is struggling to compete or gather leads or has supply chain issues, you can always turn to AI for smart solutions to modern business challenges.
