Elliott Hoffman, co-founder of AI Tool Tracker explains how business performance is being transformed by AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has fundamentally changed the way many businesses operate today. It is now used on a daily basis to do everything from improving decision-making to automating, speeding up and carrying out tasks more accurately and efficiently, and even enhancing customer support.
Thanks to technological advances, companies have been able to deploy algorithms to process the vast amounts of data now available, giving them invaluable insights into their business and customers. As a result, they can make more informed decisions and it frees them up to focus on more value-added work that has to be done by humans.
The technology is now used across multiple industries to automate simple processes that were done manually before and are often prone to human error. All of these applications can be collated together using an AI tools directory, including, data entry, document processing and customer service, to name but a few services.
AI business applications
There is a vast array of AI available today that can be used in a wide range of situations. Among the most well documented recently is chatbots.
Chatbots allow companies to communicate with their customers in real-time. Available at all times, they have the capacity to handle a host of different requests simultaneously, from answering questions to processing orders, as well as automating simple tasks such as booking appointments and setting reminders.
Chatbots are also able to identify potential issues and address them before they become a large problem. As a result, this has the capability to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Another significant use case is predictive analytics. By using machine learning algorithms, AI can quickly analyse historical data and identify key trends, which can then be used to make forecasts about future events.
Before, senior management would have had to manually leaf through reams of sales reports to determine their targets. But by being able to more accurately project sales, identify buying trends and predict customer behaviour, companies can be more pro-active in coming up with appropriate solutions.
Marketing tool
AI is also being used to transform marketing. Through the rich insight it can give into customer behaviours and preferences, it allows companies to establish more targeted marketing campaigns.
The success of these initiatives can also be reviewed using the same technology. Added to that, AI marketing tools can help to identify and connect with new leads.
AI’s uses extend to image recognition, natural language processing and recommendation systems based on a customer’s behaviour and preferences. Image recognition allows the user to identify objects and is used for defect detection, medical imaging and security surveillance, to name but a few applications.
Natural language processing is used to analyse and understand how humans write and speak. Its uses range from translation services and document analysis to email filtering.
Key risks
There’s no denying the benefits that AI can bring. But it also comes with risks. The biggest are the potential for them to go wrong, produce incorrect or inaccurate results, or be influenced by bias, both in regards to data and assumptions present in everyday society.
AI also requires large amounts of data to work effectively. If that data becomes compromised, that can cause huge cybersecurity and data privacy problems for companies. But they can guard against this by protecting their customer data with strong security controls such as encryption.
The benefits of AI are that it’s largely affordable, adaptable and can be easily integrated into existing systems and technology. As it becomes more widely available, sophisticated and capable of handling more complex tasks, its uptake will only become more universal.
Elliott Hoffman co-founder of AI Tool Tracker
