Why businesses should embrace AI technology instead of fight it

April 19th, 2021
Why businesses should embrace AI technology instead of fight it

Power is the ability to do something or act in a particular way, which is why physical strength, honed talents and skills, and intelligence are all considered as power. To illustrate, the average 5th grader has the ability to solve basic arithmetic problems, whereas a rocket scientist can help safely bring astronauts to the moon and back. Clearly, intelligence-wise, the rocket scientist has way more power than the 5th grader.

By the same token, businesses that can harness greater intelligence will have more power, which is why they must embrace artificial intelligence or AI. Let’s take a quick dive into what AI is and how it can be used by businesses to achieve their goals

AI in a nutshell

Generally speaking, artificial intelligence is what makes computers or machines capable of actions that result from learning from experiences, recognizing objects and patterns, understanding language, and reasoning. In short, the computer or machine gains a semblance of animal and human intelligence when it has artificial intelligence.

While AI has a long way to go before it can understand context in everyday speech or conclude that it must save the planet by eradicating human beings, the technology has become beneficial and affordable enough for businesses to use. Below are just a few use cases for AI.

Chatbots

Though we did say that AI can’t understand context (yet), the AI in chatbots can respond to written or spoken prompts in an online chat wherein the context is already pre-established. Specifically, the context is normally that of a potential customer who needs more information or an existing customer in need of assistance. Additionally, the scope of concerns that chatbots can address is usually limited to frequently asked questions (FAQs).

Despite such limitations, chatbots can already do a lot of heavy lifting by taking over the important but repetitive task of answering FAQs. This allows customer service representatives to focus on issues that are more complex or require human empathy. Last but not least, chatbots don’t need to take breaks, do shifts, or limit themselves to handling one client at a time.

Visual recognition

There are many applications for machines that can recognize objects, animals, and faces. For instance, self-driving automobiles must use sensors that make them capable of distinguishing inanimate objects from pedestrians and crossing animals. Security devices can use facial recognition technology for effective identity authentication. And text readers can help the blind and visually impaired read menus, product information on packaging, in-flight safety pamphlets, and other reading materials that might not be available in braille.

Business intelligence

Companies collect and produce staggering amounts of data every day, ranging from how well factory machines are operating, which marketing strategies are converting into sales, and how customers are behaving online and offline.

Manually deriving trend lines and insights from mountains of data is a time-consuming process, but this is not the case for business intelligence (BI) software programs. Essentially, these programs can learn to recognize patterns from historical data, assess current data, and go so far as to predict future trends and outcomes of current and hypothetical business strategies. BI can help identify business opportunities and show how these can be capitalized.

As with most technologies, BI was first adopted by large enterprises, but now BI service providers have proliferated, making the technology accessible to growing companies as well.

Personalization

Whereas BI looks at the macro perspective, personalization zooms in on individuals as distinct entities. Data amassed from a consumer’s behavior is analyzed and compared against behaviors of other consumers so that businesses can engage with their customers on a personal level.

For instance, not only does Netflix offer users viewing options on their app, but they also apply what they learned about their customers on their emails. Another example is Amazon: it’s incredible how they seem to know what you’re really interested in buying when you look at their product recommendations. AI grants these corporate behemoths the power to treat customers individually, even though they have millions of customers.

Machines allow users to multiply force. Everything from simple machines to robots increase our physical power, but now AI increases our brain power as well. Don’t miss out — learn how you can leverage AI to your business’s advantage. Schedule a consultation with our IT experts at HERO Managed Services LLC to learn how.


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