One thing is for sure. If as the owner of a small or medium business, you were to employ a data scientist for the creation of proprietary algorithms for AI systems for your business, your AI-related expenses could start to make a big dent in your finances, pretty soon. But, if it is only the money matters that you are going to consider when deciding about the usefulness of Artificial Intelligence, you could be making a big mistake and letting your competition move ahead without much ado.
As a businessman, if you are not too sure if Artificial Intelligence is meant for you or not, you can sit back and review how other entities in your industry are doing after adopting AI.
Before you get embroiled in the conflict between should I invest in AI or not, consider these facts on how Artificial Intelligence is impacting industries in and around your business:
● In the last two decades, 14 times more start-up companies have adopted AI;
● AI-related jobs have witnessed about 4.5 times increase since 2013.
● When it comes to attracting investment from Venture Capitalists, the increase has been about 6 times since 2000.
● Almost 84% of business entities throughout the world believe that AI can lend a greater competitive advantage to their business.
So, Does it make a smart choice to invest in Artificial Intelligence?
The likes of Amazon and Apple are leading users of Artificial Intelligence. But, these are superpowers. What about small and medium businesses; the not-so-big fishes?
Not only do these data indicate that AI is the face of the future, but there is also euphoria all around in the domain of Artificial Intelligence. This domain offers incredible opportunities to invest and capitalize on the same.
The fact of the matter is that AI is often misinterpreted as a robot system. Unfortunately, that is not the only role that AI plays in modern businesses today. As a business owner or part of the leadership team in a corporate entity, you need to look at AI as a system that drives data so that businesses can go about processing and evaluating data that drive progress and success for the business.
Artificial Intelligence is no more about a robot system that helps automate manual-driven work, thereby increasing the efficiency, effectiveness, and the speed of the business, but also can be used as a web-based app, as a computerized algorithm, or as a Chatbot.
One thing that you may not be aware of is that your business may be in dire need of AI but you may still not be sure of it.
Different forms that small and medium scale businesses are using AI today include:
● Virtual Assistants that help business owners in myriad ways from managing their time to sticking to deadlines, involving in customer interactions, automating personal communication, booking meetings, sending reminders, and all.
● Chatbots that support customer services, drive sales, and marketing. Chatbots can speed up customer services, help reduce costs and redundancy, enhance the response times, support 24×7 services, and play a major role in driving customer loyalty through enhanced customer satisfaction.
● Enable speech recognition that is run using audio-based software programs. While it is one of the elemental usages of Ai, companies that are embracing AI for Speech Recognition can serve their customers fast and in an optimized manner.
● Chatbots in accounting & market strategizing techniques. AI-based tools can be used for marketing research and PR to gain optimized information from the market.
Why should I invest in Artificial Intelligence for my business?
The big question! How can AI help your business in 2020, when there is a pandemic threatening to take the entire world down?
You need to understand that at times when COVID is hurting all economies of the world, digitization and the use of automated technology has become ever more prevalent than ever before. This is how you can use AI to make your business more task-specific and performance-oriented:
1. Leverage the power of AI and Machine Learning to make sales forecasting a part of your business operations seamlessly.
2. Use AI to understand your customer behavior more accurately. When most of your competition is busy playing the guessing game on understanding their customers’ buying patterns and next purchase; you will be way ahead because you have the best technology in hand to analyze customer behavior and accordingly offer him optimized services.
3. Just like understanding customer behavior is so essential for your business, market intelligence is another important aspect where Artificial Intelligence can get you deep insights from the core market.
4. AI can also help you optimize your internal technology ecosystem because tools can be used to keep a watch on the gaps and glitches existing in your system. With built-in alert systems, you are always on the top with an effective infrastructure in place.
5. Artificial Intelligence tools and systems help you enhance your productivity because your operations are driven by smart and intuitive technology based on AI.
Is it the right time to invest in AI?
While the consumer is still the king, customer data is at the centre of all activities happening in and around your business. AI is the most advanced way of recording and interpreting data. This is one truth that businesses cannot ignore. Since data evaluation is one of the most critical factors of the modern commercial world, you need to invest in AI, if you intend to stay on the top and rank number one in the race.
With AI, you can leverage the true power of data because it can be used to understand your market, your customer, and strategize to get better leads. From helping optimizing routine business tasks to saving costs and time, to improving productivity and efficiency, AI is a magical tool that augments decision-making by using cognitive technologies.
A study conducted by software giant Infosys summarized the real use of Artificial Intelligence – it concluded that Artificial Intelligence offers a competitive advantage to the business, and that is why your business and you need AI.
The cost versus the need analysis needs to be done thoroughly because the price point can be one major pain point for businesses, especially now. With the pandemic having far-reaching economic and financial consequences, affording AI technology can become a big question.
However, look at it from this point – in the time of COVID and digital transformation, when businesses after businesses went online and there is data literally in every nook and corner from customers, AI is not a luxury for your business anymore. It is a necessity and that is what should be the primary governing matter when you sit down to decide this effect.
Today, when customers have become demanding like never before, data is widely available, market intelligence has become an important weapon in hand, and your competitions are active using modern tools and technologies, if you are not forward-thinking and futuristic in your approach, you will not only be left behind, you will also be at a big loss. AI does not necessarily have to be costly; you can use expertise to go in for partial implementation or use AI-tools that are more cost-effective. However, it is one decision that is just perfect for this time!
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