Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business »

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already all around us. We may not know about it, but it is doing things that touch on our day to day lives and more and more businesses are investing in AI technology to reduce costs and provide new business opportunities.

Whilst some businesses have been early adopters of AI, it is still safe to say that we are still in the very early stages of adoption by most organisations. There is, however, a growing excitement about the possibilities that AI brings to businesses and the opportunities it presents.

How is AI been used today?

Artificial intelligence can be used to solve problems across the board. AI can help businesses increase sales, detect fraud, improve customer experience, automate work processes and provide predictive analysis. Industries like health care, automotive, financial services and logistics have a lot to gain from AI implementations. Artificial intelligence can help health care service providers with better tools for early diagnostics. Autonomous cars are a direct result of improvements in AI. Financial services can benefit from AI-based process automation and fraud detection. Logistics companies can use AI for better inventory and delivery management. The retail business can map consumer behaviour using AI. Utilities can use smart meters and smart grids to decrease power consumption. Even around the home, we are seeing an increase in the use of AI-powered technology. Chatbots and virtual assistants all rely on artificial intelligence to deliver the best possible results. Google’s Home, Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Echo are all using AI-based algorithms to deliver results that meet an individual’s needs.

What sectors are using AI?

We have touched on some of the industries that are already embracing AI, however, we wanted to take a more in-depth look at some of the ways in which AI is being used by businesses to create a competitive advantage.

Marketing

One of the earliest adopters of AI was in marketing. Not only can AI help to develop marketing strategies, but it is also helping to provide in-depth insights into customer demographics and behaviour. This information is helping businesses to reach not only more people but more of the right kind of people at the right time and on the right platforms. Chatbots are also one of the earliest forms of AI technology adopted by businesses and managed by marketing teams. Chatbots can help solve problems, suggest products or services, and support sales, helping to reduce the amount of time a member of staff spend monitoring social platforms and other communication channels.

IT

It is perhaps no surprise to see that IT departments were early adopters of artificial intelligence. AI is commonly used for IT system log file error analysis, with IT systems management functions as well as to automate many routine processes. It can help identify issues so the IT team can proactively fix them before any IT systems go down. As the IT systems to support our businesses become more complex, AI helps the IT department improve system performance and services.

Contact Centres

The contact centre of an organisation is another business area where artificial intelligence is already in use. Organisations that use AI technology to enhance rather than replace humans with these tasks are the ones that are incorporating artificial intelligence in the right way. These centres collect a tremendous amount of data that can be used to learn more about customers, predict customer intent, and improve the “next best action” for the customer for better customer engagement. Often used in conjunction with chatbots, the data collected from contact centres can be analysed by machine learning and used to inform future strategies, helping to deliver a more personalised customer experience.

Businesses using AI

Many of the world’s leading brands are already integrating artificial intelligence into their business in order to realise cost savings, improve efficiency and deliver the highest possible levels of service. According to Forbes, some of the best examples of businesses using AI include:

Alibaba

Artificial intelligence (AI) is integral in Alibaba’s daily operations and is used to predict what customers might want to buy. With natural language processing, the company automatically generates product descriptions for the site.

Google

Google has invested heavily in AI and machine learning and there are many examples of how they use AI, not least, in their search engine. Another AI innovation from Google is Google Duplex. Using natural language processing, an AI voice interface can make phone calls and schedule appointments on your behalf. Learn even more about how Google is incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning into operations.

Amazon

As well as Amazon Alexa which relies on AI, they also collect a lot of data about each person’s buying habits and have such confidence in how the data they collect helps them recommend items to its customers and now predict what they need even before they need it by using predictive analytics.

Apple

Apple uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in products like the iPhone, where it enables the FaceID feature, or in products like the AirPods, Apple Watch, or HomePod smart speakers, where it enables the smart assistant Siri.

Facebook

One of the primary ways Facebook uses artificial intelligence and deep learning is to add structure to its unstructured data. They use DeepText, a text understanding engine, to automatically understand and interpret the content and emotional sentiment of the thousands of posts (in multiple languages) that its users publish every second. They also created a faster, more accurate translation system using AI. Not everything they do can be done through AI, however. In 2017, they announced they were hiring 3,000 new content monitors for a job that could not be done using AI – reviewing images, videos and posts that users report.

Betway Casinos

Online casinos have been big adopters of artificial intelligence to tackle a number of challenges they face. Companies like Betway have embraced AI as a way of combatting cheating, mitigating gambling addiction, improving user experience in their online casino games and boosting revenue. Betway uses the power of the data generated by AI in order to keep its products and systems at the forefront of the industry. They have built software that allows for high-frequency betting, competing with some of the biggest financial systems in the world. “Whether it’s product development, delivery processes, or reporting systems – we never stop learning and innovating and always ensure we have the best tool for the job.”