Artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the business world by a whirlwind ride. AI is a technology that has emerged as probably the most sought after and every business can use it to transform and scale their business if adapted systematically.
AI should be seen as an aid to evolve business capabilities rather than just technological advances. But first, we need to understand the basics, what exactly do we want AI to help our businesses with before we actually rethink the whole business strategy based on it. In a broad sense AI can open new doors for three significant business needs, process automation, analyzing data and gaining insights and improve customer experience and employee engagement.
Process Automation:
Robotic Process Automation or RPA as we call it is the least expensive and easiest to implement and probably is the least smart of them all. It is generally used to automate repetitive digital and physical tasks. Using RPA applications will not let you learn, improve your processes just ease the process. However we expect it to become more intelligent and start learning as well in the near future as the technology evolves.
Cognitive Insight:
This is probably the most used type of AI that is being used by the majority of the businesses. The algorithms analyses vast datasets, accrued, bought or shared and analyses patterns, and meaning. More commonly known as the machine learning applications and are used to:
-
Determine buying patterns of consumers
-
Provide insights for building accurate actuarial modeling for insurers
-
Personalised digital and social media ads
-
Detect insurance claim fraud
-
Identify credit fraud
-
Get more insights from warranty data, predicting safety and quality issues in manufacturing industry
Cognitive Engagement
This type of AI is probably the smartest, gaining momentum with each passing day, but still needs to get it’s due popularity. This helps in better understanding of customers, engaging with employees and there are a number of mediums like chat bots, intelligent agents. Let us see what this category can do:
-
24x7 intelligent agents for customer service, solving a wide range of problems like technical support, general questions, password regeneration, all in the customer’s natural language
Intelligent agents for employees, addressing a number of issues like IT support, employee support, HR policy, benefits etc.
Product or service recommendation based on buying traits and interests
Creating customized health care packages based on individual’s health issues and past ailments and treatments
Despite the fast adaptation of cognitive technologies, companies still face challenges in implementation of the correct AI tool and strategy for business transformation. Experimenting with projects that combine the three above mentioned categories can be significantly beneficial for many companies, if they are open to experimentation. The integration of AI tools is not the hardest part, creating the necessary strategy based out of it is the most relevant. Asking some basic and self reflective questions like, do I actually need AI? Or what problems do I need to resolve to achieve business goals? Can save you a lot of time, effort and money.
Abhishek is an Entrepreneur, Digital Strategy Consultant, Software Architect, Marketing Geek, Angel Investor, and a Visionary. A technology guy turned entrepreneur in his teens, Abhishek founded INT. (Indus Net Technologies) in the year 1997. INT. is an award-winning digital-first enterprise offering simple and sustainable digital solutions with the confluence of technology, analytics and marketing, INT is the trusted partner of fastest-growing Agencies, SMEs and Startups across 20+ countries.