Did you know that 38% of companies around the world are already using artificial intelligence (A.I.) to improve the performance of their business? In fact, if you’re using Facebook “Insights” to monitor your social media page, or Google Analytics to make decisions about your website, then you are already using A.I., too. Many of the world’s leading companies, including Mastercard, Deloitte and IBM are using A.I. more and more as “smart” software not only reduces the time spent of boring, repetitive tasks, but it can help you to understand your business and your clients better.
So, what is A.I.? It’s not actually software which thinks for itself. Rather, it is a program designed to do automate a recurring, sometimes very complex, job, so that you can free up your employees to focus on other tasks.
For example, many businesses today serve thousands, if not millions, of customers. Storing all this data requires money, but what do we do with it then? It can be overwhelming to try and organize all this data, let alone try to understand it. A.I. software can use a predefined set of parameters to search, organise and present data in easy-to-read graphs in minutes, helping you spot key trends with your customers, which you can use to make beneficial business decisions.
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Similarly, smart software can also be used to monitor and maintain machinery and physical hardware. Many servers have temperature sensors to monitor the processor’s temperature, and manufacturing machinery requires regular maintenance. If the hardware fails, production stops, and the business loses money. A.I. software, such as DataRPM’s Cognitive Predictive Maintenance Platform, can monitor hardware to ensure it is working at maximum capacity. It can even schedule and remind workers when maintenance is due, identify potentially faulty parts, and make real-time decisions in the event of emergencies.
One of the biggest selling points of A.I., we think, is that it allows you to move your employees off long, tedious tasks, to focus on building the business. Companies like ING Bank and Vodafone now use chatbots to help their clients 24/7. Instead of speaking to a person, the A.I. analyses the customer’s questions, picks out the key words, and searches a database of responses to provide the most helpful answer. Sage have even done this with the world’s first accounting chatbot, Pegg, combining the benefits of chatbots with data mining to help users predict and control their finances. Meanwhile, other A.I. software can even help you to hire new, highly skilled employees by writing and posting job listings for you based on your requirements, or searching social media sites for people with the skills your business needs.
So, whether it is using Facebook’s “Insights” to understand how your customers are engaging with your products and services, from their age and location to the posts they “like” the most, to mining data to find and predict industry trends, A.I. means making software work for you and your business!
