Imagine a world that has full integration of Artificial intelligence in business. It makes you wonder, has AI come to stay?
Well, you can answer, Yes!
We live in an era where industries and small companies are always seeking new ways to establish their brand and capture market share. Businesses with the right strategies and innovative products enjoy the revenue share. While there are many emerging technologies all over the business industry, artificial intelligence, machine learning and the internet of things are three crucial elements today.
AI in business might sound like a Sci-Fi movie, but it has been influencing your everyday life in ways beyond your awareness. And with so much investment in AI, it’s shocking to discover that many companies lack technology infrastructure and a clear strategy for their AI to function.
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Benefits of AI in Business
Industries or companies that implement AI technology will become more diverse. They’ll be strengthened with the ability to detect fraud, have high-class customer relationship management, and analyze data across multiple functionalities.
Artificial intelligence in business helps in a human-like fashion to find solutions to complex business problems. It is just like adopting certain characteristics from human intelligence and implementing them in a computer-friendly way as algorithms.
In the business world today, AI is the most trending technological term, and also for most business leaders, it remains a little more than curiosity.
With AI automation into many complex business processes, work hours can be reduced and the human brain can be better utilized in more creative areas of the business like innovation, researching, and brainstorming.
How AI in Business is Making Things work
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Gives customer insights & analyze the market
When it comes to analyzing markets and customers, implementing AI in your business will hit the bull’s eye. You can apply predictive analysis with the data generated from the web matrix, system matrix, and social media to create a better and enhanced product. You can as well take customer experience to a whole new level through customer insights.
For start-ups, AI plays an incredible role by enabling you to explore different opportunities to function on various thought processes and innovate new solutions for the growth of their business. Also, through regular quality checks, predictive maintenance assists start-ups in cost reduction on maintenance.
Most AI-based systems optimize marketing strategies that provide effective marketing tools for your business that can help reduce marketing expenditures and also eliminate unlikely customers from your list of potential customers.
Most businesses are online because most of their customers are on social media. You can use AI to understand important data mining techniques to analyze traffic on different social media platforms, identify effective influencers, and also classify social media marketing methods.
Read also: Best social media platforms for digital marketing
Artificial intelligence software is so powerful because they adapt when market behaviour changes and also continuously improves performance as more data is acquired.
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Effective sales process
Sales techniques and methods have moved beyond cold calling and sending long emails. Consumers are now influenced by various types of media from TV advertisements to social media ads. With AI, you can create a sales pitch that will reach your target audience on the right platform and at the right time. An efficient AI-driven CRM multitasks and also handles all your business functionalities.
Sales teams are using AI to gain better insights about their customers so they can offer personalized solutions. Also, e-commerce companies are using AI to send questions out to their buyers so they can customize products based on preferences. This method can also increase the chances of a conversion taking place.
Artificial intelligence in business transforms the sales processes by enabling customers to get tailored solutions to their problems. This results in faster conversion for companies.
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Personalized user experience
Artificial intelligence can analyze vast data effectively allowing business owners to offer a personalized experience to their customers. AI can quickly and easily identify patterns in buying preferences, credit scores, and past buying history. You can analyze millions of data every day to offer personalized services to users.
You can also analyze customer buying behaviour through actionable sales intelligence to allow businesses to create a top-notch customer engagement.
Through AI-driven applications, you can tailor the sales cycle to allow businesses to engage with the right content to the right audience at the right time. AI also helps brands identify prospects who are more likely to buy their products or services, making the entire sales process a smooth ride.
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Easing supply chain and inventory management
With the help of AI, inventory management is far easier. Use AI software for optimizing the supply chain, automating refilling and re-checking requests. The software can detect, note and predict movements in these areas. This will in turn increase sales for your business.
Read also: Online or offline business in Nigeria
3 Disadvantages of Using Artificial Intelligence in Business and Ways to Navigate Them
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Technology overload
The innovation of technology isn’t slowing down. Some eager executives are constantly moving to mandate the use of new tools and processes. The truth is that many of the IT teams are already stretched thin managing connectivity, data quality projects, and cyber security, among other essential priorities.
This makes it seem like AI only makes things complex. But it’s just another system; another layer of tech to manage. And it can be a godsend making the lives of IT practitioners a lot easier.
Executives can do these two things to make sure automation projects don’t cause unnecessary stress:
- Fail Fast and Try Again: There is no one-size-fits-all method, different business departments will use AI in different ways. Identify which of your business processes needs automation technologies and assess the best method to accomplish this. If it fails, learn from it. Brainstorm why the project didn’t work and gather data on what to try next. For most businesses, technology is a journey and everyone will need to move at their own pace.
- Go for an open ecosystem: Favor an open ecosystem in your business to enable you to build standard-based and multi-user solutions so you can provide the best and quality products and services that fit your brand’s needs.
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Giving way to software
With the significant investment into automation technology, there is still a healthy level of skepticism especially with artificial intelligence in business. This is partly due to the fear of automation technology replacing humans and the uncertainty of how humans and machine intelligence can evolve together to create meaningful business outcomes.
Understandably, people don’t want machines and software to take over everyday life. But automation is not here to do that, it’s here to assist.
Deploy automation to handle monotonous and routine tasks like troubleshooting, configuration, and optimization. That way, humans will focus on higher-level projects requiring greater decision-making skills, intelligence and creativity.
Business executives can address company-wide uncertainty and convey the benefits automation technology provides. Here are two approaches to consider:
- Start small: Instead of giving away total control to software overnight, why not consider an iterative, programmatic method to automation? You can start by automating manual administrative tasks that save the team the most time. Then, level up to larger automated workflows as employees become comfortable with the technology.
- Give some accolades and acknowledge progress: Identify those things that are now possible and weren’t possible before with successful teams. This includes expanded business offerings, cost savings, or time savings, all of which allow employees to focus more on growth strategies and creative initiatives.
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The skills crisis
Automation will in no way eliminate the need for human intelligence. Instead, it will improve on what employees do daily. Strong businesses and their employees evolve with technological advancement and of course, will require new expertise that may be quite difficult to find.
Businesses can consider these two techniques to bridge the skills gap:
- Prioritize training and upskilling: Some organizations will go for recruiting new, full-time employees with specialized expertise. Why not focus on upskilling your existing employees by training them on how to navigate new automation tools? This training will enrich professional development and expand employee capabilities. It will also ensure adequate understanding of how old technology and new automation methods fit together.
- Outsource when in doubt: To find the best solution for your business, look out for expert opinions and trusted advisors like consultants, analysts, and industry leaders. By outsourcing the management of your automation projects, you can continue to modernize your daily operations as you seek new talent and train existing employees.
Read also: How to grow your business in Nigeria
Artificial Intelligence in Business: The New Normal
Automation in business is here to stay. Many organizations have already taken significant steps to adopt remarkable technologies and services. So embrace automation if you want to thrive. Look forward to its challenges, and recognize the need for foundational infrastructure and strategy to support it.
Other resources to help you understand the role of AI in businesses, especially in Nigeria, are:
- The adoption of AI for business development on The Guardian
- “Can AI help to stabilize the Nigerian currency?” on Nairametrics
- Artificial intelligence is transforming our world on Punch, Nigeria
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About Author
- Jummai Bello is a Content Strategist, Copywriter, Business Coach and Author. She has worked with various brands and businesses ranging from entrepreneurship, beauty, lifestyle and many more to create high-quality, valuable content to connect with prospects, educate and drive sales. You can check out more of her work on LinkedIn
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