AI: Generating Value for Enterprises
With the uptake in machine learning innovation over the past few years, several companies are still largely watching and not implementing this transformative technology.
Through the advent of messaging apps, the nature of communication has changed over the years, clearly providing a shift in the way we share things with each other — We’re getting more comfortable with communicating like this in our personal lives and forcefully pushing this requirement onto businesses to adapt in order for us to shop seamlessly – whether it be a service we’re looking for or just simply shopping for a product.
Hiding in the shadows of the machine learning world are chatbots which have the potential to improve the customer experience and reduce employee workload, but some medium to large businesses still lack the agility, the understanding or resources to keep up-to-date with these new trends. So, when will these companies embrace these trends and get comfortable with this new technology? Perhaps when customer loyalty starts to wane.
With advances in AI, can this technology be used to help customer support teams to better manage their service requests? In a nut shell; tools like chatbots can be very efficient at automating easy conversations and simple requests and can reduce resource overload in customer service departments. There are however some caveats in getting started with chatbots. First companies need to consider the following:
What they need; The value preposition; The product development resources and connectivity – How the chatbots will connect with the right customer segment on the relevant platform i.e. online, emails, text messages or IM
Having the right best practice in place and an efficient customer support segment and utilising these chatbots successfully to enhance the customer satisfaction can lead to a higher ROI. But ultimately the upside of AI is that this technology can be used in many other areas of the business as well.
And further Integrating these systems with the right implementation partners who understand this technology, will be crucial not only in a successful implementation, but also ensuring that the systems are fit for purpose. There is no point in having a badly implemented state of the art system that will slowly drive customers to your competitors.
Business processes need to be less cumbersome and less manually driven and more automated and portable to improve cost and allow your employees to get on with what makes your business viable. In the long run companies will be striving to maintain or improve employee productivity to be able to lead the company to an achievable competitive advantage. Accurate mappings of your key business processes will give you the ROI your business will be aiming for.
Re-mapping processes and understanding how predictive analysis with machine learning works, will also help businesses better predict how their market segments will behave in the future. To get this right, businesses need to be aware of how their data is sorted, where and how accurate the data is – data integrity, and how it is stored, maintained and accessed.
Technologically savvy organisations are quickly moving to increase their use of, artificial intelligent / machine learning to analyse human behaviour so that algorithms used in apps can predict what users want and when they want it. These apps make activities like ordering groceries, watching movies, and listening to music more convenient.
Entertainment providers are using AI to assess your shopping habits to recommend items you may like – For instance, Social media providers use targeted Ads or make recommendations for anything that you have searched for while logged in with your account. Google Play also offers customized recommendations, whether you’re looking for a new app or searching for music, etc.
It’s a given that automated Machine learning technologies are being incorporated into mainstream software at an exponential rate, which will lead to a significant impact on business and society. Large corporates are currently testing drones to deliver goods and transport people and algorithms can and will take the place of professionals in performing AI directed intellectual tasks.
There is vast potential in how Machine learning can be used, and this can be clearly visible with the likes of Facebook, Google, Netflix, and uber ride-sharing services who all in some form or another employ AI algorithms to increase business efficiency, by offering customers top quality and timely services.
Nowhere else is there a more significant uptake in AI technology, then in the development of self-driving cars where Autonomous car technology can adapt immediately to changing conditions and learn from new situations. Most car manufacturers, which include Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, and Tesla are investing billions of dollars to integrate AI technology to hasten the uptake of technology so that cars can replace drivers and increase road safety – but there are barriers to adoption.
Driven by digitalisation, more and more data are being collected about people, transactions and our environment through both governments and organisations alike. With Data-driven innovation occurring unknowingly behind the scenes across many fields, algorithms are making many of our daily decisions for us.
It will be difficult predict the speed or scope of data-enabled innovation and to what extent individuals will entrust algorithms to make major life decisions, such as where to work, what supercity to live in, where to shop etc.
Only those organisations and individuals that have a broad understanding of the changes in industry and society will be able to gather, use and perform competitor monitoring and market analysis, and further process information about their companies future operating environment. This information will include, for example, trends and developments in their political, economic, social, technological, and legal environments.
To be successful in the digital economy, requires the ability to be alert, flexible, less manual process driven, highly automated and highly customer focused to maintain competitive advantage and ensure customer loyalty.
Change is a given and adjusting the culture of your organization accordingly to get the culture right is important, as is in identifying the key drivers of change and monitor them systematically. Businesses need to understand why critical thinking is an absolute must and start implementing it in their future approach.
AI is making life easier and safer.
It is poised to transform many other aspects of everyday life in the future. And the most asked question will be: Will AI take our jobs? Essentially whoever has adopted new innovations needs IT support in order to use them effectively. But what about the rest of the world’s population?
There isn’t an exact answer to this question. It will ultimately come down to anything including, how quickly the uptake is, affordability and how stable future economic markets will be, employee adaptably and the speed of shift, from a risk to an opportunity mindset and whether this new Technology is used for good, rather than bad.
In the long run these technologies could contribute to huge productivity growth, but benefits are likely to be unevenly shared across society.
