Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the main driving force for change in the way organisations do business in the modern world. It is transforming a multitude of sectors all around the world, having an impact on businesses of all sizes. It provides an abundance of opportunity as well as some challenges that must be overcome.
The Impact of AI on the Business World
Learning the impact AI is having on business is important to find ways you could implement it. Here are some of the primary ways that AI is changing business.
Interpreting Big Data
Big data has been an important part of business for some time. It can enable us to explore new markets, develop strong business strategies, promote products, reach customers and enhance workflows. The collection, processing and analysis of data is important in all sectors, and it can be collected from:
- Cookies.
- Customer surveys.
- Social media.
- Browsing activity.
AI helps gain new insights from big data to create predictive analytics. With huge volumes of data, the results of this analysis become more accurate. This enables businesses to forecast the thoughts and activities of a customer ahead of time, personalising the service to every customer and improving experiences. You can learn more about data management in our article What is data management and why it is important?
Greater Automation
AI and automation are revolutionary for businesses. It also throws up a challenge because automation can be a threat to certain jobs. By taking processes and workflows out of human hands, there is the risk that human resources may be cut back in many departments and industries. For those that remain, their work may be changed and they will learn to use AI to help their work.
The AI revolution is also creating many jobs that revolve around programming and controlling systems. People can upskill to access new opportunities here, and businesses everywhere can benefit from the improvements to efficiency and profitability the technology brings.
More Personalisation
AI enables businesses to personalise their offerings to every customer for an improved experience. AI has enabled users to request products using just their voices, and it is offering more and more streamlined tech solutions for accessing services and products.
What’s more, the enhanced data analysis and algorithms mean that customer behaviour can be understood more comprehensively. This leads to more targeted marketing towards the individual, making it easy for customers to find what they need.
Improved Cybersecurity
The quantity and quality of cybersecurity threats out there are always evolving. This is no longer a problem that humans can keep up with, and AI tools are becoming invaluable in protecting against the risk of ever more sophisticated attacks.
It may seem counterintuitive to rely on software to improve the security of software, but many cybersecurity data breaches in businesses happen due to human error. AI is effective at filtering our threatening emails before employees can open them, minimising the risk of spam and phishing attacks.
Cutting Costs
As a modern solution, you may be surprised at just how affordable AI tools are. As AI improves in its effectiveness and reliability, it becomes more affordable for business implementation. In many cases, it is more cost-effective than a larger human workforce, as it can answer most customer service queries and reserve only the most complex questions to a human expert.
By eliminating mundane, repetitive tasks from human workflows and boosting overall productivity, it becomes increasingly attractive for business implementations.
Enhanced UX Research
It is expected that AI will transform User Experience (UX) research in the near future via low- to no-code tools. These will enable researchers to access powerful AI capabilities like transcribing between languages to make cross-linguistic research easier.
And computer vision will help identify themes and patterns in photos and videos, while network analysis will help researchers interpret online networks and relationships in chunks of text.
All of this amounts to improvements in researchers’ capabilities. They will collect, analyse and interpret data more efficiently, leading to new discoveries for UX.
Revamped Search Engine Marketing
AI could transform the way search engines work, answering simple queries natively with an AI engine to reduce the importance of search engine traffic. This has been building up over recent years as no-click content has replaced the need to access websites to find simple answers to queries.
As AI is implemented at scale across the major search engines, it could nullify much of the traffic that websites gain from search engine queries. This will be a major turning point in the ways businesses use search engines for marketing.
What challenges does AI bring to businesses?
The benefits of AI in the business world are diverse. But it does present some challenges that companies need to be aware of. People outside of your organisation can use the technologies to try to trick you in various ways, so you need to be prepared for this.
Difficulty in Assessing Employee Applications
With free access to AI that generates text, candidates for positions in organisations can use the software to generate cover letters and even complete assessment tasks sent by employers.
Something like ‘fingerprint’ technology that recognises AI-generated text could be a solution to this problem. But, for the time being, HR managers have to deploy different AI checkers to discern whether candidates are using software to cheat their way to succeeding in assessments.
Final Thoughts on AI for Business
The impacts of Artificial Intelligence in the business world are far-reaching and exciting, with many big changes on the horizon. It is important to be clued in about what is happening now and what is likely to happen next. Only then will you be primed to leverage the full benefits of emerging technologies to maintain a competitive edge in your market.
The ways we work, the things we can do with data, and our engagement with customers and marketing are all being revolutionised as we speak. These are changes that you simply cannot afford to ignore, because many old ways of doing things will soon be obsolete. Look for opportunities to implement AI solutions in your business to prepare yourself for what’s to come in this swiftly-evolving landscape.
