Delivering an outstanding customer experience requires a full understanding of your customers. Artificial intelligence helps you reach beyond the superficial customer profiles of the past to gain a better understanding of your customers’ needs and behaviors. Process customer data from various sources rapidly, then use automation to create a comprehensive view of your customer base.
You can even use AI to engage your customers. Engage them on their favorite channels using chatbots and knowledge engines that learn and adapt to customer demands. Free your team from frequently asked questions, so they can focus on other strategic objectives.
Artificial intelligence expands upon the original iterations of business process automation, adding human-like intelligence and decision engines to complete tasks faster and more effectively. Integrate AI into your marketing, sales, procurement, and back-office functions to reach new levels of efficiency.
Don’t let time-consuming internal processes hold you back from your growth goals. Use AI to build repeatable workflows that allow you to scale and expand to new markets.
Human error can lead to costly miscalculations regardless of your business. According to one study, 23% of unplanned downtime in manufacturing is the result of human error. It can even lead to security breaches and devastating, long-lasting impacts on your business.
AI works to eliminate human error by removing humans from processes as often as possible, where appropriate. An AI never forgets, so there’s no risk of an error resulting from a lack of knowledge or understanding. AI-assisted processes can help your team members complete challenging tasks with far less risk.
Your company can gain valuable insights by analyzing sets of data about your operations, your services or products, and your customers. AI and machine learning (ML) can help you reduce the time it takes to gather, analyze, and draw insights from your business data.
In advanced applications, this technology can even help you make predictions about customer behavior and market activity. With the right assistance, you can generate data-driven forecasts that will help you make changes to your strategies and processes.
Harvard Business Review predicted that AI would make the greatest impact in industries like marketing services, supply chain management, and manufacturing. But IT professionals and business innovators are discovering new applications for AI every year.
Uvation can help you build a customized AI strategy that could increase efficiency, enhance the customer experience, and prepare your business for the next generation of business technology.
Contact Uvation today to start exploring how AI can transform your business.
Artificial intelligence is one of the most difficult computing concepts to understand, but it’s also one of the most important pursuits in the realm of business. Part of the challenge comes from the fact that there is no agreed-upon definition of artificial intelligence. Most people assume an AI is a machine that can think like a human, but this isn’t entirely accurate.
According to the Brookings Institution, “AI is generally thought to refer to ‘machines that respond to stimulations consistent with traditional responses from humans, given the human capacity for contemplation, judgment, and intention.’” In other words, AI is a computer or program that can make decisions that would normally require a human expert.
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An AI is made up of several different computing components, some of which may already be familiar to you. Buzzwords like “deep learning” and “neural networks” can be difficult to understand in a meaningful way. To put it more simply, a system must have the following capabilities to be considered an AI:
Learning from experience, which is machine learning
Deep learning
Neural Networks
Drawing conclusions based on context, which is cognitive computing
Understanding language, which is natural language processing
Understanding images, which is perception or “computer vision”
AI can also be supported by other technologies, such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
As you can imagine, there are almost limitless potential applications for AI. We are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what this technology can do. Still, there are already plenty of ways to use AI to improve your business today.
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In a business setting, AI can be used to parse data, interact with customers, enhance security, and much more. If a process could be made more efficient through the inclusion of an intelligent machine, there is likely a good use case for AI.
One of the most recognizable applications of AI is perhaps the “smart assistants” sold by companies like Apple and Amazon (known as “Siri” and “Alexa,” respectively). These assistants respond to human voice commands to complete computing tasks that once required human intelligence. They even use computer logic to provide answers to questions, run search queries, and operate various aspects of a consumer’s home. These same capabilities can be applied to businesses, albeit with different objectives.
For example, smart assistants can answer customer queries and respond to frequently asked questions. Ecommerce platforms can provide personalized recommendations based on user data and behavior. An AI can even be integrated into the security suite to analyze incidents and identify potential threats.
As every business is unique, there are always more applications to discover. As long as your company has a powerful underlying computing infrastructure, you can likely take advantage of AI to drive real business value.
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It’s important to note that there is a common misconception about artificial intelligence and machine learning. Although they are similar, they are not the same thing. As you can see above, machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence. It’s one of the components that make AI possible.
Machine learning refers specifically to a computer’s ability to learn from experience, whereas AI refers generally to machines that can make human-like decisions.
Uvation will take a deliberate, step-by-step approach to integrate AI into your business. We’ll help you explore what possibilities are available in your industry. Then, we’ll lay out a roadmap for how you can leverage AI for real business value.
Although AI has become much more widely accessible, it still has some heavy computing requirements. If your organization is still pursuing digital transformation, you may need to take an incremental approach to adopt some capabilities of AI. We’ll do a full assessment of your current computer environment to determine what capabilities are open to you.
We’ll also work with you to determine what problems you would like to solve with AI. This is a crucial step in the planning process, as you won’t want to invest in AI without the goal of boosting specific KPIs. You may wish to add AI to your existing products and services, or you may wish to use AI to make internal processes more efficient.
Once we’ve analyzed your infrastructure and developed some use cases for AI, we’ll begin with pilot programs. We’ll also target quick wins, so you can start seeing business value sooner.
This part of the process also involves change management and introducing the concept to key stakeholders and employees. We’ll help you find advocates within your organization who can champion the change and help you build out successful pilot programs.
Once AI has been introduced to your organization and your pilot programs have yielded results, we’ll begin the overall implementation of AI at your company. We’ll focus on the applications that will produce concrete financial value in the near- and long-term.
Thankfully, there is already an abundance of AI products on the market that can be integrated with your business systems. We’ll provide suggestions as to which products will work best for your organization.
As your AI program unfolds, we’ll measure the results of your investment and identify key successes in the process. We can use these insights to drive further implementation, as well as the creation of new pilot programs.
In this step, we’ll also explore how effectively your organization is leveraging AI in its processes. If change management has been effective, your team members should already be comfortable using AI in their day-to-day activities.
Most people interact with artificial intelligence regularly in their online activities and while taking care of day-to-day tasks. It is estimated that 50% of people who encounter artificial intelligence don’t even realize they are doing so.
There is now an abundance of business applications for artificial intelligence technology, and new applications are being discovered each year. Here are just a few of the key AI technologies you could consider for your business.
A chatbot is a computer program that simulates natural conversation, either through voice commands or text.
You’ve likely seen several chatbots on business websites. You can use them to get answers to frequently asked questions, get suggestions on products and services, and even complete tasks like booking meetings.
AI is already in wide use in many communication tools. Most of these applications involve augmentation, where the AI assists a person in drafting a communication rather than replacing that person’s work entirely.
For example, some AI products can help you write emails to specific contacts based on an analysis of that prospect’s social media data and a computer-based understanding of their personality profile. They’ll help you with your message’s tone and language to get the best response possible as well.
In HR, AI can automate repetitive tasks associated with benefits management, personnel management, and frequently asked questions. This frees up HR staff to focus on more strategic objectives, such as ensuring the workforce meets future staffing needs and ensuring employees are onboarded successfully.
AI can analyze vast amounts of incident data to surface cybersecurity trends and discover common weaknesses in programs, operating systems, and infrastructure.
You can also apply some AI products directly to your cybersecurity program. When combined with a security information and event management (SIEM) system, an AI can identify risks and abnormalities in your network activity.
AI can assist procurement and supply chain professionals with efficient sourcing, cost reduction, and planning. Some AI-driven procurement solutions even use market data to identify global logistics trends and surface insights that can be used in supplier negotiations.
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