Can AI benefit your business?
by Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — online documentation tool
In the last couple of years we’ve seen rise of AI-powered technologies and with each day more and more businesses implement AI into their products. It’s logical — though being kind of limited yet, AI can do many tasks that will simplify your workflow and benefit your business in other ways, sometimes unexpected. I bet you want that too. But before you go ahead and do it — ask yourself whether you really need it.
The first step you will need to do is determine whether improvements can be done at all. Maybe everything is running smoothly in your area and there’s no need for changing what’s already working. And if there are areas that need improving, consider if AI is the solution. Maybe things can be improved by simpler means — management and stuff. Then you need to talk to the tech guys on how easy can AI be integrated into the existing ecosystem. And if pros overweight cons, then you probably should pilot that technology — otherwise you won’t be able to calculate the benefits precisely.
But come on, it still sounds kinda vague — AI in business. We all understand (I hope), that it’s no magical solutions and won’t be anything like we see in the movies — no robots will do your work for you. So what can AI do? What actual problems does AI help solving nowadays?
Improving customer experience
First and foremost — customer experience. After all, a business’ goal is to make its customers happy. There are numerous ways Ai can help with that.
For example, let’s take chatbots/virtual assistants. You probably have encountered them at some point in your life. The most common use case is customer support. Few years ago, when you contacted support (via chat or email — doesn’t really matter here), a tier 1 specialist gathered your information and tried to figure out your problem, so either they can provide you with a standard solution or forward to tier 2 specialist. Nowadays, when you contact support you’ll most likely ‘speak’ with a chatbot first. There are simple ones, that recognize certain keywords and either provide you with links to a user manual or connect with a support specialist. But there are those that have AI behind them, and in this case they can act in a more sophisticated way and actually narrow down your problem to a point that they can connect you with tier 2 (or even tier 3/4) specialist right away, and that specialist will already have most of the info needed for a problem resolution.
They also provide a good amount of case deflection. More often than not users tend to contact support (and they have every right to do so) with trivial questions like “How do I upload an image?”. And instead of making a customer wait on a support specialist to answer them, search documents for the instruction on how to upload images and send that over, a virtual assistant can do that in a matter of seconds.
What’s even better — chatbots do not need time to sleep, so even when your support stuff is not working, people will still be getting the help they need (or at least know that their request has been received and will be answered soon).
How about another example? Your flight has been cancelled. It will take time for a flight company employee to pull up a passenger manifest, get your contact info, and send you the notification about flight cancellation. And if each of, let’s say, 200 people will immediately start calling the airport and inquire about the next available flight and what to do in this situation — this can take plenty of time, considering there may not be that many employees who deal with customers. But the AI-powered system will detect the flight cancellation on its own, and notify all the passengers in a matter of seconds. Moreover, it will gather the necessary information like the next flight time and date, refund policy, etc. And this will probably answer most of the questions for passengers. Yes, some of them still might call the airport, but the number of calls will be significantly lower.
Another part of improving customer experience is creating a custom, tailored experience for each of the clients. AI can suggest goods based on previous purchases, like suggesting buying another coffee bag, because it calculated that the previous one the user bought should have almost ended by this time. And I’m not talking about the more obvious ways of personalization, like a personalized news feed or content suggestions.
Automating workflow
While talking about customer experience, I’ve touched the topic of automation — and it’s really a huge area of AI implementation. Sending documents to corresponding departments and people based not on simple conditional logic, but on real life cases — that can be done. Automatically routing service requests based on the data received from smart sensors? Check. And how about intelligent spam filters, email categorization, filling a support ticket with the description received from a client (and the client called, not written this — so a voice to text feature) and routing it to a support specialist? Yes, AI can be used for all this as well.
We can go further with this. AI can actually use image recognition to monitor and optimize your infrastructure, planning optimal transport routes for the best delivery possible.
Gaining insight
No, I’m not gonna tell you that you don’t need a marketing department, but still, some of the work that will require countless man-hours can be done by AI in a matter of minutes.
Such a system can generate valuable business and marketing insight by analyzing millions of data points automatically. AI can help you interpret and mine your data in a more efficient way.
What’s the catch?
“So, if everything is so perfect, why not go for it?” — you might ask.
First of all, as I’ve already said — not every business and not every area can benefit from using AI-powered systems. You need careful planning and consideration before you even think about implementing it. It will require a lot of research.
Secondly, it will be costly. No, I mean COSTLY. The technology is pretty sophisticated, so to tailor it to your needs, to integrate it into your system is a large task and will not come cheap. And its implementation can take a very long time. And even longer before you start seeing any benefits. Yes, in its current state AI is super-fast in performing tasks it already knows, but to teach it something new takes a lot of time.
And last, but not the least — do not forget that despite AI helping people, they still prefer human touch. Talking to a real human feels more natural and people still tend to think that their problem will be resolved faster if actual people are involved.
As you can see, AI is not a panacea for making your business all shiny. It will require a good amount of work on your side and careful planning. But in an ideal situation, it can help to boost your productivity, improve customer experience and be good for your business overall.
Have a nice day!
Bradley Nice,
Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — best online documentation tool for SaaS vendors
