Apple’s Secret Weapon For Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

While visionaries fret over AI enslavement, savvy business leaders look to Apple to redirect machines in their favor using the power of Custom Apps.

While both Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking fear the arrival of a future superintelligence that could enslave us all, today’s business leaders and entrepreneurs are specifically focusing on solving twin threats to their long-term survival posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI):

Threat Level: Maximum

Threat #1: Scattered, Unstructured Data Online and Offline

Threat #2: AI disrupting their industry through massive data consumption.

The story begins way back in 1998, when the legendary Steve Jobs delivered two bombshells that year, shaking up the industry and laying the foundations for a future computing world where business owners could grow their operations in record time.

Alpha Bomb

One of his first actions was to reabsorb a struggling software development unit, Claris, back into its ecosystem. It renamed this entity Filemaker and focused its mission statement on producing small business database software that would, like all Apple products, be easy-to-use, configure, and deploy across all business functions including contact management, inventory management, and scheduling, to name a few.

Beta Bomb

The second bomb he dropped later that year was the release of the critically acclaimed iMac, whose drastic and revolutionary hardware redesign can not be understated. Notably, the “i” stood for “Internet” and “Innovation”, and reflected Steve Job’s strategic vision to one day fully tap into the future cloud and coming revolution in data analytics.

While his fortunes briefly waned when he was ousted from Apple at age 30, the foundations had been set for a new business arena where custom applications connected to the Internet would be a critical tool in allowing CEOs, business managers, office admins and citizen developers to scale their operations quickly with minimal effort.

When the iPhone, iPad and “There is an App For That” further plugged us into the web, there was a growing realization that a company’s future success depended on its ability to use the cloud to improve back-office operations, and also better service customers (and partners).

It has also had another unexpected result:

It lead to a data explosion which pushed the boundaries of computer chip design (ARM Architecture) and the size of data centers which stored and analyzed our behaviors online. Each time we used our phone to post comments on Facebook or buy a book on Amazon, this information is stored and analyzed by machines in the cloud.

Over time it became obvious that the companies with the most data could develop better apps and user experiences for their clients. This is why, for instance, Amazon has become a world leader in not only book sales but also web services and soon, grocery sales. And, why Google is building self-driving cars based on the way people will interact with the cloud in the future. The data accumulation (and related business insights) became springboards for new product and service development.

The New Electricity

The “electricity” powering these disruptive changes is sometimes called Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) which feeds off the underlying data and teaches itself new ways to make sense of this data and what action the company should take next.

This ability for machine recursive learning or “an algorithm teaching itself new tricks” is what’s so worrying to not only visionaries such as Elon Musk but also our own software development company, PK Solutions, who understand the risks to smaller businesses and entrepreneurs who are not ready to take advantage of latent data related to their business operations.

In fact, collectively our entire team has been astonished by the advances in AI over the last two years. While everyone may have heard that Google’s DeepMind team steered a machine learning program called AlphaGo to victory over one of Asia’s top GO players — an astonishing feat many thought impossible — we’re also seeing new threats (and opportunities) posed by the blockchain and the rise of so-called “smart software contracts” which could further disrupt the legal, hospitality, realty and healthcare sectors by automating many of the tasks performed by humans.

The Under Prepared

Many small business owners are not ready for this revolution in AI, especially if you consider that most of their data remains scattered across offline systems in the form of spreadsheets, whiteboards, clipboards, and messy filing systems.

Any data they do get into desktop software is usually dispersed or duplicated amongst several off-the-shelf packages and often not connected to the cloud or accessible on a mobile or tablet device. Further much of this data is unstructured making it more difficult to search by keyword, tag or field name, AND build new database functionality above it.

The upshot?

Poor workflows that don’t meet your needs or reflect the way your business operates. These inefficiencies also mean you are less nimble than larger competitors who are busy streamlining their office operations with custom software that works across phones, tablets and desktops — all connected via the cloud.

Additionally, their ability to accumulate data as to how customers interact and use their products (and services) will arguably give them the same power as Facebook and Google to discern trends and behaviors which are the basis for new packages that drive ROI and growth.

And, yes, these insights will be powered by AI algorithms which many believe will determine whether your business is profitable (or still around) in the next 5–10 years.

While we have painted a scary picture above, we must thank Steve Jobs for giving entrepreneurs a tool — no, a weapon — for both streamlining company operations into a scalable database AND tapping into the power of the coming AI revolution that feeds off real-time BIG cloud data.

While many are seduced by the slick marketing and enterprise offerings of cloud CRM systems such as Salesforce.com, Filemaker has been a silent, steady champion and workhorse of business owners who now number over 1 million users worldwide.

By our estimations, teams can save over 27 calendar days of wasted productivity by centralizing their operations in a database that offers custom screens for contact management, inventory, scheduling, and more . We can also report that at least 74% of customers who use Filemaker report an uptick in productivity. An even more telling statistic is that some companies report a 289% increase in ROI within 24 months of deploying a Filemaker database.

A recent New York Times article reveals just how powerful the Filemaker platform can become when put in the hands of an enterprising business CEO. A small car wash owner was still counting inventory by hand, even while his machines were automatically sizing and washing cards, mixing chemicals and activating pumps.

Surely, he thought, there is a better way?

After introducing the Filemaker platform tailored towards iPads, he finally had a way to train, manage and scale his remote teams according to his operational processes.

“Now we can pull up any of our sites and see what’s on hand. The database creates a PDF of a purchase order for us to send to one of our local suppliers or an online supplier,” said the owner.

But perhaps the biggest revelation was how Filemaker allows him to develop business intelligence based on incoming data. After installing sensors linked to FileMaker on each location’s eight drums of car wash chemicals, he’s now able to monitor yardsticks continuously across the entire company. This gives him access to 500 data points (previously two!) including how much much pre-soak is being used and whether its within company guidelines

“Now the new system improves quality control, and it can send a text message or email alert should, say, a valve stuck open, potentially draining a $250 drum of soap,” he said.

It should be clear to readers how this transformation in business operations is giving the owner a platform through which to build future AI software algorithms that conceivably could further automate operations and offer him new product or service channels.

In fact, this is more or less what he did:

By enhancing his FileMaker Pro inventory management system he created a spinoff division called WashStat which now sells to other car wash owners. This ability to deploy a custom app across any device connected to the cloud is blueprint for success that gives small business owners the chance to only not only survive — but to thrive.

In another example, Coastal Care Nursing, a caregiver platform in the healthcare space, leveraged our software development expertise to both implement the Filemaker platform and customize several aspects of the software to overcome limitations in offline processes, including jury-rigged paper systems, spreadsheets, and whiteboards.

By building a custom scheduling app that interfaces with several other modules, including Quickbooks, the team can now connect caregivers to patients quickly and efficiently using the power of the cloud.

“We estimate the Filemaker software along with enhancements by PK Information programming team, is saving my staff about 10 hours of lost productivity each week,” said Melissa Machado, Marketing Coordinator and Support Administrator for Coastal Care Care Nursing.

“Importantly, its allowing us to build and deploy a new concierge home health system that took very little time to develop with PK Information’s help. This will give us a decisive advantage in our industry. While we did initially look at off-the-shelf-software to run our operations, we knew that to become industry leaders we had to be able to build custom apps that reflected how we really worked internally and where we were going in the future. It’s been a stunning success.”

Recently PK Information also rolled out text messaging features for their caregivers and currently developing a Human Resources portal which will allow associates to register and create their own portfolios, even on mobile.

This will all take place within Filemaker Pro software.

All of these customs apps envisioned by the Coastal Care Nursing leadership team are built upon the first phase of Internet growth. The next phase will involve programming new AI algorithms to sift through anonymous data to construct business intelligence insights for their team, allowing them to take decisive action on what product to build or which problem to fix first.

This business intelligence will make their systems better, faster and more sophisticated, giving them more opportunities to capture market share.

Many readers would surmise that some of these custom apps built above would take several months, maybe years to build, perfect and deploy. Actually, in most cases it takes less than 90 days to get a new mobile or cloud app and running. Sometimes it may be mere weeks!

Further, most companies who use Filemaker to consolidate duplicate systems (and share access across phone and tablets) achieve payback with three months of deployment.

If you consider that Amazon, Google and larger enterprises may soon enter your industry as disrupters, the ability to use Filemaker to scale your operations so quickly and elegantly should offer some real hope and confidence that your small business can both defend and grow market share.

While our software development team has spent decades building apps in various programming and scripting languages, including Ruby, jQuery, JavaScript, and HTML/CSS, we have always maintained that Filemaker offers one of the best low-code/no-code database platforms to kickstart growth in business productivity.

This is borne out by a recent research study recognizing Filemaker as a leader with a 91% satisfaction rating, giving it the largest market presence and positive reviews among similar products in its class. This is one reason why office admins and startups love Filemaker because they can configure the initial database screens easily with little or no help from I.T departments (or programmers).

However, most of these users also later realize the invaluable power and flexibility of being able to also build out new custom apps with our help to give them an edge in their industry or tap a new market segment. Since the turnaround times are fast with extreme ROI, they welcome the opportunity to use our business and software expertise to reach a new level of growth. We in essence, become their partners in success.

We also point out to business leaders not currently using database software, the risk of being left behind by incoming AI technologies, which Accenture predicts could increase labor productivity by up to 40 percent and enable people to make more efficient use of their time. Of course, the opposite is true if CEOs and office managers fail to adopt transformative software like Filemaker, which lay the basis for collecting data and feeding future AI algorithms.

As Forbes succinctly put it, “The smartest companies right now are using AI to enhance and personalize client and staff interactions.”

Build Your Dream Business With Powerful Database Software & Custom Apps

In conclusion, the Filemaker platform offers a tangible flightpath to overcoming the debilitating aspects of scattered and unstructured data, while simultaneously also building up a business intelligence profile of staff, customers and partners, that serves as the fuel for your future AI platform. Artificial Intelligence is now the “Electricity” of the Internet and symbolizes the next layer of innovation being built upon World Wide Web. By building your own AI algorithms to both improve customer service and leverage business intelligence, the stage is set for entrepreneurs to maintain and win market share.

The gap is widening between those who are currently merging AI into their database operations versus those who choose to conduct “business as usual.”

Way back in 1998, Steve Jobs created an opening for entrepreneurs by redirecting the focus of Filemaker towards business productivity. The onus is now on YOU, business leader, to take advantage of his prescience and close the gap with larger players who are banking their future success on the ability to understand and implement AI technology.

Originally published at medium.com on February 17, 2018.