How Artificial Intelligence Has Changed The Face of Business World

MILA JONES
Towards Data Science
5 min readAug 16, 2018

The AI industry has moved into the mainstream of business and technology integration.

AI is no longer a phenomenon that is going to happen to small businesses somewhere in the future — it is already here. Business owners and management staff can take advantage of these innovations in the business world right now because waiting for AI to come to them mean being left behind in the progress of a business. AI can help with nearly every aspect of the business, including mobility, marketing and advertising, customer service and security.

Artificial Intelligence

Superior Enterprise Mobility Through AI

AI also allows employees to work in other locations outside the office, and still remain in contact with the office. For example, through AI, employees can share documents, information, financial work, marketing, and other information through the cloud. The mobility factor means that people in the office can be on location, they can work from home, or from a different location, but everyone on the team is still able to contact each other to answer questions and collaborate. The increase in mobility means that employees can work at any time from anywhere. Research has demonstrated that when employees are able to work from different locations, they report being much happier, and they demonstrate increased productivity.

Marketing and Advertising

AI has changed the way that customers receive advertising and marketing information. Anyone who has been on social media knows of the role AI plays in marketing. For example, if a customer searches a business on Google, ads for that business may appear on their social media feeds, without them asking for them, because AI is able to identify someone’s past searches and use the history of searches for targeted advertising.

AI is also vital to business who are selling products and services because it is able to bring customers to the business through targeted ads and search histories. AI gathers important data online and can point out ways that the business can increase traffic to the website, as well as store locations.

Increased Efficiency and Higher Precision at Lower Costs

The increase in companies who use AI can only mean one thing — that AI has changed the efficiency and the rate at which tasks are one. As discussed earlier, AI’s role within a business is to increase the amount of automation that businesses have previously left to employees. For example, in the 1990s, people were employed to enter data from invoices that the company had to pay into a computer, and then an employee ran a check writing program that would do a check run once a week or so to pay the invoices that the company owed to someone else. A completely different employee would then take the checks that the company received from other companies and enter them manually into a ledger program, then take the checks to the bank. However, with AI, a computer is able to generate invoices from data received from the business with no input, and then deposits invoiced paid electronically, while paying others electronically as well, and posting both sides to its ledger, so employees can view it.

AI needs no coffee break, and does not take off for Christmas, which means that it is able to generate data, retrieve information and analyze it for employees to view and act on when they arrive, or when vacations and holidays are over.

AI and Robotics At the Workplace Means Better Customer Service and Support

While robotics will not erase all of the jobs in the world, as doomsayers constantly predict, there are tasks where robots and advanced computer programming can automate tasks. For example, businesses that use phone systems with AI voice are able to have customers receive service and have many of their questions answered without talking to a human, which makes the customers feel their concerns have been addressed and allows employees who are working with customer service to help customers with the more complex problems that need human intervention. In addition, robotics in the workplace allows repetitive tasks to be completed through computer or robot intervention, while the unpredictable tasks can be completed by a human.

Help to Integrate and Consolidate Business Operations

AI helps businesses to consolidate their business fields. While described in brief above, there are other ways that businesses can be integrated, and that is through the use of AI combined with cloud technology. With AI and the cloud, business information and files do not have to be kept in multiple places, but instead they can be kept in the cloud, which means not only can multiple people view the files, but there is no searching for files, or an office freakout because a file is missing, because the information is available using cloud technology. In addition, daily business processes can be streamlined, with fewer individuals doing the same job — leaving individuals within the office to specialize in a particular area of the business.

Stronger Cyber Security

AI also increases the security of the company when combined with cloud technology. AI is able to spot threats online or within the servers and warn technology and security personnel either before the breach happens, or as it is happening. The notion of AI helping companies be more secure is especially important, given that hackers not only cost companies millions in the loss of information but also in customer mistrust when the hack reveals personal information of millions of customers. For that reason, businesses are increasingly looking to AI to help plug holes in their security.

AI can be a little scary, especially if a business has trouble giving up control of all of their business processes to a computer. However, with a little flexibility, and a little work, businesses can put AI to work for them. AI can simplify and automate many aspects of a business, from customer service phone calls to office procedures to marketing, even to closing the sale. AI is no longer a way to say that a business is tech savvy. It is rapidly becoming a vital part of how business is done in the second decade of the 21st century.

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Towards Data Science
Towards Data Science

Published in Towards Data Science

Your home for data science and AI. The world’s leading publication for data science, data analytics, data engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence professionals.

MILA JONES
MILA JONES

Written by MILA JONES

Mila Jones is a Senior Business Consultant, With rich experience in the domains of technology consulting and strategy.Twitter: @miilajones

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