Artificial intelligence is integrating into our everyday lives, but with that come fears about job losses and a ‘big brother’ nation. We take a closer look at the potential benefits of AI to your business.
Let’s start with the facts. AI isn’t a new thing. In fact, it’s been around for quite a few years, but now that it’s here in the palm of our hands, it’s causing quite a stir. AI is, simply put, programming a computer to think like us humans, and that comes in many forms.
AI in the Workplace
- Use 1: Virtual chat bot allows your company to be responsive 24/7
According to a recent study conducted by Desk.com, when millennials send a message via social media to a company, over 22% expect a response within 10 minutes.* This means that if it’s 9:30pm on a Tuesday evening, the chances are nobody is going to be in the office to respond to that customer, which leads to our next statistic. If customers don’t find the answer they’re looking for in this time, around 52% of customer will abandon their online purchase. Nobody wants that and businesses worldwide have taken this on board, with many of them already introducing a virtual chat bot assistant to reply and solve their customer’s queries, allowing them to be responsive and engaging with their audience 24/7.
IBM said “2017 is set to be a defining year for conversational commerce. According to Gartner, nearly $2 billion (£1.5 Billion) online sales will have been performed exclusively through mobile digital assistants in 2016.” This goes to show just how much Artificial Intelligence is helping businesses already.
- Use 2: AI market intelligence learns about your customers so you can provide a better service
AI is making waves by collecting market intelligence online with big companies such as Bloomberg and Uber learning from their customers. There is HR AI technology that has the ability to analyse your market place, find you potential candidates, keep your candidates engaged, help you communicate in a consistent way, all the while learning so that it can give you better results in the future. This will free up departments to focus on development, strategy, and working on retaining your current staff. Not only that, but it will help improve efficiency and accuracy, decreasing the chances of human error. Think of AI as an assistant, it’s here to give us a helping hand.
- Use 3: Technology monitors locations to reduce risk and increase efficiency
Many businesses are using AI to take some of the risk out of their business, and to make them more efficient. Energy firm, Engie are using a combination of drone and AI imaging to inspect its infrastructure such as gas turbines and wind turbines, predicting maintenance, and preventing damages in the future. EDF Energy are considering using AI to make their nuclear power stations more efficient.
- Use 4: Warehouse and delivery management streamlines businesses processes
As businesses look to streamline their processes, supermarkets such as Tesco are embracing the technology. AI can manage driver routing, and order shopping through home products such as Alexa.
Conclusion
It’s a given that Artificial Intelligence is going to change the way we work, but that isn’t a bad thing. Yes, it may replace some jobs, but the number of job opportunities will rise significantly at the same time. We should take it, run and embrace the future of the workplace.
Take a look at which jobs are most and least at risk of automation here. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/26/jobs-future-automation-robots-skills-creative-health
You can also download our Whitepaper here to find out more about automation in the workplace and whether your job is at risk.
*Source - https://www.ibm.com/blogs/watson/2017/01/customer-service-millennials*Source - http://www.computerworlduk.com/galleries/it-business/uses-of-ai-machine-learning-in-business-3639749