Will AI be the Key to Unlock Huge Business Growth This Year?

Published February 19, 2020   |   

With every other article in the cybersecurity hemisphere making both big and small references to the monumental impact that artificial intelligence and machine learning have had on the ongoing fight against cybercriminals are their crimes, it’s only natural that organizations start asking questions about tapping into the potential benefits that AI could offer to businesses.

As more and more enterprises ride the wave of digitization, and thereby increase their reliance on modern technologies such as cloud computing, the surface attack area available to hackers and cybercriminals increases exponentially, which further adds to the significance of enterprise owners navigating the present-day threat landscape without having to compromise on their business goals.

Fortunately, artificial intelligence presents what can only be termed as an “infinite” amount of hope to business owners, and is rightfully considered by many cybersecurity specialists to be the holy grail that unveils momentous business-centric benefits to companies.

Before we can dive off the deep end into the multiple reasons why we believe that 2020 will be the year where AI finally gets to shine through by offering businesses the opportunity to unlock huge business growth, we’d like to provide our readers a brief rundown of the historical context of the AI technology, and why it matters so much.

A Brief Historical Rundown of the Relationship Between AI and Business Owners

Although the concept of artificial intelligence was first introduced to the world way back in 1956 by John McCarthy, unfortunately, however, there is still a huge chunk of the population weary of AI and its many applications in the current IT landscape.

As we approach the dawn of a new decade, the familiarity that people have with living in a machine-operated world has increased, which has allowed many individuals to embrace the idea of working in tandem with machines that possess the ability to learn and think for themselves. On the downside, however, as more and more companies increase their reliance on AI and machine learning, they are presented with the huge challenge of convincing everyone, including their staff and the everyday customer to set aside any preconceived notions (read: fear) that they might have about AI and welcome the technology with open arms.

It is primarily because of the preconceived and irrational fear that the “machines will turn against us,” that businesses in the past have been hesitant about the complete integration of AI. Back then, organizations used to get all the information about artificial intelligence from questionable sources, at the forefront of which used to be sci-fi gibberish spawned by Hollywood, which led to business owners overlooking the promising opportunities offered by AI. Fortunately, however, the situation is changing- quite drastically.

In the 21st century, the IT and cybersecurity realms buzz with thousands of articles and videos about the latest developments in artificial intelligence, which provides business owners reliable news about the many ways through which they can rely on AI to bolster their organization and fulfill the goals that they’ve set for themselves.

Not only does the implementation of artificial intelligence helps businesses foster a more secure environment, but it also allows organizations the liberty to venture into new avenues, and focus on the business aspect of their enterprise, which unfortunately happens to be the route many organizations end up going down, given the dire state of the threat landscape amidst which most companies operate today.

How Can the Implementation of Artificial Intelligence Lead to Massive Business Growth in Organizations?

Regardless of whether you run a software house or a retail store that exclusively sells vintage editions of books, chances are that you can integrate AI into the foundation of your business’s infrastructure, without the results being altered in the slightest by the nature of the industry that you operate in.

The benefits that AI has to offer in propagating an organization’s business goals are further made evident by the findings of the report from the State of AI in Business, which brought into light the fact that almost half (47%) of all the surveyed companies that were deemed to have a “decent” digital infrastructure had incorporated a sophisticated AI strategy into their organizations.

Having said that, however, there’s still some amount of trial and testing that businesses have to go through before they can formulate an AI strategy that works for them, which is where we step into the picture. We believe that the most impactful way through which an organization can implement AI into their pre-existing infrastructure is by first realizing the benefits that AI offers, and then working accordingly.

In order to aid our readers to harness the power of AI in order to satisfy their business goals, we’ve compiled some ways through which business owners, particularly small business owners, can tap into the practical applications of artificial intelligence.

#1- Data Mining:

When we take into consideration that data may very well be the most lucrative resource in modern times, as is further highlighted by the fact that data has surpassed oil in value- it becomes essential that businesses learn to further their goals through the collection of relevant data, that enables them to provide consumers with a more user-centric platform.

Luckily for businesses today, there is an abundance of AI platforms that allow an organization’s task force to collect data, either by generating insights from the overarching trends in their respective industry, or by obtaining data directly from their target consumer base. The data harvested by the organization is then converted into extremely useful insights about their business performance, and the potential steps that can be taken to boost that performance.

Once an organization gets its hand on the lucrative insights generated, it is only a matter of seconds until the IT team formulates the next steps to take to steer the enterprise in the direction of business growth. Additionally, it should also be mentioned that preventing to include AI within an organization’s infrastructure might result in the company losing its competitive edge.

#2- Automation of Menial Tasks:

Usually, the tasks that require the largest time and labor investments are routine, menial tasks that organizations need to undergo in order to carry on with their administrative functioning. Although these routine tasks are critical in sustaining a robust foundational core around which every other aspect of the organization is wound, small business owners have to face a huge burden in the form of employee and administrative costs that are required to fulfill these menial tasks.

Fortunately, the AI market is brimming with AI platforms that have been designed to automate the handling of these routine administrative tasks. Moreover, the scope and efficiency with which these AI programs can handle the processing of routine tasks are truly astounding, with some AI platforms equipped with the ability to help identify the best possible candidates available for a job, based on the prerequisite job skills that are fed into it.

Based on the information that it is provided with, the AI platform shortlists two or three candidates that fit the brief the best. This helps organizations save a lot of valuable time that could be spent on other, more important tasks, along with automatically eliminating any candidates that don’t fit the job description.

Some other routine tasks that could make do with AI automation include contract bidding, sending follow-up emails, along with answering any FAQs that consumers might have, which would allow the business to save a significant amount of money that would have otherwise been wasted on human employment.

#3- Make Marketing Go Digital:

Unless you’ve been spending the better half of your adult life recusing under a rock, or you’ve developed a rather impressive habit at ignoring pop-ups and Facebook ads, you might have not noticed that most organizations tend to market themselves on a digital medium.

When we take into account the massive amount of competition that enterprises have to operate today, integrating the use of social media platforms into an organization’s marketing efforts becomes critical for an enterprise to differentiate itself from the herd.

There are several AI platforms that allow businesses to strengthen their market base, along with the additional benefit of expanding their customer base by recognizing user shopping and spending behavior and then using those insights to market in newer, and effective ways to the target consumer groups. Not only does an AI-driven marketing campaign allow an enterprise to increase capture rates and generate more sales, but it also makes a business stand out from its competition by providing users with a shopping experience, rather than a platform.

#4 Use AI to Fight Frauds and Cybercrimes

Business organizations spend a vast amount of time in detecting fake transactions. Fraud detection is based on pattern recognition. Thus, machine learning tools can easily pick these tasks. In the same way, cybersecurity threats are also a matter of detecting irregular and abnormal patterns. AI-based systems by using biometrics authentication can be helpful in combating cybercrimes.

The company will invest in machine learning techniques to make solutions that can help companies better detect fraud.

Final Words:

At the end of the article, we can only hope that we’ve made our readers realize the importance of artificial intelligence, along with the several ways through which it can alter the course of businesses as we know them today and steering enterprises in a more positive direction.