You are seeing robots besides the anchor in today's TV programs. It may not be far away when a robot itself asks questions in the Slumdog Millionaire program. Artificial intelligence (AI) is making its presence felt everywhere in the connected world. It could be seen in deep technologies, self driven vehicles, or robots.
AI as part of daily life. It has changed how you react to life and technology.Your purchase in Amazon, queries to Siri and request to Alexa to play a song involves AI.
AI-enabled technologies have a prime place in emerging technologies like Gartner. AI has impacted business analytics immensely.
All companies have a huge volume of data in their store house. Its complexity makes AI business analytics tools inevitable. It also necessitates business analyst in every sector. The use of AI and business intelligence (or BI) is helping companies enterprises tremendously. They pull out immeasurable insights out of complex data bases. They deliver valuable business recommendations.
Artificial intelligence is based on algorithms. They are based on data. Data analysis is an essential part of AI. Questions and answers provide accurate data for the algorithm. The provided data should be correct.
Dependence on data may create a bias. Algorithms are opinions that stay embedded in code, for fictional characters. The perceptions behind the algorithms are flawed, and often people using AI don't comprehend the code.
AI Role in Business
AI is used to train computer applications with human intelligence traits.Human beings learn, solve problems and make decisions. Those are human traits.The AI application in business is enabled by machine learning (ML) technology. It is used to perform specific tasks like,
Complex text reading and comprehension
Recognition of images and classification
Recognition of objects and facial features
AI applications in business could be seen in
Chatbots, BI bots, virtual assistance
Online advertising
Predictive analytics
Recognition of voice
Pattern recognition
Benefits of AI in Business
Automate communication with customers through online chats, emails and social media. These were assigned previously to human beings
It gives online shoppers a personalized experience., based on customer behavior and online buying patterns.
Automated inventory management. Robotics in hotel check-ins and factory premises
Business predictions, sales forecasts depending on customer data.
Real time communicates with customers using mobile apps
Measuring sales data with Performance Dashboard
The AI revolution in Business
There are three major applications of AI in business:
1. Work Automation
AI-driven work automation in the near future is estimated to affect over 9 million jobs in the U.S. General Electric through AI powered smart sensors, has reduced its machine downtime. They have installed them on their manufacturing equipment. Yo can combine AI with the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. It can reduce costs, improve productivity, and create specialized jobs.
2. Sales and Marketing
AI in marketing and sales has revolutionized marketing and sales in various industries. AI enables marketing personnel to automate their routine tasks through acquired data. Facebook uses ML algorithms. It tracks customer behavior and targets them with an apt digital ad. Airbnb uses AI to optimize and market the right prices based on customer demand.
3. Customer Service
About 30% of all online retail business today happen on smart phones. Surveys say that the top five apps used by online customers are for messaging their needs and social media. Business houses have AI enabled chatbots for customer service. Royal Dutch Airlines does traveler check-ins and flight notifications through its Facebook app. Facebook Messenger boasts over 300,000 bots. Monthly, It exchanges around 20 billion messages between various companies and customers.
AI in Business Analytics
IoT-enabled devices will be 75 billion by 2025,, according to estimates. It is up from 26 billion in 2019. The data from these devices is a whopping five quintillion bytes each day. Walmart through 11,000 retail stores, uses the ML-enabled HANA platform. It processes its day today transactions, appointing people in business analyst jobs.
The business management software firm Domo has implemented AI, productive analytics and machine learning. Its customers extract data from Facebook,Salesforce, and Shopify and compare.
AI business analytics is sure to become common. It will transform the role-played by the present day business analyst. AI powers real-time data analysis. Hence, business analysts will be free to focus on fundamental analysis. The AI DataRobot assists in predictive modelling. Even the unskilled users can handle it.
Statistical data is positive: over 60% of executives support AI strategy to create more data-driven business avenues.\. 72% of business managers consider it a major advantage.
BI bots assist decision-making by analyzing data. They analyze data queries made in a natural language without complex querying codes. BI bots will boost the adoption of BI tools in company workplaces.
AI-powered BI tools can
1. Manage volumes of big data
2. Get real-time insights from market data
3. Substitute the industry shortage of good data analysts
Caution
Artificial intelligence will not eliminate human intervention. Qualitative analysis is still crucial. Human beings are intense, complex, and unpredictable. You can't control human intuition. Your are influenced by your mood, the feelings of others, and frustration. Knut Hamsun, the famous Norwegian novelist, wrote Hunger, to show how even hunger can influence your decisions. Hunger has been the foundation for political revolution. These human elements aren't considered while determining AI's logic.
You will continue to work with human beings. Caligula, the Roman emperor, appointed his own horse, as his advisor. But you can't appoint a robot as your CEO; Uncovering the real issues that need to be solved beyond algorithms will require human intervention. Only the human brain can achieve customer-focused product development and design. A chip will never replace the brain.
The global world is becoming more connected. Virtual interactions will be more common. The ability to effectively elicit information with a virtual team will be a necessity. The human brain will be 24x7.
© Ramachandran
