The digital world has been marching forward over the past 20 years, providing ever more efficient services to the public and businesses via the internet, and now there is a new revolution on the horizon. The industrial revolution transformed manual work; Artificial Intelligence (AI) will dramatically change the nature of the service industry and white-collar work.

Like all revolutions, the rise of AI brings opportunity to those who embrace and harness the changes. In today’s business environment, competition is intense and on a global scale. AI now has the fuel – data – it needs and is no longer a disembodied brain; it has the means to interact directly with businesses, people and machinery through digital channels.

Now is the time for businesses to ask themselves – what does AI mean for you and how could you benefit from it? Here Imam Hoque, the COO of Quantexa discusses what AI could mean for your small business.

Provide a better service

AI has the ability to process large volumes of data, learn from it, be taught, spot patterns, make predictions and draw conclusions rapidly, 24×7 and without faltering. With this in mind, consider whether there is something that AI could do better than how you’re doing it today. This could range from better decision making to using increased capacity to thoroughly understand your customers, or the opportunity to provide a more bespoke service. Alternatively, you can offer your customers more insight based on the data you have accumulated. This added personalised value could help you achieve an edge over your competition.

Market and reach

As well as taking advantage of AI to build on existing relationships with clients, give some thought as to how AI could help you reach new or wider markets. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, companies can break language barriers, time zone restrictions and establish relationships across the world. Furthermore, automation and AI could form the basis of enhanced self-service capability for your customers; putting the power back in their hands and implementing a successful round-the-clock service.

Evaluate

Once you have identified the opportunities that will benefit your business and your clients, you need to act swiftly to evaluate the feasibility of each. The leading challenge with AI-driven solutions is the fact that they are very dependent upon data and occasionally it is unclear whether they will deliver the accuracy and benefit you may require. Therefore, it is important to run a proof of concept to ensure that AI integration will succeed. A way of doing this is to mathematically prove the AI capability based on historical data to predict its benefit or when there is close interaction with customers, focus groups and A-B testing are effective measures.

Deploy, operate and enhance

Technological innovation is moving at an unprecedented rate, with developments being reported every day. As a business, it’s vital you’re not left behind just by adopting one strand of AI and standing idly. Be aware of how quickly the field of AI is moving and continuously react to keep up; adopt open platforms, review and focus on how to continuously improve the capability of your AI decision-making models. Make sure that your company uses the new data available to action better automated decision making and establish long-lasting relationships with your clients.

Now is the time to ask yourself if there are new innovative offerings or adjuncts that you could provide your customers as a result of AI capabilities. Make sure you are not caught napping and become the next Kodak.

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