A.I. is at the forefront of the latest and greatest technology developments. Learning how to make the most of this technology for your brand is necessary.
Instead of performing every task manually, companies are learning the power of automating their systems instead. As a result, they are achieving greater efficiencies, fewer errors and ultimately greater profits.
In this blog post, we will go over 5 unique ways that small businesses can leverage this emerging A.I. technology regardless of the industry.
Before we dive deeper into the EASIEST ways to improve your business processes using A.I. technology, let’s start with 5 practical examples of how Artificial Intelligence is already used SMBs:
Plan staffing, ordering, and inventory management – A gardening business could pull in weather data to predict sunny days, so they can pre-plan their workdays automatically days in advance.
Using the A.I. to Spot trends – SMEs can use Google trends to look for spikes in search volume for specific terms. This can help them plan and create successful products and services.
Automate and customize marketing campaigns – AI algorithms for email marketing can help businesses create automated messages that are triggered by subscribers’ activity. Many content management systems (CMSs) or email service platforms have an AI component already built-in, and you can use it right out of the box.
Streamline time-consuming HR tasks – Some companies use AI to match candidates to open jobs, onboard new employees, and answer frequently asked questions about benefits and company policy. This is a massive trend that’s gaining a lot of traction in the business world.
Give customers a first-hand look at products – SMEs can use augmented reality and artificial intelligence to give customers a virtual tour of products in their catalog. Picture a virtual “showroom” of furniture that a customer could customize to meet their needs.
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Now that we went a few ideas on how emerging A.I. tech is already being used, let’s dive deeper and explore a few business processes that can be fully or partially AUTOMATED using machine learning & Artificial Intelligence.
1. Marketing
You can have the most promising startup in the world. If you don’t market it correctly, your customers won’t have the right view of what your business does. Sometimes, they won’t even know you exist.
AI can help with this problem of obscurity by automatically recommending marketing strategies. It can see behavioral patterns that brought people to your page and caused them to buy. Then, all you need to do is repeat the process and scale.
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I know it sounds like a feature straight from the future, but this technology is already not just another thing something reserved for the biggest companies with endless budgets for artificial intelligence.
Small businesses are starting to take advantage of this too.
And there are actually many applications that everyday businesses can implement into their daily workflow.
By doing so, you can eliminate errors, improve efficiency and ultimately turn more profits for your enterprise, and that’s something that every business should be striving for.
2. Security
Security is of the utmost importance in today’s day and age. And if you think about it, small businesses are even more vulnerable to a security hack since they don’t have a cybersecurity department to keep attackers at bay.
The point is, no longer can companies afford to leave security as the last priority.
If you are hacked, your company information or your customers can fall into the wrong hands. And that’s very bad for business.
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Empowering an AI and putting it to work to automate your security measures and continually scan your system to alert you of potential risks can be a life-saver, as a lot of companies are realizing.
3. Customer Appointments
Customer appointments are the lifeblood of many businesses. Even more so for small businesses that depend on a handful of loyal customers.
However, far too many companies neglect to schedule them in the right intervals. This was already a problem before the advancement of technology that aids them in scheduling.
But with an AI at hand, every company (big or small) should be taking advantage of the ability to schedule customers automatically. You can input preplanned scheduling rules so that the software can learn the best times for your team and your clients.
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The advancements in A.I. automated scheduling are huge and entire industries are being shaped by this new technology.
4. Scheduling Workers
Determining WHOM to schedule and WHEN can become a large headache for management. And the problem keeps amplifying as the business develops further.
If you schedule too many employees at once, you waste resources. But if you don’t schedule enough, you run the risk of short capacity that will affect your customer’s experience.
An Artificial Intelligence can determine the best times to schedule various members of your team.
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This is typically done automatically using machine learning by analyzing the history of peak times and other factors. The software can do this at scale, which would be impossible for a human to do in the same time frame.
This way, you won’t need to worry about hiring additional manpower as your business expands.
5. Product Quality Assurance
If you run or operate a manufacturing company, product quality is a crucial part that will ultimately determine your reputation. However, manually watching and evaluating each product as it goes through the manufacturing process is time-consuming and costly in terms of payroll.
On the other hand, you can’t really afford not to do it.
AI, it turns out, provides a useful solution to this problem. By using AI tech, you can automate the scanning and evaluation of products.
With the use of machine learning, the software can detect flaws in your product and allow you to correct them before they reach the customer.
