Growth of Artificial Intelligence is the Next Big IT Trend

For better or worse, the way information technology is being used has come to define the way that businesses run. The most noteworthy companies are the ones using their data to their advantage and utilizing cutting-edge tools to facilitate efficient processes and productivity while managing their costs. One technology is giving more and more organizations the freedom to accomplish their goals and automate more of their mundane processes: Artificial Intelligence

AI Explained

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the incorporation of technologies that learn as they are used. Today’s AI aren’t sentient cyborgs ready to serve (or exterminate) human beings, but that doesn’t mean the current AI isn’t useful—It can do a lot for a small business, but it usually comes in the way of a feature rather than a whole platform. 

For the enterprise business, AI is now a fully-fledged option for a lot of tasks, but for the small and medium-sized business (SMB) there is less to be done. Why? It’s simple, AI, as useful and efficient as it is, is really expensive. Not only do you need strong hardware that runs AI, you also need support for it, meaning you need coders and other technicians that understand the ins and outs of how the technology works. There simply isn’t a breadth of affordable and knowledgeable technicians available today. This is sure to change though.

How Can My Business Utilize AI?

As mentioned previously, if a small business is going to utilize AI, it will likely do so as a feature in another product. For the small business there are four places AI makes sense right now. They are:

Customer Service/Support

The development of chatbot technology using AI-integrated customer service representatives can not only save your business a lot of money on its support costs, it can build support availability that is difficult with human customer service representatives and can engage as well or better than many human customer service professionals. Chatbots are set up using frequently asked questions and typical answers and can learn how to interact with customers and give them the most appropriate response. 

Cybersecurity

More people are utilizing digital means to make purchases today than ever before. This gives hackers and other threat actors the environment to take full advantage. AI can be used to review behavior patterns for users on all platforms of the digital construct. Identifying what the typical behavior is throughout systems on a network and then comparing it to real time situations, the AI can recognize small deviations that could be threats, flagging them or removing them if need be. 

Onboarding

One of the most useful AI tools is actually in the human resources arena of onboarding new talent. First, finding talent that matches your needs is often difficult, as the traditional strategy of holding a series of interviews can often be a giant waste of time and money. With AI, you lack the bias humans often have when it comes to looking into candidates. It will find the metrics you are looking for to fill a position and move the hiring process along fast. 

Improving Relationships

AI is getting more advanced all the time and one of the most advanced ways a small business can utilize an AI system is in its sales and marketing processes. The name of the game is to attract the right type of customer that will buy your products and services. For humans that work in these areas, they typically have different ideas on how to do this. AI-fueled software like a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform can help sales and marketing do everything from finding the right message that will result in engagement to help track leads, and even see them through the whole process so they become happy customers. 

Additionally, AI is built into a lot of today’s business intelligence platforms allowing professionals to gain insights that would take them months to compute with traditional methods. It can get sales and marketing on the same page and better tune them into customer response, which in turn will help them come up with a future strategy. 

The incorporation of artificial intelligence is an exciting trend in IT, and it’s getting more powerful very quickly. If you would like to talk to one of our IT professionals about getting some AI-fueled platforms integrated into your business’ toolbox, give us a call today at 301-571-5040.