Often when people think of Artificial Intelligence (AI) their minds may drift towards thoughts of a robot apocalypse in which the world is overrun with machines that believe they need to rid the world of all humans and their contaminants. And although that makes an interesting plot for a sci-fi thriller, real-life AI is much less dismal but equally as exciting and interesting.
So what exactly is AI? According to www.dictionary.com, it’s defined as “the ability of a computer or other machine to perform actions thought to require intelligence. Among these actions are logical deduction and inference, creativity, the ability to make decisions based on past experience or insufficient or conflicting information, and the ability to understand spoken language.”
Everyday society and AI get more acquainted with one another. From voice search on smartphones to ride services, we use it daily and it’s becoming more and more accessible to everyone. It’s expected that AI will be a game-changer for all industries by providing smart applications and efficiency in the business processes through optimal utilization of an organization’s data.
AI isn’t just for companies with billion-dollar budgets. A lot of small to medium-sized businesses are cuttings costs and delivering excellent customer experiences with AI-powered applications. A common misconception is that AI requires considerable investment. But fortunately one doesn’t need to break the bank in order to incorporate machine learning and AI into their operations. By launching on a smaller scale and leveraging ready-made solutions, one can efficiently harness the capabilities of AI and improve performance across different departments considerably.
AI allows small businesses to delegate conventional tasks to be done by an innovative and fast approach, making employees free to focus on other inventive and creative opportunities that can help companies expand. Artificial Intelligence can help you and your business manage tasks and make decisions, especially ones that require the analyzation of data.
1. Leverage Existing Platforms
Developing your own AI can be costly, complex and extremely time-consuming. Luckily for those of us who don’t have a fortune to spend, there are several tech companies that have open-sourced their AI progress in an attempt to make it more and more accessible for consumers and users. Some of these companies include TensorFlow, Keras, Spark MLlib, and fastText.
2. Start Small
One of the most vital uses of AI in small business is in analytics. With the use of predictive analytics, your company can make better-informed decisions that lead to growth. If the price point is what’s keeping you from adopting and implementing AI, then analytics is definitely the way to go. AI-powered analytics software offers top of the line intelligence at liquidation prices. Software such as Amazon Machine Learning is a service that provides tools and guides for creating learning models. By making this sort of software available, Amazon is aiming to make machine learning more accessible than ever. H20 is an open-source company whose “mission is to democratize AI for everyone.” H20 Driverless AI is its award-winning platform that uses AI to do AI. It allows you to ‘Make Your Own AI’ that you can cater to address your specific business goals.
As mentioned in Part One of this blog series, Chatbots are a form of AI that allows you to receive instant ROI from AI. Their ability to answer questions and engage customers allow for small businesses to appear more proficient. For more information on sources for creating chatbots, check out Part One here.
4. Social Listening
Tools such as social listening programs such as Hootsuite, HubSpot, and Buffer allow you to learn more about your audience. These allow businesses to grow and improve their brands by listening to what people are saying online. Social listening tools are able to track your brands’ mentions and industry. AI can give you a birds-eye view of how consumers react and respond to our brand. Not only can the program monitor the social sentiment and emotion surrounding your brand, but it can convert that information into measurable data to analyze. Social listening can help you learn which products are most appealing to your audience, discover content topics that inspire your followers and customers to engage, and help you avoid problems by red-flagging any negativity surrounding your company, in real-time.
5. Machine Learning
You can also use machine learning to improve ad copy and placement. Machine learning is coming into the mainstream for small businesses with Google’s new Google Ads program, offering a number of machine learning-based tools for marketers. Some of Google AI machine learning tools include responsive search ads, maximum lift, local campaigns, and smart shopping.
In conclusion, AI is here and it’s here to stay. It provides opportunities for brands to maximize their efforts in many ways, from delegating customer inquiries to data-driven decision making. Learning to utilize the latest offerings that technology has to offer makes the overall experience better for both customers and brands!