A major pain point for many entrepreneurs is getting caught up in the day-to-day tasks of a business. On average, a founder can spend 68.1% of their time on these types of tasks, with a remaining 31.9% to work on their business goals and strategy. In these times of COVID-19 where some industries are experiencing rapid growth and a higher demand than usual, finding ways to optimize productivity is more important than ever before.
By digitizing time-consuming tasks that can be easily delegated, business owners have more time to better concentrate their efforts on working towards their long-term business goals. Regardless of the industry or size of the company, there are significant benefits than can be achieved through the use of AI solutions.
In general terms, AI solutions can help boost business performance in three areas: automating administrative tasks, improving research & development through data analysis, and engaging with customers and employees in an efficient manner.
Automation
Some of these routinary tasks are usually back-office administrative and financial activities that can be easily automated. Responding to e-mails is one of those tasks that consumes a lot of time, but yields very little results when considering the efforts. Office workers are often dedicating on average 2.5 hours in a workday to managing their inbox. Automation can help filter these messages and even process data found in these e-mails to automatically update customers’ records, like address changes or order modifications, among other functions.
Automation can also help in reconciling errors or failures in billing systems in which services have not been charged by consulting multiple document types. This capacity to “read” data and use natural language processing at lightning speed can also help with processing legal and contractual documents, saving businesses valuable time.
Machine learning
Machine learning, as the name suggests, is a form of AI in which algorithms improve automatically or “learn” with experience. Applications that use machine learning are able to detect patterns in vast volumes of data and interpret their meaning. These models are able to improve over time, as they have the ability to use new data to make predictions.
What does this mean for business owners? Machine learning opens up a whole new world of possibilities for improving performance. The ability to predict based on real-time data means that business owners can predict customer behavior and modify the strategy according to their needs. In turn, this information can be extremely useful in automating personalized ad targeting. These predictions can also be used to forecast the demand for new products as well as identify factors that might affect this demand.
Machine learning can also detect suspicious behavior in accounts. In addition to detection, the power of machine learning lies in its capacity to study past frauds and learn from them, continuously improving its ability to find them, and ultimately, outsmarting the scammer.
Engaging with customers
An extremely important part of a business is customer engagement. Chatbots that imitate human conversations for solving various tasks are becoming increasingly in demand as they present numerous benefits. According to the Business Insider, the chatbot market size is projected to grow from $2.6B in 2019 to $9.4B by 2024.
Not only do chatbots reduce overhead costs, but their ability to simultaneously process multiple requests from users at a tremendous speed helps with building customer loyalty. Providing customer service 24/7, or even recommending products or services that fit customer’s interests and needs becomes a possibility. Therefore, chatbots can be a huge asset to a business by increasing personalization, engagement, and sales.
One step further in the realm of customer engagement, are voice assistants. This software allows businesses to provide a personalized experience, using natural language processing and voice technologies to have more productive conversations with customers.
For instance, Vozy’s voice assistant Lili uses conversational AI that can adapt to numerous Spanish accents to seamlessly process inquiries from customers and redirecting those that require the help of a human agent when necessary. By automating these interactions and using text-to-speech services, businesses can guarantee consistency in their customer experience, reflecting a unique image and tone of their company through a strengthened brand.
Conclusion
The benefits of AI solutions in businesses are becoming more evident as many companies seek to digitalize their processes in order to grow. Among the many myths revolving AI, one of the most popular concerns is that it will replace human jobs. However, AI solutions are often used as tools to help humans improve their performance rather than replace them. By taking care of these routinary tasks –whether that be through automation, machine learning, chatbots, or other forms of artificial intelligence– business owners and its employees can focus on gaining other skills or work on their overall strategy which will allow their business to evolve alongside the digital transformation.
