Artificial intelligence (AI)
Long before AI came into its own – automatic weather forecasts, voice-powered assistants like Siri and Alexa, and more complex technologies like behavioural algorithms, suggestive searches, and self-driving cars – were all once just a figment of the imagination of some our famous science fiction writers. These days, such technologies are rapidly evolving, and scientists all over the world cannot wait to see the immeasurable positive effects they will have on society.
While the impact of AI and automation remain subtle in public, its presence is very much felt in the 21st century- businesses. From banks to retail centres, a lot of companies these days are driving investments into chatbots and AI to augment customer service and streamline backroom processes.
To know how you can benefit from Artificial Intelligence and automation, we’ve listed the advantages these technologies can give to your business today.
- Elimination of Repetitive Processes
Perhaps the very first and most obvious way to use artificial intelligence is for streamlining business process. AI brings a certain level of precision in a way that allows you to perform predictions and analytics on the most common errors, allowing you to avoid them, or, at least correct them.
For instance, many of the banks these days can use artificial intelligence to perform repetitive tasks of compiling data from various financial reports, including industry reports not available in the local database, and perform accurate analysis to determine a firm’s profitability. This not only makes the process more efficient but also allows the organisation to move people up into higher-value jobs rather than repetitive ones.
- Better Customer Service
A true business leader knows that in order to survive in the market, they must put their customer at the core of their organisation. Without an effective customer service strategy, the business is surely bound to fail. That is why you need to know when customers aren’t happy with your service before serious issues arise – which is now made possible by AI.
More and more companies these days are investing in AI-powered tools like chatbots to improve their customer service, and more are expected to leverage the said technology in the years to come. In fact, the statistics from Gartner revealed that AI bots will power 85% of all customer service interactions by the year 2020.
Through chatbots, customers can quickly get an answer to simple questions e.g. product availability. In this way, human customer service can actually be enhanced, by allowing them to focus on more strategic issues of their jobs.
Another way AI can be used to improve customer service is through capturing customer buying signals that human customer service reps might miss. AI-driven analytics are now able to capture valuable customer behavioural insights – such as purchase patterns, how many times they contact customer service, and how long they stay on the website.
Simultaneously, the AI can find correlations and sentiments in these data, providing the team with an accurate report that can help them execute a proactive approach to turn the relationship around. By utilising AI this way, a business will be able to outperform their competitors by 85% in sales growth and more than 25% in gross margin, according to researcher Mckinsey.
- Improved Sales
Planning to take your sales to greater heights? What about a smart sales technology that knew all the deals you are working on just by analysing your business calendar, email, and phone interactions? This is now possible these days thanks to AI. It automatically builds and monitors your sales pipeline so you can focus on closing more deals, rather than consuming time on manual data entry.
Moreover, if you experience a sudden spike on your pipeline, you can also use AI as your sales assistant. It can help you find critical data you need to close deals, ensure timely follow-ups with certain prospects, and ensure no prospects will get out of touch throughout the process.
- Smarter Marketing
Good customer service and sales wouldn’t be possible without an effective marketing strategy. What’s exciting these days is that AI is now able to provide marketers with new ways to attract new customers.
As Big Data becomes more relevant to businesses, the need for a tool that can transform unstructured data is also becoming more important. With AI, marketers are now able to process a large amount of information into something more valuable, such as market predictions and qualified leads.
Using AI-driven marketing analytics, marketers can segment and build audiences based on potential future actions, and automatically customise the customer journey so the customer can receive the right offer at the right time. Also, AI can send personalised emails automatically, offer customer recommendations, and predict customer sentiment.
Personalisation is extremely important to customers these days. In fact research from Forrester revealed that 77% of consumers choose, recommend, and pay more for brands that provide personalised service or experience.
To sum it all up, leveraging AI and automation the right way can definitely help your business succeed. However, it’s also important to remember that while these technologies can function on their own, it is still up to you as business owners to execute the insights they provide to you. So, a proper mindset and strategic plan are still imperative when you want to utilise these technologies.
Want to know more how AI can provide a competitive edge to your business? Contact Joe Dalton business consultancy today at +353 (0)1 5349 454 or send an email to joe@jdc.ie