Let’s be honest: whenever you hear the term “artificial intelligence” or “AI,” you imagine a machine straight out of a popular sci-fi movie that ends up running the world and dooming humanity. You might be surprised to learn you’re already living, using and working with AI bots, and you’re probably getting along quite well with them.
No? Well, what do you think is hidden inside consumer products that run software like Alexa, Siri, and Cortana? These are all examples of high-profile, intuitive AI that make your online shopping, information consumption and remote controlling easy and a lot of fun.
The AI industry has become so competitive, software makers vie to stay ahead of one another by adding new features daily. But don’t worry – you, as a business owner, will always have something to take advantage of by integrating AI into your business processes.
Let’s have a look at four ways you can achieve greater performance by taking better advantage of AI.
1. Scheduling & time management
Running a business means you need to plan every single minute of your day beforehand. The further in advance you can set up your schedules, the more efficiently you’ll be able to perform your tasks. Time is money, and any app that can help you earn more money will be doing you a big favor.
That’s where time scheduling apps come in. These can help you set times for your business meetings, job or task assignments or even simple alarms that will remind you to get out of bed every single morning.
Essentially, they’re the digital version of a secretary knocking on your door to remind you you’re late for that meeting you had noted down on your agenda a couple of weeks ago.
2. Process automation & remote control
There was a time when employees needed to be physically present at the office to get work done. But, in this day and age, more and more AI applications are taking over, allowing people to work from home or any off-site location easily.
Certain AI applications help you log in and out of work processes remotely and on a timer, eliminating the need for your physical presence to switch on a computer, server or any other smart device. Your AI apps will start and stop the smart devices at scheduled times and under predetermined conditions.
You can also remotely monitor computers and servers, so you can take necessary action if a particular system should fail.
3. 24/7 digital representation
When you visit some websites, a chat window may pop up. After a greeting, you’re asked some generic questions to help guide you to the right person or page.
These are actually not people you’re chatting with, but AI chatbots. Your website can have “someone” helping your clients while you’re offline. These bots will pick up on any keywords your visitors use, or offer them selected options to choose from and help them with their query after a quick analysis.
4. Effective digital marketing
Your business needs effective marketing to reach your target audience. With AI integrated into your online campaigns, you’ll be able to do exactly that with impressive results.
As a matter of fact, your website’s content can be written by an AI application that uses the keywords you feed into its database to come up with human-sounding compositions. They may not be as pleasant to read as articles or posts were written by human writers, but if getting specific, short messages across is your aim, they will do the job.
And then, of course, there are AI bots that promote your business on various social media platforms by scheduling your tweets, posts and pictures and even handle any comments or responses they get.
But, be careful…
The AI world will soon overtake most (if not all) aspects of the way we do business and you won’t want to be left behind. But, you should also remember this technology is still in its infancy and might need a watchful eye to keep it from running amok. Be aware that some initial investment will be needed when you make the transition into an AI-compatible business, but it will be worth the cost down the line.
