Just a few years ago nobody would have thought that AI would be a vital part of business today, but businesses around the world are continuing to find new reasons to use it to eliminate day-to-day inefficiencies. This is eliminating any sense of a level playing field for businesses that aren’t utilizing this technology yet, and creating a growing concern about the overall power AI will have over the future workforce.
Despite its potential, AI also brings up concerns about job displacement, economic instability, and skills shortages. Despite these concerns over the potential implications of AI, the technology still holds great potential for human empowerment. It also gives us the tools we need to automate redundant tasks, spot patterns in the data we collect and uncover important insights that could improve our lives for the better.
Integrating AI into the Workforce
Voice AI communication isn’t only outperforming humans, but it’s also helping streamline the process so we can get things done before they’re due. These are just a few of the ways AI is being used today. About half of America’s workforce feels their company’s AI deployment is greatly outpacing the accuracy and productivity of comparable human activity. This is something that business leaders are already quite aware of. They also realize AI’s potential ethical and human dilemmas. In fact, 69 percent of C-level executives say their employees are concerned that AI technologies will replace them. To help employees feel more comfortable with using AI, companies need to focus on training employee to develop these skills.
How AI is Transforming Business as We Know It
Live Mint says AI helps with human decision-making. This is because algorithms are growing smarter and computing power is growing. While AI still can’t complete common-sense tasks today, it can process and analyze data faster than the human brain can. It will then provide you with many synthesized courses of action so you can figure out the possible consequences of each action and streamline your decision-making process. When this is merged with human interactions, it’ll help you meet your customers’ needs.
One of the best examples of this is Google’s search engine. It uses thousands of human ‘raters’ to assess the quality of its AI-driven search results. In this way, you can see how AI leverages self-learning systems (e.g. data mining, pattern recognition, natural language processing) as a key advantage over human intelligence. This is something that you can scale in such a way that your bottom line is drastically improved while errors are greatly decreased. Its longevity, coupled with continuous improvements and its ability to document processes is quite rewarding for all types of businesses today—including healthcare, education, auto, banking, and retail. A great example of this is Amazon. According to Live Mint today, they’re using AI to cut costs and improve their platform—making it superior, intuitive, and smart. All of this happens because AI can analyze customers’ social media feeds so they can improve search results and recommendations.
This is just one example of how AI has effectively helped businesses decode patterns in their customers’ online behavior—to the point that they can now predict the probability of a customer returning a product. This also helps businesses segment customers, based on their data, into groups who share the same attributes. By doing this they can improve customer loyalty since they’re able to offer more personalized, relevant marketing messages.
Customers are growing reliant on AI when they need to find new businesses to engage with. These businesses then rely on AI to help them offer their customers the services or products and support they need. Employees have also grown more dependent on this technology to get their work done each day. All of this is slowly taking a more central role in today’s business world, so businesses can’t afford to have an AI strategy in place today. When this is designed with the customer in mind, AI solutions can drive customer loyalty, engagement, consumption and satisfaction. It won’t take long before companies start seeing AI’s real potential.
Leaders are also embracing the greater presence of AI. Once it becomes more integrated into their operations, leadership will need to be refined. This includes revising their overall strategy, customer experience, technology, and human capital. Most C-level executives recognize this shift in leadership and are working to build their future business strategy around the opportunities AI technology has made available to them.
Techemergence claims that about 80 percent of C-level executives are confident that their executive team can adapt their leadership skills as they adopt new AI technologies. Another 70 percent of them strongly agree that AI will benefit employees at all levels throughout their organization. This demonstrates the positive view they’re taking toward AI and the transparency it brings in regards to running an autonomous business. Techemergence claims that 52 percent of CEOs today are afraid that leadership will become less transparent with help from AI and automation.
What All This Means to You
There are some companies that are already experiencing AI’s benefits as it grows more mainstream in today’s business world. Those who aren’t already experimenting with AI are at risk of being left behind. To remain competitive, any business who invests in AI should also invest in their employees. As AI continues to change the business world as we know it, those who embrace training and re-skilling their current employees stand to gain tangible benefits.
Clearly, it’s important for your business to be transparent about AI initiatives and how they’ll both benefit and improve your company. This won’t only help you find new opportunities for your business, but it’ll also head off any potential risks before they turn into major problems or hurt your customers, employees or reputation. You can’t simply train your employees then forget about it though. To be truly successful you must adopt a culture of lifelong learning and encourage your staff to continuously develop new skills.
