Estimated reading time: 5 mins
Artificial intelligence (also known as AI) is becoming more and more widespread, making life easier for both business owners and customers alike. It is the new frontier of technology, and it is the way that many businesses are choosing to conduct their work. If you look at some of the major companies in the world including Facebook and Amazon, you will see that AI is a big part of how they do things. If you have ever used a chatbot or a virtual assistant, then you will certainly have had an introduction to what AI can do.
If you are interested in this kind of tech but you’re not sure how you can bring it into your own business in a way that will enhance it, you are not alone – many business owners are keen to use artificial intelligence, but they simply don’t know how. This article should give you some ideas on how you can implement AI and make your business better for it.
Understand AI Better
Before you can really implement any strategies that include AI in your business, you need to have a better understanding of what this technology actually is and what it can do. Now the background of how it all works can be rather complicated, and you don’t need to know every part of how it does what it does (unless you are technically minded and what to know, that is), but reading up online about the way that AI works is a good way to get some backgroundinformation.
Another good idea is to attend a talk or seminar, either in your local area or perhaps online, that goes into more detail about AI and how it can help businesses. This will give you an excellent basic knowledge of how you can use it yourself.
What Do You Want It To Do?
When you have a clearer understanding of thekinds of things that artificial intelligence can do in terms of business, you need to work out what it is you want it to do for you specifically. It won’t help you to simplyhave a vague plan that AI would make you seem more up to date and on trend if you don’t know what areas of your business it is going to boost. There are many areas that AI can assist you with including:
- Account based marketing, which you can learn more about here
- Produce automated invoices and chase payments
- Offer customer service through chatbots
- Post social media content
- Assist with training of staff
In almost every area of your business,there will be a way that AI can improve what you are already doing, making you more efficient, streamlined and, ideally, saving you money at the same time. When you know what it is you want it to do for you, you can then start looking into how it can be implemented and the cost implications of that.
Financials
As with every aspect of a successful business, the financial element of implementing a new strategy should never be ignored. You will need to look at exactly what money you would be saving by using AI, or, if you wouldn’t be directly saving money, what additional value it would bring to your business through ensuring more sales and happier customers. This figure must be offset against the cost of the AI tobegin with, and only then will you know whether this is something that will work for you.
The truth is that AI will improve almost every business that wants to use it, but not every business is going to be able to afford it from the start. Although it will eventually bring added value to your customers and therefore hopefully increase your bottom line, your budget is there for a reason and needs to be taken into consideration. This is a decision that only you as a business owner can make.
Trial It
Before you completely commit to using AI in new areas of your business,it is a good idea to trialit first. This will ensure that it is going to work as you want it to, and may even show you how much-addedbenefit you will gain from it. You can ‘play’ with the technology and see what it is capable of, and of course make sure that your employees are familiar with it too, particularly those who will be working alongside it and need to be able to understand it a little more deeply.
Is everything working as it is meant to? Is everyone happy? Can you see any flaws or any way that this would negatively impact your business? These questions will need to be answered in a satisfactory way before your pilot project can be given the green light.
Start small and see what works before going further and using AI in many different areas. Although taking risks in business is often well worth it, this is one of the occasions when patience and giving yourself the chance to understand how well it could work is far more important than anything else.
Make It Part Of Your Daily Tasks
You don’t want your employees to worry about losing their jobs due to this new tech that is coming into the business, which is why, if you want to keep everything running smoothly and ensure that your employees are productive, you should incorporate AI into their daily tasks rather than immediately replacing those tasks. Make it clear that the AI is there to help, not take over from them and they will be happier to use it as much as possible.
If your employees are not on board with the idea of artificial intelligence assisting them with their work then there could be a problem – it either won’t get used as much as it should, or your employees may feel threatened and worried andtheir productivity levels will go down. Therefore, making everyone feel happy about what you are doing is something that all employees with certainly need to consider.
