4 of the Best Ways to Use AI in Business

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has created a lot of disruption in the business world. 

From top-line brands like Amazon and Walmart to mom-and-pop stores, 37% of brands are using AI to streamline their processes. In less than a decade, AI has transformed from a technology that intimidated entrepreneurs into a technology that they can’t function without. 

Why, you wonder?

AI-based automation tools offer massive benefits to brands, including:

• They can free humans to participate in more cognitive tasks.

• They are free from human errors and prejudice.

• They can empower decision makers with intelligent analytics.

It’s no wonder that AI adoption has gone up by 270% in a period of four years (2016-20). It’s also obvious that brands that don’t leverage AI will lose out to competitors who are more dynamic in this regard.

Are you on the losing end?

Don’t worry. In this article, I’ll discuss four simple ways to make AI work for your business. To give you more context, I’ll also support each use case with examples of AI in action.

Let’s dive right in.

4 Ways AI Can Transform Your Business

AI has permeated every vertical of the corporate world, from sales to product design. However, there are certain use cases where AI is particularly successful and its results are proven. 

These are the areas where you should invest your energy. That will eliminate risks and deliver a good return on your investment.

Take a look at some business areas where AI gives guaranteed results:  

1. AI Improves Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is one of the most bankable tactics to generate leads, build your brand, and boost sales. So, there's a good chance that you are leveraging it to grow your business. 

However, adding AI to the digital marketing equation can give you better returns, especially in these three areas:

Builds Accurate Customer Personas

Customer personas are at the heart of digital marketing. AI-backed tools are able to build precise personas after analyzing millions of data points in seconds. They can delve into granular details, such as the tone and emotion of your target audience. This kind of analysis is beyond the scope of non-AI tools.

Need more inspiration?

Ecommerce mega-store, Amazon, ideates fine campaigns for digital marketing.  It’s also at the helm of cutting-edge AI technology. Amazon’s purchase suggestions at check-out are not random guesswork. 

Their AI-powered search engine studies each customer’s browsing and purchase history to come up with relevant suggestions. The recommendations are so on-point that Amazon is able to drive substantial revenue through upselling. Also, you can integrate a chatbot with Windows VPS to increase the security of business.

Optimizes Advertising Campaigns

Advertising in cyberspace doesn't come cheap but AI can help you draw maximum returns from your ad spend. AI-powered marketing tools can craft ad copy that evokes emotional response from viewers and spurs them towards conversion. These tools can also predict bidding spots that are best-positioned to grab attention. 

Not convinced?

AI-based platform, Albert, has helped Harley-Davidson (HD) build more powerful ad campaigns. The motorcycle brand was able to retarget more precisely after Albert identified accurate “lookalikes.” By looping back lost website visitors and customers, the brand boosted their leads per month by a whopping 2930%.

Image via Albert

Out of the total sales in 2017, HD attributes nearly 40% to Albert’s “intelligent” ad campaigns.

Improves Social Media Presence

Social media marketing is a key ingredient of digital marketing. Most sophisticated social media management tools are powered by AI. Through sentiment analysis, these tools are able to predict content that best matches a particular social platform’s audience and tone. 

That’s not all. Influencers can give you visibility on overcrowded social networks. AI can help you find the right influencers for your brand. They scan millions of influencer profiles and metrics to find influencers who align with your niche, values, and audience demographics. 

Need an example?

Watson is an AI tool that is used by A-list brands for many purposes, including influencer discovery. For IBM’s Influential, the natural language processing (NLP) mechanism in Watson worked like magic. 

Watson analyzed the last 22,000 words posted by influencers who were on the brand’s shortlist. It zeroed down on influencers with compatible brand-affinity and values, thus saving the brand many hours and dollars. 

2. AI Helps Improve Customer Experience

Customer service and experience is the most-explored application of AI in business. Using AI-powered tools like chatbots, AR, and VR, brands can give their customers a personal, immersive experience that fosters loyalty in the long term.

You can embed conversational chatbot platforms on your website and in apps to serve visitors with a personal touch. These virtual assistants can mimic live agents and solve customer requests with minimal human intervention.

As bots engage with your customers, they gather data from them to build comprehensive customer profiles. Using NLP, they are able to understand the nuances of human language.

Sophisticated bots can even recognize the faces and voices of users. Using complex algorithms, they draw insights about users, which helps them offer contextual responses.

What else?

Brands are also using AR and VR to improve in-store experience for their customers. LoweBots are roaming robots that guide lost customers to the items on their shopping lists. 

Their embedded sensors scan the store for customers in distress. On the first indication, they swoop into action and assist shoppers till they check out.

Image via YouTube

That’s assistive technology at its best, right? 

3. AI Supports SEO Efforts

Brands with a web presence need SEO to stand out from the competition. There are many ways by which AI can support your SEO efforts, but its application in voice search is most notable.

Why’s that?

Because voice search is the latest trend in SEO.  

Who hasn’t heard of Alexa and Siri? But did you know these voice assistants are powered by AI?

Like chatbots, these tools use NLP to decipher voice queries. After repeated one-to-one interactions with the same user, they start understanding minute nuances of human language. Over time, their responses change from vague to accurate.

Image via Loupe Ventures

Since most branded websites are low on accessibility, AI’s voice search can give your brand a competitive edge. In this way, you can meet the special needs of disabled customers. You can also qualify as ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant, which is a hallmark of credibility for web-savvy brands. You can also encourage them to use VPNs to secure their online privacy as it is an essential tool nowadays

That's how ecommerce businesses are using AI to boost their sales and brand reputation.

4. AI Can Help You Manage Teams and Projects

Smart brands are always prepared for contingencies. But traditional project management tools don’t facilitate the advance planning of people and resources. They help in post-mortem analysis of crisis situations, which holds no value to proactive managers. 

That’s where AI tools can come in handy.

AI-based management tools raise timely alerts when inventory falls short by studying historical production records. They can also help with budgeting and optimizing supply chains. 

Is that all?

Not really. If you have distributed remote and on-site teams, AI can simplify resource allocation for you. You can manage your remote teams by leveraging these tools’ predictive analysis. They help allocate resources judiciously to each team worker after weighing their past performance and workload.

By using AI in day-to-day operations, you can avoid downtime and become more productive.

Ready to Give Your Business the AI-Edge?

AI is the way forward for modern brands. If you’re still sitting on the fence about using AI, it’s time to dive into action. Luckily, AI-based tools are more accessible and affordable than ever before. And the best way to get assured returns from this technology is by exploring the use cases covered in this article.

Do you have any questions about AI or its application? Write them in the comments below. I’ll be happy to reply.