4 Advantages of Artificial Intelligence for SMEs 

Artificial intelligence, this set of concepts and technologies (article on deep learning and machine learning), is really the hot topic in the business world. Predicted to be the next technological upheaval, artificial intelligence is really redefining the growth strategies of companies.  Some companies have already followed suit and recognize the benefits of artificial intelligence in their operations. For others, artificial intelligence is still a poorly understood concept, where it is difficult to fully grasp its potential in a business strategy.

In order to recognize the potential of artificial intelligence in your operations, here is:

1) Better accessibility of your customer service

Because customer service is one of the main contacts for customers, it is important to offer them the best possible availability. Solutions, such as chabots or virtual assistants, use artificial intelligence to assist customers with their various requests, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Thanks to their ability to interact with customers, these tools also make it possible to collect valuable data by questioning visitors about their tastes and preferences, and they even have the ability to capture the emotions expressed by the interlocutor.

2) Better control over your customer acquisition and loyalty processes

Artificial intelligence allows us to offer solutions to generate content, predict sales and also optimize advertising strategies. The ability to offer content, or personalized advertising to a target market, allows your sales/marketing teams to centralize their efforts to better follow the customer in the buying process.

In addition, combined with the big data, which generates data on consumption habits, purchase history, etc., it can be used to monitor the performance of the company. Artificial intelligence allows you to better identify your prospects and thus optimize your qualified leads.

3) Increase in productivity

With artificial intelligence, it is possible to improve internal processes that can slow down the workflow. Because artificial intelligence allows you to automate certain processes, it is possible to eliminate tasks that are meant to be repetitive, thus improving the performance of your processes and, above all, optimizing the use of your human capital.

4) Obtain accurate and reliable information for your decision-making processes

Thanks to the data generated in your company, it is possible to obtain, via artificial intelligence, strategic information for your decision making. The main advantage of obtaining information generated by your data is to get your hands-on information that comes directly from your systems and therefore, offers an important view of the efficiency of your operations.  Whether it is operations, sales, inventory, transportation, etc., data analysis based on artificial intelligence allows you to have an overview of your daily operations and to better target your future actions, according to the predictions that this information will bring you. Microsoft’s Power BI analysis service is a good example of the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence within a decision-making process.

Remember that artificial intelligence is designed to be able to think like humans. Therefore, in the so-called applied artificial intelligence, we find mainly two main concepts: machine learning and deep learning.

The learning machine 

Machine learning is teaching computers to learn in the same way as humans do, by interpreting the data around us. Through a grouping of algorithms, which develop knowledge from data, machine learning makes it possible to perform a specific task without having to refer to formal instructions. A good example of the use of this concept of artificial intelligence can be found in digital advertising, for example, when you shop online for a mattress and mattress company advertisements appear on other websites not intended for the sale of mattresses. You should know that this kind of phenomenon is not random and that these digital advertising companies use this type of artificial intelligence, which is the learning machine. These companies use your data in order to understand your needs and thus exploit this data to make personalized product placement, which is based on your search history.

Deep Learning  

Deep learning is an improved version of the learning machine. This innovation was developed with the aim of eliminating human intervention in the machine learning process. Rather than evolving from data provided by man, as proposed by machine learning, the concept of deep learning was designed to allow the machine to evolve without any human intervention, relying only on data for the development of its knowledge.  This concept is mainly used to predict consumption behaviour by considering different data that are known to influence purchasing behaviour. This can range from the temperature to the price of gold, to trends recorded on social networks; in short, any type of data recorded in the past and present can be used to predict your future results and adjust your business model accordingly.

Because we are now in an era where it is now possible to teach a machine what humans are currently doing in factories, offices, warehouses and homes, artificial intelligence, machine learning and in-depth learning are not only here to stay, but also to evolve and take a relatively important place in businesses.