The revolutionary technology is transforming big businesses because they have the budget and they can invest in costly products. This helps them gain more profits. Although, for small businesses, it would be disastrous to dismiss machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence(AI) and other related transforming technologies because of their expensiveness and complications. AI technologies are cost-effective and more accessible now than ever. Small businesses can use it as a viable tool on scanty budgets.
The costs have come down and competition has increased as more companies have developed and adopted AI solutions and automation. Half of the net job creation and more than 40% of US GDP is due to small businesses.
A wide range of AI uses are affecting small businesses and small businesses can take advantage of automation technologies and AI in many important departments of a business. Chatbots can improve customer service in small businesses by the availability at 24/7, marketing automation tools can explore new possibilities for business auto, talent management solution can assist in hiring smarter employees and back-office efficiency could be improved by process automation software. In fact, AI is the future of every business, by not taking the right decision at the right time, can take you out of the competition very easily.
Most importantly automation produces digital data that is useable in machine learning. Here are some ways AI is helping small businesses:
How AI is helping small businesses
Marketing Automation:
One of the top advantages of AI for small businesses lies in marketing automation. In the busy routine of businesses, it is very hard for a business to dedicate time to comb through various types of customer data such as preferences that what he wants or what he likes, behaviour towards products and offers, demographics that tell us number of customers or number of customers interested in a specific product and any other data that might help a business to understand a potential customer.
Geo-targeting would help a business increase their clientele even it can increase 87% of sales according to a company Dole who used AI. By using this technology small businesses can benefit from the technology.
Compulsory for data-centric solutions:
Your small business can’t take advantage of artificial advantage and machine learning without digital data. Process automation can benefit administration. Processing forms, scheduling meetings and organizing files don’t require much skill but these tasks consume important time that an organization can utilise in any other innovation or business tasks.
Using paper ledgers and excel for daily activities makes it hard to find files and folder for employees in case of any crisis. Employees waste too much time using these traditional approaches for entries and correcting mistakes. Due to resource constraints, small businesses can’t afford unproductive employees. AI can automate this process and improves productivity by removing inefficiencies and performing functions accurately such as send notifications and reminders to customers.
Find and hire the right person:
Small businesses don’t have HR resources to find the right talent like larger companies. They normally use their own network to find the right skilful person, which tend to be smaller. For one single opening, an organization receive plenty of applications and small businesses don’t have enough staff and time to go through all applications to find eligible applicants. 52% of recruitment professionals find it the hardest part of their job according to a survey.
Here AI can help you hire potential employees who could be more invested in your company. From analyzing speech AI can predict future interests and behaviour of a person. Facial expressions could be also very helpful for understanding and predicting the productivity of a person. Identity verification services are used by businesses to verify the identity of their clients and employees.
Efficient Backend Organization:
We often hear about AI will take jobs and replace humans. Is it true? Not at all. Generally, it makes more sense to view AI is a technology that helps in completing daily tasks that are assigned to it. AI at this stage is not advanced enough to complete all tasks on its own. It still requires human involvement to show progress.
AI can automate many backend-logistics operations such as scheduling tasks, basic accounting, and other forms of routine operations that should be done in a day-to-day organization. Consider the fact that small businesses have a limited number of employees. It is crucial for them to shift these time taking tasks to artificial intelligence and use human capital efficiently for other purposes. It will help them grow with less investment.
It is beneficial for the company in terms of saving money and it is also beneficial in terms of employees loyalty. It will reduce the burden on employees of daily tasks. Employees can concentrate to do more meaningful tasks by getting rid of monotonous tasks. According to a survey, employee are more happy in an AI-based company and willing to work for the long term.
Use of chatbots for effective customer service:
Effective and responsive customer service is very crucial for a business. Clients of any business seek help and assistance from customer service. By 2020, all customer service interactions will be non-human according to Gartner. Because chatbots are more active and are capable of extracting information far better than humans.
Providing quality customer service is not the only use of chatbots. Depending on your industry chatbots can engage in a great experience for users.
Some tools of artificial intelligence are cost-effective and can be used in e-commerce. Depending on your comfort level and website improvement goals, there are several ways you can invest in artificial intelligence.
There are many examples of using artificial intelligence and machine learning for customer support and system automation. But as eCommerce is one of the top industries now, many companies are using artificial intelligence with digital marketing, analytics and many other complex issues.
After a series of short experiments, an e-commerce business can invest in advance tools to improve customer experience and internal processes. Some benefits are enlisted below that eCommerce business can achieve by using artificial intelligence.
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