AI & the bionic business
Get stronger, faster, smarter
As a business owner, you know that there are always challenges to contend with – minor ones that crop up daily and larger ones that have the potential to rock your business foundation. You also know that it’s important to maintain a sense of confidence, even when you might feel lost and adrift. After all, your employees and customers look to you for leadership.
Bad news for small and medium businesses
In recent months, businesses face historic challenges–talk of a recession, inflation, and increasing business costs, including supply chain issues. These things can certainly wear down your confidence. But as a business owner, you can’t afford to let them break your spirit. After all, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And you are certainly a tough business owner!
Make your business bionic
You don’t need six million dollars to make your business bionic. You may just need a few new tools to create your competitive advantage. This is where AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) come in. Increasingly, AI/ML provides small and medium-sized businesses with a competitive advantage at an operational level. In other words, they can help you operate more efficiently and effectively- giving you the edge you need to succeed.
The AI revolution is real, not just hype
The future is here, and businesses that don’t use AI/ML miss the opportunities to save money, if nothing else. In fact, these technologies have the potential to revolutionize how your business operates and explain how you can get started using them in your business.
AI isn’t just for enterprises
One common misconception about AI is that it’s only for big companies with a lot of resources. These technologies can be used by any size business- even solopreneurs or small teams. And the truth is, the smaller and nimbler your business is, the easier it will be to implement AI/ML and see results.
Different types of machine learning
Different types of machine learning technologies include cognitive processing and language processing. Cognitive computing is a type of machine learning technology that relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to simulate human thought processes. This technology can be used to process unstructured data, such as text, images, videos, and sound. Language processing is another type of machine learning technology that uses artificial intelligence to understand and interpret human language. This technology can be used to translate text from one language to another, or to create chatbots that can respond to human conversation.
AI/ML = automation
One of the biggest benefits of AI/ML is automation. Think about all the repetitive tasks that take up your time and energy on a daily basis- scheduling appointments, responding to emails, filtering through data. AI and ML can automate these tasks, freeing up valuable time and resources for you to focus on growing your business and offering top-notch service to your customers.
Introducing a free personal AI, like Siri, Alexa, or Cortana, into your business day is one way to get AI working for you right away. You can start by integrating your AI assistant with your calendar. Or try experimenting with a platform like ChatGPT.
Analyzing large amounts of data
Another way AI/ML can benefit your business is through data analysis. These technologies can quickly and accurately analyze large sets of data, providing valuable insights that can improve decision making and strategy development. Whether it’s analyzing customer behavior or financial data, AI/ML can give you a competitive edge in understanding and predicting trends.
Improving customer service with AI chatbots
Finally, AI/ML can also enhance your customer service. Chatbots powered by AI and ML can provide quick and personalized responses to customer inquiries, improving the overall experience for your clients. You can explore popular customer service AI solutions like Zendesk, which make deploying a bot quick and painless.
AI apps for (almost) everything
You can check out all kinds of AI apps for almost every industry now, so make sure you search the web for new AI apps and at least consider what they can do for you. We list some below.
Please note: Because we don’t use them, we’re not recommending these AI solutions. Instead, we recommend you investigate products such as these as part of your AI discovery and vetting process. You should also talk to your IT team and/or IT partner before you sign up to any subscription.
Now, let’s share some AI apps!
If you have an interest in AI startups from Canada, like we do, you might want to check out Canada AI.
For retailers especially, accounting is complex, labor-intensive, prone to human error and therefore costly, making it a perfect candidate for AI assistance.
Botkeeper and Vic.ai solutions might help you automate some of those accounting and book-keeping tasks and Fyle uses AI to help you manage expenses.
Captain AI helps restaurants who deliver smarten up their food delivery. They picked up a contract with Pizza Pizza that puts their technology to work.
Building your own AI solution
Some digital agencies and some development companies can help you build an AI app or enhance your current app with AI technologies available in Amazon, Microsoft, and Google clouds, who invite business from independent software vendors, especially those using AI.
They will assist you in getting your offer to market on their app marketplaces. If you have the ambition and budget to productize your ideas, participating in a partner program with a big cloud provider can unlock enormous opportunity and competitive advantage, even $.
Microsoft, Google, and Amazon covet independent software vendors (ISVs) specializing in AI/ML because they recognize the enormous potential.
Finding an AI future
There’s no denying it- the future is here. And as a savvy business owner, it’s time to embrace AI and ML and harness their power to revolutionize your business. Start by introducing your AI assistant into your workday and integrate it with your calendar. Then do some searching. Every day new AI apps appear to serve more business segments, including yours, that automate labor-intensive processes to save time and money. Finally, if you have the budget and ambition to productize your ideas, you can engage a digital agency or development company and a public cloud partner to build your AI solution and bring it to market!