How Using AI Could Enhance Your Business Operations
Explore the transformative power of AI in enhancing business operations, from automation to decision-making, customer service and more. Discover how AI, while boosting productivity and streamlining processes, maintains the essential human touch in the digital business world.
The rising popularity of emerging technologies such as AI is seeing many businesses, small and big, start to reap the benefits in shorter amount of time that even before. For many of these businesses, the aim is to use AI to enhance business operations. 1 The adoption of AI has more than doubled since 2017. 2 It’s also predicted that this year could see the biggest increase in AI use for revising text, editing images and providing customer service. 3 While one of the biggest reasons companies are adopting AI technology is to reduce staff workload, it’s important to still provide a human touch to help your products and services feel authentic. 3
We’ve put together a handy list.
1. Automate tasks and analyse data
AI can help to automate repetitive or routine tasks, saving time, boosting productivity and reducing the risk of human error. 4 This can free up your employees to focus on other tasks and streamline some of your processes. One task you could automate with AI is collecting and analysing data. AI can process and analyse large amounts of data much faster than humans, and as a result, can recognise behaviours and patterns that humans may not immediately spot. 5
2. Enhance your decision making
Another way AI can enhance business operations is through informed decision making. With AI, businesses can have large amounts of data at their fingertips and use this technology to spot trends, predict future results, and suggest future actions. 4 Based on the insights from this data analysis, SMEs can use AI to solve problems or make business decisions based on company goals and values. Since AI can work faster than humans, it can save time, money and resources used in decision making. 4 However, it is important that the final decisions are made by employees, managers and business owners themselves to remain true to the business's vision.
3. Help you generate content
Businesses with a shortage of resources or time can use AI to create content for blog posts, search engine optimisation, email marketing or creating images. 6 You can use AI to suggest ideas or help you brainstorm written content or images by providing it with a text prompt. This could increase productivity in your business as AI tools require less time and fewer resources than humans. 7 While AI can provide creative inspiration before developing your content further, be aware that AI-written content is not publish-ready! Any AI-generated content should be proofread, fact-checked, and edited to make sure it aligns with your brand voice and guidelines.
4. Provide a starting point for marketing
Marketing teams can utilise AI to analyse data, identify customer trends and patterns, inspire marketing campaigns and strategies, and enhance customer experience. 5 You can then use these insights to tailor marketing campaigns to specific customers. 5 When using AI in this way, it's important to think about the brand experience your content and communications create for your customers. Does it feel right? Does it reinforce the brand? Considering these questions can help keep your content feeling authentic. 3 AI can provide a starting point, but remember that human analysis is needed to optimise AI use in marketing.
5. Enhance your customer service
Using AI in your customer service processes could provide faster response times, 24/7 support and availability, and opportunities to tailor products or services to individual customers. 8 Forbes Advisor found that 56% of businesses surveyed are using AI for customer service. 1 AI-powered chatbots allow customers to access support without waiting for a customer support agent, helping you to support more customers. They can also act as triage, sending any queries or issues they can’t answer through to an agent. 8 As with our other examples of AI for business operations, AI interactions with your consumers should be overseen by a human being for quality control.
However you use it, it’s worth considering using AI to enhance your business operations. In general, you might consider using AI for tasks like brainstorming ideas, organising your thoughts, getting content suggestions, and getting caption or image suggestions. But, a human touch will be better for creating content strategies, editing and refining captions and text, ensuring images are up to brand standards, and interacting with your audience on social media.
Sources:
- https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/ai-in-business/
- https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-in-2022-and-a-half-decade-in-review
- https://hootsuite.widen.net/s/mgqjjznhsx/hootsuitesocialtrends2024_report_en
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/11/21/the-top-five-ways-ai-is-transforming-business/?sh=63e3ea9f8e7f
- https://pg-online.leeds.ac.uk/blogs/5-ways-ai-is-changing-business/
- https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/finance-hub/ai-trends-how-ai-can-help-small-businesses/
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40821-020-00172-8
- https://www.ibm.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-use-cases/
