How Artificial Intelligence is Affecting Business

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is getting a lot of press in the business world today. Some say that AI will replace large segments of the workforce, while others contend that AI will simply support today’s knowledge workers, providing capabilities that are beyond a human being’s capacity. The truth seems to lie somewhere in between.

A pollOpens a new window conducted by Tata Consultancy Services indicated that 84 percent of the global companies that responded to the poll view AI as essential to competitiveness. The companies also anticipated that AI would reduce headcount in affected departments while simultaneously creating the need for three times more jobs to take advantage of AI capabilities. However, according to an articleOpens a new window published in the Harvard Business Review, current uses of AI don’t indicate a move to replace human beings.

Information Technology

Information technology professionals are among the first to adopt AI in a number of areas. For example, companies are using AI in the fight against cyberattacks. An AI application can spot and track a hacker’s approach to a company’s computer network much faster and more comprehensively than a human being can. That capability is helping overworked IT professionals keep up with the increase in hacking attempts. As a result, their usefulness to their bosses is actually increasing.

Manufacturing

AI is also making inroads in the manufacturing arena. Today, the application is most often directed at machine-to-machine communication. AI can be used to poll machines involved in the production line much more quickly than a human can. When a production problem is identified, an AI application may shut down a production line, but it’s the human beings who are alerted to resolve the issue.

Sales, Marketing and Customer Service

AI is being used in Customer ServiceOpens a new window to make existing employees more productive. AI systems can interact with people calling in to a support center and either resolve their issue or gather enough information to route them to the appropriate customer service representative.

This type of application satisfies the customer because they aren’t stuck choosing options from a seemingly endless set of questions and they get quicker service. It benefits the company because support representatives can focus their attention on solving issues that require their expertise.

For sales and marketing professionals, the big questions today revolve around gathering and using customer analytics. This is an area where AI can make a significant contribution. For example, identifying and qualifying leads is typically a time-consuming process for marketing and sales teams. And with the market demanding more personalized interaction, the task is even more complicated.

While companies generally have access to a large amount of data about their leads and customers, the addition of AI capabilities has led to making that data useful. Lead scoringOpens a new window makes it possible for marketing to pass on leads that are more qualified to the sales teams. AI provides the ability to gather a wide range of information and analyze it using predictive models to identify the leads most likely to convert to customers.

In addition, as the lead moves through the sales process, additional information can be gathered and used to offer more personalized conversion paths.

Accounting

Accounting is another area where AI is working to extend the capabilities of finance employees. For example, an extremely time-consuming task in any accounting department is processing invoices. Traditionally, a crew of accounting staff members opened envelopes containing invoices, entered them into an accounting system, assigned the expense to the correct general ledger account and then routed the paper invoice for approval and payment.

Advances in technology are turning many of the paper invoices into electronic transmissions. In addition, OCR capabilities make it much easier to convert paper invoices into machine-readable forms. That technology is now being married with AI systems that can read and interpret the electronic invoicesOpens a new window , assign GL codes and flag any invoices that require human interaction to resolve discrepancies. These systems can process a large number of invoices in a fraction of the time that would be required by a staff member.

In addition, these systems can learn based on corrections made by their human counterparts. An automated system knows which companies are approved vendors, the terms used by those vendors, and more. It makes managing cash flow, avoiding fraud and monitoring purchases much more effective.

The best outcome of applying AI to the accounting process is the opportunities it produces. Once freed from many manual processes, accounting departments can focus on performing tasks that can’t be performed by machines. For example, the accounting department can become more involved in managing vendor relationships and providing valuable financial and operational insights about the company as a whole.

Will Machines Replace Employees?

Many companies are finding that machine-to-machine applications of AI represent the greatest return on investment, not applications designed to replace employees. Just like early technology innovations, AI is being used to do more with the same number of employees. It’s also freeing employees to perform more strategic functions that they had no time to address before machine learning hit the scene.

Certainly, AI hasn’t reached its full potential. There may be a time in the future when AI systems can replace people. However, for now, the biggest return on investment is being realized with systems that save people time and provide additional insights into customers and operations.