How Can AI Boost Your Start-Up?
Artificial intelligence, what once seemed like a fever dream, has now become a pillar of our everyday lives. From startups to large enterprises, everyone wants to board the AI train. And while the larger companies aren’t hesitating to get their share, the question of how it can help small businesses still remains. Contrary to popular belief, people don’t need to be millionaires, or tech-savvies to utilize the best parts of AI. And those who know this can fully emerge into the experience and expand their growing empire.
Customer Service
Customers are becoming the true number one priority of businesses of all sizes. If customers feel like they aren’t your priority, they simply spend their money elsewhere. Because of this, fortunately, companies highly value the opinion and satisfaction of their customers. And believe it or not, AI can assist startups in developing the best customer relationships.
Artificial intelligence tools like chatbots are often used to bridge the gap between you and your customers. Consumers have higher expectations of customer service than they did a few years ago, and in order to give them the best customer service possible, AI is the right decision. With chatbots, communication is quick, transparent, and straightforward. It costs less than hiring and training employees and can gather data while “talking” with your audience.
These new technologies, like the aforementioned chat boxes, directly translate to better customer experience and loyalty. Instead of spending hours trying to solve trivial inquiries and small problems - neglecting some or most of your customers in the meantime - AI chat boxes are able to solve complex issues, while gathering data, and constantly communicating with your consumers. In conclusion, it’s cheaper for you than hiring employees, and more worth it than other customer service solutions, mostly thanks to its versatile nature.
Data Processing
Gathering and utilizing data is on a much higher level with AI by your side. Different tools can provide deep insight into the behavior of your customers, and even your competitors. These tools can notice trends, gather trending keywords, and analyze written, video, and image posts, to mention just a few. While data entry is not a dead career, in fact, there are several legitimate data entry jobs available, including AI can take it to a whole other level!
Utilizing this means that you can stay ahead of the curve and gain real-time insight into your customers’ needs and wants so your products and services can evolve for the better. Some large enterprises use these AI tools for the seemingly smallest decisions, like pricing, sales, language translations, offers, and more.
Development & Marketing
The way you use and translate your data directly translates to your marketing strategy. In order to help you use data intelligently, there are several AI tools at your service. These tools can make suggestions regarding your resources, price optimization strategies, promotional opportunities, and much more! They can also help discover new ideas, and even help you optimize existing ideas for different audiences. They can compare and contrast, gather keywords to go by, and trending marketing solutions.
For example, IBM’s “Watson Personality Insight” platform can scan your company’s channels, and your competition’s channels at the same time. Using this information, this tool can create your target customer personality profiles, which can improve your communication with potential clients. These types of tools can also help identify and assess influencer collaborations, or other effective messaging partners. Communication with your target audience, and recognizing messaging opportunities has never been easier. Most AI technologies that involve similar tools can analyze millions of opportunities at all times!
Human Resources
Now, more than ever, it’s crucial for companies to prioritize the maintenance and elimination of cultural biases. One of the most promising solutions for this problem is including AI in HR tasks, like recruitment. AI can not only obliterate gender, ethnicity, and sexuality-based biases, but take it one step further, and acquire feedback after the hiring process from new employees. This can help with the training process, as it’s a way for newcomers to obtain information, ask questions, and get to know the company on a deeper level.
Data Security
Cyberattacks have evolved and increased in the last few years. Therefore, cybersecurity has become more important than ever. AI tools that lend security strength could be the best investment in your company. AI can analyze past attacks, learn from them, find a pattern and/or a weakness, and protect you from potential threats. Most startups are very predictable when it comes to data security. Because they usually use cheaper, and therefore older, outdated technology and structure. Hackers know these tools like the back of their hands, therefore, startups become vulnerable. This is why it’s very important to invest in better data security tools early on, and spend more on this structure instead of spending on other trivial things.
AI-Enabling Products & Services
Companies that already utilize AI, have begun offering “tools-as-service”. This means that AI tech and tools are directly embedded into your offerings. A great example of this is Sisense’s embossed analytics tools, which introduce an opportunity for startups to create services that offer interactivity and utility to its users and the company’s clients. Netflix, Amazon, and most E-commerce companies have already made these tools second nature, using them on a daily basis.
Today, when artificial intelligence is more accessible and needed than ever, businesses should not hesitate to take advantage of such tools. They can make a huge difference in the quality of services, placing young companies into the big leagues from the get-go. And because AI is always evolving, and will continue to impact all industries greatly in the next decades, it’s very important for companies of all ages and sizes to embed and utilize these technologies. AI can not only amp up your products, services, and operations but can also lend you a helping hand to beat your competition.