Impact of Artificial Intelligence on startups and organizations
Although still in infancy, Artificial Intelligence has started to make a significant impact on businesses and organizations around the world. In fact, with the benefits that AI seems to offer, estimates suggest that by 2018, almost 62% organizations will be using AI. Between 2015 and 2016, the global funding for AI startups escalated by nearly 60%, which is quite impressive. Today, an increasing number of startups are deploying AI tools to enhance their overall functioning.
Source
So much so that every organization, no matter how big or small, is looking to leverage the benefits of Artificial Intelligence and overhaul its operations. If you wish to get in-depth and understand the nitty-gritty surrounding the domain, we recommend you go through artificial intelligence courses that’ll set your foundation correct.
As AI continues to penetrate the enterprise sector rapidly, it is compelling leaders to rethink and reshape their infrastructure and core values to complement AI. According to Deloitte’s 2017 Human Capital Trends Report (a survey of 10,000 HR and Business leaders across 140 nations), technological innovations and advances are transforming businesses today, right from operations to human resources. The study further demonstrates that 56% of organizations are restructuring their HR programs to incorporate digital tools, and 33% are utilizing AI technologies to accomplish HR functions.
So, how exactly is AI positively impacting startups and organizations?
Leadership
When you incorporate AI into the working of your organization, it will disrupt the traditional hierarchical structure in favor of a team-oriented approach. Reinstating this quality of AI, Ian Crosby, co-founder, and CEO of Bench, says:
“To integrate AI, you have to have an internal team of expert product people and engineers that know its application and are working very closely with the frontline teams that are actually delivering services.”
Source
Deloitte’s survey found that “32% of respondents are redesigning their organizations to be more team-centric, optimizing them for adaptability and learning in preparation for technological disruption.”
However, things will not change in a day. To harness the full potential of AI, leaders need to start off with small steps and changes, giving the employees enough time and space to learn as they go and evolve gradually.
Marketing and Sales
In today’s era of customization, customers are demanding personalized experiences – they want their buying experiences to be custom tailored to their specific needs. AI analytics and tools are helping to make this a reality. These smart tools can ‘learn’ customer behavior patterns and their tastes and preferences by gathering data from a large pool of resources – be it the social media or online shopping platforms. Hence, with AI, the marketers can chalk out their digital marketing strategies and content accordingly.
Source
Amazon has put forth one of the most exceptional cases of success with AI and machine learning. Ever since the online shopping magnate started leveraging the potential of AI tools, it has been able to curate personal recommendations for online shoppers based on their previous purchases and ‘viewed’ items. In this way, it has completely customized the shopping experience for individuals by ‘learning’ their preference patterns. Another good example is the WayBlazer, a travel company. Powered by IBM’s Watson, WayBlazer applies cognitive analytics to social data to figure out which destination will appeal to which customer persona, thereby providing highly personalized travel recommendations for their client base.
By conducting business in such a way, startups and organizations can not only expand the reach of their brand but also ensure better and higher ROI.
Human Resources
Source
When it comes to AI, a substantial portion of the populace is still skeptical about it. The biggest fear is that AI will take over human jobs and render many as jobless. While the concern is certainly justified, it cannot be denied that AI will also create massive career opportunities. Rohan Silva, a former Senior Policy Adviser to David Cameron, optimistically states:
“The technology revolution is not just destroying jobs – it’s creating huge numbers of new ones too, especially in areas like IT and the creative industries. And the good news is that the new jobs being created pay an average of £10,000 a year more than the jobs being lost to automation.”
According to Josh Bersin, Founder of Bersin by Deloitte, AI is not displacing jobs, but it is ‘creating’ new ones:
“What we concluded is that what AI is definitely doing is not eliminating jobs, it is eliminating tasks of jobs, and creating new jobs, and the new jobs that are being created are more human jobs.”
AI can take over the jobs of selecting the best candidates for a company, send automated emails or text messages as responses, monitor the productivity of workers, and so on. This will take off a considerable load from the HRs and managers, who can then focus on enhancing the other core areas of business. Thus, the overall productivity of companies will only increase.
Project Management
Source
Using Artificial Intelligence in project management can help you effortlessly manage and administer the functioning of various projects of your organization, without any manual inputs. Not only will this tool help automate simple tasks, but it will also help in solving problems that were previously considered unsolvable.
Polymath and Philosopher, Michael Polanyi, aptly stated:
“We all know more than we can tell but with machine learning, we don’t have to be able to tell or explain what to do. We just have to show examples.”
As more data keeps on piling up, AI analytics will help break down this data into distinct patterns, thereby revealing new solutions that companies can use. With technological innovations, making accurate predictions will become much easier. These reliable predictions will allow leaders to carefully assess the potential risks and devise their company strategies wisely. Thus, AI will save both time and valuable resources.
To conclude, it can be safely said that the future of enterprise looks brighter with AI. As AI technologies continue to develop as we speak, that day is not far enough when businesses and companies around the world will accept AI with open arms to keep their foundation strong in this cut-throat competitive market.