How Businesses Use AI to Boost Revenue In the era of big data, digitization has enabled the conditions for AI applications to flourish and generate revenue.
By Archil Cheishvili Edited by Amanda Breen
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Artificial Intelligence is perhaps the most hyped technology of the 21st century, and it is now rapidly making its way into your workplace. In the last four years alone, the use of AI at an enterprise level has grown 270%. As the first wave of AI-based solutions is establishing markets, it has become obvious that businesses are deploying the AI technology mainly to replace the redundant human workforce and save costs in the long run.
In the era of big data, digitization has enabled the conditions for AI applications to flourish and generate revenue. But one can only wonder how exactly AI helps businesses achieve that.
In its essence, AI improves any company's ability to increase its revenue on multiple fronts. For instance, through AI, businesses can detect very weak signals and generate more accurate forecasts regarding inventory prices, logistics, demand and supply. But more importantly, AI is extremely fast and automates the analysis of large chunks of data to improve real-time decision-making. With this in mind, let us take a quick look at different ways AI can boost your business revenue.
Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Use AI to Boost Their Business
AI increases employee productivity
One of the main reasons behind that drive is AI's potential to boost employee productivity. While it's not some silver bullet that will show immediate results, there are various reasons why we're excited:
- It automates redundant tasks. Fear for job security often comes intertwined with mentioning AI in the context of the workplace. It has been predicted that AI will render various jobs redundant and replace half of the workforce by 2033. It will replace many jobs, but at the same time, it will create many new, more fulfilling jobs.
- It keeps workers happy. While AI directly improves employee productivity by automating redundant and mundane tasks, it indirectly helps with increased work satisfaction in employees. AI tools have been deployed to analyze the emojis and certain keywords used on workplace communication platforms like Slack, so using these, you can subjectively gauge employee satisfaction in your workplace.
- It has high computational power. AI is superior to its human counterpart when it comes to solving complex problems and recognizing patterns. For instance, we have AI programs that can scan complex legal documents to fetch relevant information. This frees employees to focus on tasks that add value to your business.
Related: Here's What AI Will Never Be Able to Do
AI increases sales
AI has various simple solutions to offer when it comes to improving your sales numbers, and that includes investing in the correct technology, evaluating products and bringing a shift in marketing strategies:
- It creates a refined sales tunnel. AI can be leveraged to analyze data and identify patterns in consumer behavior in your sales funnel faster and with more accuracy than a human. Post-processing, your sales team will be left with only high-quality leads, which won't require much vetting.
- It results in targeted marketing strategies. A solid marketing strategy is core to the success of any organization, and targeting your campaigns to reach the right audience will give you the best results. AI-powered marketing tools like chatbots, advertising platforms and data-collection systems will be helpful in this venture. AI can also generate personalized content based on customer data in the CRM, and this will further help in automating a sales pursuit.
- It leads to optimized prices. Most organizations heavily rely on salesmen to determine the final price of a product in pursuit of closing a deal. AI is well-suited for tasks such as these, and based on win-loss rates and path deals, it can identify ideal discounts and the right timing for closing the deals.
Related: When Should You Not Invest in AI?
AI helps cut costs
Identifying areas where you can cut costs is just as important as finding new revenue streams, and when AI is put to use in daily operations, it can pinpoint such areas and offer various cost-cutting tactics. Here are a few ways:
- Automation. Automation in tasks like data analysis, recruitment and customer support can help employees focus on tasks that are more pressing and require human acumen. According to Forbes, automation technology can save businesses north of $4 million every year.
- Customer service. Smart chatbots can power up your customer-support operations and help you save both time and money answering repetitive questions and collecting feedback. While it surely can't replace the human customer-service representative, it can replicate the experiences to a great degree and offer 24/7 availability to your customers, among numerous other benefits.
Artificial intelligence has evolved to become a critical asset that businesses can't ignore if they want to stay competitive. It's safe to say that this technology is no longer the future — it is the present, and intuitive solutions are helping individuals fulfill their demands for AI services. Finding and adopting AI-driven solutions that suit your business early on will without a doubt have a positive impact on your business revenue. So hop on board the AI bandwagon today.
