What is AI? How Can AI Transform Businesses

What Is AI And How Does It Work?

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. It refers to the venture that seeks to recreate human intelligence within machines. This field has always been highly debated and interrogated, to the point that no one definition of the term Artificial Intelligence has been considered or universally accepted.

However, a basic explanation of the term AI would mean merely that it is a computer system or a machine or bots that can replicate tasks done by human beings. It carries out repetitive, rule-based, learning, and problem-solving tasks which generally demand human intelligence, using methods that involve rules, Machine Learning (ML), and AI algorithms.

AI is often associated with dystopian theories involving robots in the distant future, but this is not the case at all. AI is progressing rapidly even as we speak, with some existing models varying from commonly used virtual assistants such as SIRI, to Google Maps, e-payment methods, and self-driving vehicles.

Artificial intelligence that exists today is Narrow AI or weak AI, designed to carry out specific tasks like calculations during a virtual game of chess, or facial recognition features on a smartphone. However, the long-term goal of most AI scientists and researchers is to create a stronger AI, or General AI, designed to outsmart and outperform humans at possibly every cognitive task.

Uses of AI

AI is put to different uses in various domains:

1. Artificial Intelligence As A Service (Aiaas):

Recently, AIaaS has become more popular worldwide. Every company aspires to use Artificial Intelligence to further their profitability in the market, build brand image and enhance their businesses. However, AI machines are extremely pricey, and the service fees of AI programmers, equally high. Various small and medium scale companies found themselves unable to invest a large amount of money in AI. Fortunately, AIaaS proved helpful to such companies as it allowed third-party vendors to provide AIaaS and assist them in focusing on their business without having to learn AI from scratch.

This has resulted in increased profitability with reduced risk of investments. With AIaaS in place, it has reduced the need for huge investments and increased the chances of growth for businesses. However, some of the disadvantages of AIaaS are, that with the involvement of third-party vendors, there is a loss of transparency, risk of data leaks, and sometimes high costs. Some of the popular vendors of AIaaS are Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services.

2. Artificial Intelligence in Business:

Results of recent research have found that there are many applications of AI in the business world. Companies like UBER have developed their businesses significantly using AI programming features. Some of the uses of AI are:

• AI chatbots and software in the field of customer service have considerably reduced the need for company-consumer interactions in dispute resolution, complaint submissions, and FAQs about company processes. Tasks like customers placing their orders, obtaining information, registering complaints, and query resolution, etc. are now fully automated.
• There has been ample use of AI in recent times to amplify business insights and comprehend valuable data. Business tools and analytics services such as the Microsoft Power BI employs AI to determine what tactics and strategies are effective for marketing and business growth.
• Today, consumers come across various companies trying to market their products with limited resources. AI helps create personalized marketing profiles and targets for each consumer, thus saving time and effort. This is done by utilizing AI’s predictive analytics features to forecast the consumers’ demands and needs using data that they have submitted online previously by filling forms or purchasing items they need.

3. AI in security:

Artificial Intelligence uses security mechanisms that help differentiate between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in virtual spaces, and flag changes that seem bad. Many enterprises use AI extensively to spot suspicious activities and respond to cybercrimes. Such processes help save the time that would be required for human security forces to track, identify and eliminate suspicious activity online. This eliminates the need for extreme human intervention.

Challenges Of Artificial Intelligence:

Some challenges that are likely to be encountered by enterprises or companies adopting AI mechanisms are as follows:

1. AI can be programmed to carry out various tasks, but the method it chooses to execute the task might be inappropriate sometimes. For example, if a company employs AI for geoengineering purposes that act as advantages to humans, the AI could neglect ecosystem-related factors in the process. Such mishaps are likely unless meticulously programmed to avoid such situations. However, scientists and engineers work tirelessly to avoid such mishaps
2. AI systems consume a lot of power due to their algorithm, and in most cases, this means a huge investment is required. However, with AIaaS, it has reduced the costs and with corporations like Google and Microsoft as big players, we hope the costs will reduce in the near future.
3. To the common man, AI performance is a mystery. How the process is carried out and the way AI algorithm works are not something that a layman would understand. Trust issues related to the security and privacy of the data arise when there is less or no understanding of the technology.
4. Major companies are finding themselves charged with unethical use of AI programming to obtain user data. So, other countries are putting GDPR (General Data Protection Rules) in place to prevent such misuse of users’ data.

Opportunities For AI

Several business opportunities go hand in hand with Artificial Intelligence, such as tracking business competitors and opportunities. Analyzing data for improved marketing tactics for products and services, simplifying the computation of complex data and algorithms, etc.

Artificial Intelligence has become an integral part of business, and will increase in efficiency, productivity, and save time. With the introduction of AI in organizations, a lot of existing job roles will become obsolete and will cease to exist. This will result in employees reskilling themselves to stay ahead of their competition and learn more to improve their efficiency.

To conclude, AI, with its various applications, features, challenges, and opportunities, proves to be a promising field in the world of business and technology.