Artificial intelligence (AI) offers exciting possibilities for businesses. With 35% of companies using AI and another 42% exploring AI for upcoming implementation, it’s clear that AI is here to stay for the foreseeable future. But artificial intelligence involves multi-faceted technology with far-reaching implications for businesses that include, but aren’t limited to, its benefits. To truly understand the impact applications of artificial intelligence may have on businesses, you have to examine the nuances of the AI ecosystem. Find out how businesses are using AI and how it’s impacting the workforce. 

Artificial Intelligence and Business Today

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly common for companies looking to enhance efficiencies and automate tedious tasks. As it continues to evolve, businesses are now using AI tools to interpret huge amounts of data which can enable better decision making. Exploding Topics shows that 87% of businesses believe AI gives them a competitive advantage.

AI has certainly had its fair share of critics, but it continues to move to the forefront to help companies enhance their business operations. Although AI is still young, there are many evolving use cases for AI in business. Because an approximate 77% of businesses are either already using or planning to implement AI, we can expect to see growth in the coming years. In fact, Statista predicts that AI will grow to a worldwide market value of nearly $100 billion by 2030.

How are Businesses Using Artificial Intelligence?

Businesses are using artificial intelligence to gain efficiencies, but we’re seeing so many more applications of AI beyond operational improvements.

Here are some examples:

• Automating marketing and sales processes: According to Influencer Marketing Hub, 61.4% of marketers use AI for marketing activities. Additionally, Hubspot reports that 52% of sales professionals say AI is important in their daily role.
• Improving customer service: AI plays a key role in improving customer service by using chatbots to respond to inquiries and provide quick resolution to issues. Nearly eight of ten customer service professionals say AI is important to their overall strategy, reports Hubspot.
• Better fraud protection: Businesses have found that AI can be very beneficial for identifying fraud. AI algorithms inspect behavior trends to identify anomalies for greater and faster fraud detection. This is especially helpful in financial services.
• Facility management: From better energy utilization to employee verification, AI is being used to help improve how businesses are using their physical spaces. This leads to greater cost savings, a reduced carbon footprint and better physical security. Predictive maintenance can also help to proactively identify the need for replacements and upgrades in facilities.
• Safer and enhanced manufacturing: Manufacturing has historically been a hazardous job prone to error. AI has had a particularly significant impact in this industry, helping to improve quality control and reduce human injury. Label Your Data tells us that 93% of companies “recognize AI as the key technology for propelling growth and innovation in manufacturing.”
• Streamlining the supply chain: Supply chain interruption can be devastating to businesses. AI helps to eliminate bottle necks, anticipate inventory needs and lower costs. Supply Chain Brain reports that supply chains supported by AI are 67% more efficient than their non-supported counterparts.
• Hiring: AI is helping to improve hiring processes. Optimizations in application selection and onboarding are simplifying how companies hire. OnHires reports that 95% of HR experts believe AI will help with the application process and 90% of companies use some type of AI-based recruiting tool.

How AI is Improving the Customer Experience

AI has significant capabilities for helping to improve the customer experience. Consumers no longer want to wait on hold for hours to reach customer support. Customers today demand seamless experiences across channels and quick resolutions.

Forbes reports that chatbots are the most common use case for AI in customer service, which are being used to manage inquiries about new products, answer FAQs and route customers to the right place. Demand Sage shows that chatbots have the potential to save up to 2.5 billion hours for customer service employees. This source also shows that 3 out of 4 people prefer interacting with bots over corporate agents.

AI is also being used to enhance personalization for customers, enabling a seamless omnichannel experience and better product recommendations. Segment’s State of Personalization 2023 Report tells us that 80% of business leaders report higher spending per customer when they have a personalized experience.

What AI Means for the Worker

Some workers express fear of job loss due to advancements in AI. SEO.AI reports that 30% of workers worldwide share this concern (with a much higher 74% in India). The same report shows that only 14% of workers have actually experienced job displacement to date.

Despite this fear, there are still workplace benefits to be had:

• AI provides a smoother, faster onboarding process
• It can reduce injuries by replacing hazardous jobs
• New platforms can better match worker skills to jobs
• AI can provide sophisticated reporting based on large amounts of data that leads to better decision-making
• It replaces repetitive, manual tasks while reducing errors
• Artificial intelligence enables better quality in remote working environments
• It can enable better performance management

Business Benefits of AI

AI certainly offers many benefits to businesses. It allows companies to automate rote tasks and eliminate the potential for human error. Along with greater efficiencies, AI can enable better, data-driven decision making. Improved production, services and speed of business are also advantages of implementing AI in your business. All of this will help to raise ROI and profit margins while enhancing general productivity.

The Challenges of AI

Although it’s become pretty clear that AI isn’t going anywhere, we are still seeing the technology in its childhood. There are certainly challenges to overcome. As new products and providers enter the space and startups find creative solutions for problems, we may see many of the following challenges resolved in the future.

Reduced Traffic to Website

Many businesses are expressing concern regarding reduced traffic to websites. CNBC released a news story that reflected the rising concerns of companies when it comes to using AI in search engines. Specifically, Google’s new proposed tool, a product dubbed as Search Generative Experience, would compile information that is scraped from websites to respond to search queries. However, in doing so, businesses will no longer be reaping the benefits of their content in the form of web traffic. CEO of TechRaptor, Rutledge Daugette, commented that Google is benefiting from the quality content that others are creating without so much as offering source attribution.

Becoming Too Reliant on AI

There is a fear that if we use AI to do work for us, we will become too reliant on the technology and lose the ability to perform everyday tasks without it. After all, why would we need to learn writing skills if AI can create written works for us? Why do we need graphic designers if imagery can be created for us? There’s always the fear that we see dominating cinematic themes where AI develops such sophisticated processing that it outpaces human intelligence. But more realistically, when we allow AI to perform manual tasks, we aren’t engaging our brains.

Workforce Reduction

While AI certainly has the potential to help employees become more productive, there is also a fear that increased sophistication will lead to replacing jobs altogether. A recent survey conducted by Microsoft shows that nearly half (49%) of workers fear losing their jobs to AI. In May of 2023, nearly 4,000 job losses were directly attributed to AI, according to CNBC.  Some argue that while AI may replace some jobs, it will also create others, causing more of an augmentation and shifting of jobs rather than destruction.

Misinformation

There is concern regarding how AI will be used to spread misinformation. Generative AI is used to compile text based on information that is scrubbed from different sources. Because the technology isn’t able to discern credible sources from non-credible ones, the output can contain misinformation. A study conducted by Freedom House recently reported that generative AI was used in 16 countries to spread misinformation, leading to a 12^th consecutive-year decline in what it notes as global internet freedom. Deepfakes are also being used to sway public opinion and make false claims appear to be genuine. This Forbes even details how AI was being used to show real reporters deliver fake new stories. The troubling rise of the misuse of this technology has many concerned with the future of AI.

The Impact of ChatGPT

The release of ChatGPT certainly threw the world for a loop. The open AI platform suddenly made generative AI available to the world. ChatGPT opened up capabilities that were previously unheard of. Suddenly, users had access to technology that could write code, generate Excel formulas, construct an essay and build a resume, among other things. While it does have benefits for businesses, others express concerns about the impact it could have in education, creative professions and other industries.

• Technology: ChatGPT has had a sizable impact on the technology industry. The tool is fairly efficient at creating code and crunching numbers. For this reason, many experts predict that jobs such as software developers, coders and programmers are likely to drop in demand as the tool undertakes some of the manual work. Anu Madgavkar, a McKinsey Global Parter Institute still believes that these jobs will only be enhanced by ChatGPT, not replaced.
• Education: There is both excitement and concern when it comes to the impact of ChatGPT on education. Some teachers are using it to lighten their load, generate creative lessons and produce appropriate text for students of different levels. But there are others who express apprehension, fearing that students will abuse the tool to plagiarize and cut corners. Some fear it will lead to a decimation of our current school paradigm, while others are trying to find creative ways to integrate it into the classroom. At this point, there is widespread uncertainty surrounding the long-term impact. An expert on the history of educational technologies at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Chris Dede, believes that Generative AI is experiencing a hype cycle and that won’t be transformative to education, according to TIME Magazine.
• Media: ChatGPT is having an impact on the development of written and cinematic content. There are those who worry that ChatGPT will eliminate jobs for writers and other creative roles. This exact fear was a contributing factor in the 2023 Writer’s Strike where strikers demanded that AI tools be limited to prevent loss of jobs. Despite these concerns, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman says that ChatGPT has the potential to deliver more interactive experiences, while also undertaking more of the drudge work of the creative process. For example, many companies find SEO to be necessary, but time consuming. New AI tools can now help optimize content.

ChatGPT certainly impacts other industries, but these are standouts as they’ve experienced the most immediate impact.

AI has proven to be a force—whether that’s a force for good remains to be seen. Regardless, most people agree that AI is a permanent fixture for businesses.

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