- Identify what business problem you want to solve with AI technology to ensure your investment aligns with your company’s roadmap.
- Find out what data you have and assess its quality to ensure accurate predictions and recommendations.
- Choose the right AI technology for your business and understand the impact of different technologies.
- Plan for adequate resources and skills to build a high-quality AI system to meet your business needs.
- Evaluate potential risks to ensure customers, employees, and stakeholders can trust the AI system.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not a new concept. However, the increasing accessibility to data and computing power has improved its capabilities tremendously. AI technology can have pervasive effects in various industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and marketing. As a business professional, investing in AI can be challenging, especially if you lack the technical know-how.
This blog post will explore the top things you should know before investing in AI technology for your business. By the end of this article, you will have a clear idea of how to invest in AI technology strategically.
1. Identify the business problem you want AI technology to solve
AI technology can help solve many business problems, but focusing on specific business problems that need innovative solutions is essential. Identifying the right problem and aligning AI technology with your company’s roadmap can help you achieve your business goal. Here are some solutions that can solve various problems:
a. AI-driven chatbot
Chatbots can be used to automate customer service inquiries and provide customers with timely and accurate answers. With AI-driven chatbots, you can improve customer experience by providing 24/7 support.
b. Image and video recognition
AI-powered image and video recognition can detect objects, identify faces, and analyze video footage. This technology can help enhance safety, reduce fraud, improve customer service, and increase efficiency.
c. Virtual assistant
As more companies rely on virtual assistants, AI-driven virtual assistant technology can help streamline customer interactions and automate tedious tasks. This technology can be used to answer customer inquiries and provide personalized recommendations.
d. Natural language processing
Natural language processing (NLP) is one of the most popular AI technologies. NLP can be used to analyze customer interactions and extract insights from conversations. This technology can also automate customer service and improve customer experience.
2. Find out what data you have and its quality
The quality of data going into your AI system is critical. The better the data quality, the better the predictions and recommendations. Before investing in AI technology, assess your data sources, format, variety, and volume. Without accurate data sources, you might as well forget about the benefits of AI technology. Do you have historical customer data? Or do you need to collect that data? Determining the quality and quantity of data and how to use it to improve your business process is an excellent approach to developing an AI strategy.
3. Choose the right AI technology
AI is very diverse, ranging from machine learning and natural language processing to predictive analytics and computer vision. Understanding the various AI technology is a starting point for selecting and building a high-quality AI system. For one, you should know the differences between red AI and green AI.
Red AI is focused on accuracy and requires tremendous computational power. This can lead to high energy costs and, in turn, increase your carbon footprint. On the other hand, Green AI focuses on efficiency and considers computational expenses when making decisions. By understanding the impact of different AI technologies, you can choose the right AI technology for your business.
4. Plan for appropriate resources and skills
Investing in AI technology is more than buying the technology. AI technology requires specialized skills, infrastructure, and resources to achieve value. It is critical to assess your workforce skills and have a plan for upskilling and training. You’ll need skilled data scientists and data engineers so you can build models that meet your business needs. Even after building the AI system, you must sustain it with the right resources and maintenance plans.
5. Evaluate potential risks
AI technology can potentially create an enormous positive impact on your business processes. However, assessing potential security, ethical, and legal risks is essential. For example, who or what is the AI system learning from? Is there a risk of introducing bias into the model? These are crucial considerations while investing in AI technology. Customers, employees, and stakeholders need to trust AI systems to realize their maximum value.
AI technology has become an integral resource that companies leverage to obtain a competitive advantage. Knowing how to invest in AI technology can help you realize significant business growth and provide your company with a competitive edge. By understanding what you should consider before investing in AI technology for your business, you can make a more informed decision and invest in technology that aligns with your business goals and values.
Remember, investing in AI technology is not a one-time expenditure. Regular maintenance and improvements will provide long-lasting benefits, and you’ll need to keep updated with the latest technological advances.
