How AI Can Help You Improve Your Workflow

[This article was written by Michael Deane.]

Looking for a way to optimize your workflows and improve project delivery? You are not alone. This is why so many companies are turning to AI for the answers. AI technologies are useful in Engineering, for instance, where 20% to 30% of workflows can be automated. Remember, AI is capable of processing and analyzing millions of data points. In other words, it understands patterns and can also detect certain patterns we humans cannot. The same goes for many industries, whether it be construction or BIM processing. Did you know there are AI applications that can perform the structural design of a building in a matter of seconds?

Time, being a scarce and precious commodity, the faster you are able to complete tasks, the more you will accomplish. Especially considering that most enterprises are deadline driven. Why stress over day to day, mundane activities, when you could put that energy into more strategic work

So, let’s get into the details. First, let’s break down what AI is, then get into how it can put some mojo into your workflow.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

There has been much controversy over what AI actually is. Simply put, artificial intelligence is human intelligence replicated through computers. While the hype and noise surrounding AI continues to cloud its true purpose in today’s world (namely the business world) it is important that we do not lose track of its potential role when it comes to business.

One day in the future, AI is likely to redefine industries and all that jazz. Today, however, we have to settle for AI increasing efficiency in our everyday work.

Optimising Chat

Many companies have leveraged AI for their chat features on their business websites, allowing them to answer frequently asked questions. This would also allow you to steer customers to the appropriate solution based on answers received through said chat.

In other words, you are bound to save time and effort not having to answer the same questions over and over, and could focus your energy on more important tasks.

Sifting Through Data

Jim Tobin of Carusele has stated that AI and machine learning has helped their company sift through dozens of press inquiries per day. By feeding the system “100 real-life examples”, it learned what to prioritize to the benefit of the company. Tobin says this saves them 20-30 hours-per-week of what would otherwise be mundane and repetitive work. Imagine the potential for this to be applied in other capacities?

Vetting Influencers

Yes, AI is valuable in the influencer marketing space as well. In fact, you can use your AI to vet through influencer audiences for ASL, brand affinities and parental status.

What’s more, AI can tell you who is engaging an influencer’s content as well as weed out fake followers, offering invaluable insight. In a nutshell, you can more easily choose the right influencers for brand campaigns.

Targeting the Right Prospects

The importance of targeting the right prospects for your product or service can’t be overstated. Let’s say you work at a firm that licenses contact data to clients in order to fuel customer acquisition campaigns. Let’s say you have over 20 million email contact records to sift through. Your clients could use AI to make data selections more efficiently.

And why not? They would be saving time and sustaining accuracy as it relates to focusing on their ideal prospects.

Predicting Content Performance

If branded content is your current focus or something you’re looking to get into, you will find what the folks at Social Native have to say about AI and its role in helping them predict how specific content will perform. By incorporating AI, you can tell what content for which creators are likely to perform well.

Recall that accuracy is one of the biggest upsides to leveraging AI in certain processes. Well, in the case of knowing what content is likely to perform satisfactorily, accuracy goes a long way. By incorporating AI to scale these processes, Social Native is “helping brands fuel more impactful marketing initiatives.”

AI VS RPA

Robotic Process Automation deserves to be included in this conversation. Not only because it too can and has served businesses for years, but also because so many people tend to confuse RPA with AI. If you count yourself among those people, fret not. There are some simple, but key things to remember when trying to set the two apart. Such as RPA mimics human behavior; whilst AI simulates human intelligence. Another way to look at it is that RPA is centered on ‘doing’, whereas AI is centered on ‘thinking’.

There are processes also that can be automated but don’t require the touch of conversational AI.

Take finance and accounting, for instance, price comparisons to be specific. If you are working with various suppliers to source a specific product; one whose prices tend to fluctuate, you can track changes and pricing automatically with a robot. This is guaranteed to save you time, money, and a lot of unnecessary headaches.

Author Bio:

Michael Deane is one of the editors of Qeedle, a small business magazine. When not blogging (or working), he can usually be spotted on the track, doing his laps, or with his nose deep in the latest John Grisham.