How AI and Big Data Are Transforming Modern Business Operations
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data naturally go hand-in-hand, and over the last decade these technologies have become more available, and also more necessary, for organizations in many different industries.
The IDC Media Center reports that $37.5 billion was spent on AI-based technologies in 2019 alone, and those numbers are projected to increase dramatically. In fact, IDC forecasts expenditures in the AI arena to hit $97.9 billion annually by 2023.
As a result, the combination of AI and Big Data is fueling massive transformations in business operations around the globe. Here are four business areas where the combo is kicking up a storm.
Marketing and Sales
AI and Big Data have caused a massive transformation in the way that businesses market and sell to potential customers. Traditionally, the messaging in marketing campaigns were geared to a wide audience. Today, businesses have access to advanced data analytics tools which can pair AI with their existing collection of Big Data, and take advantage of AI’s ability to predict what a person or group of people will do, so that they can target specific demographics more effectively.
These data sets can now be put to good use, even without specific expertise in data analysis. This has led to the development of personalized sales and marketing campaigns which are much more effective than generalized campaigns. Studies have shown that 80% of consumers are more likely to buy if the experience is personalized.
Augmented Intelligence
AI, Machine Learning (ML), and Big Data have enabled businesses to more efficiently utilize data through the combination of human intelligence with machine intelligence. ML algorithms learn from human input, and humans are equally able to learn a lot from the output of these algorithms.
For example, the development of new medications to treat ailments is usually a painstaking, manual, and extremely slow process. With the combination of a pharmacology professional, with AI, ML and Big Data to analyze previous experiments, new drugs that could potentially save lives can be developed and released years before they otherwise would have been.
Cybersecurity
With AI and Big Data, heuristic analysis for antivirus, malware and cyberattacks have evolved. The logs generated by an organization’s Intrusion Detection System (IDS) or Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) no longer need to be parsed manually by an expert. AI is now capable of analyzing old logs with data from attacks or attempted attacks and use it to more accurately identify attacks, regardless of whether it has an identifiable signature. According to Synack, the combination of a talented cybersecurity expert with existing AI and Big Data solutions can lead to an efficacy rate of twenty times higher than only using a traditional IPS. Likewise, they found that with AI augmentation, humans are at least 73% faster at assessing a potential breach. Synack also reported a 40% faster critical vulnerability closure when a cybersecurity professional was assisted by data augmentation.
Customer Service
When businesses first started deploying chatbots online for customer service, people were reluctant to use them. Those early bots were of a far lower caliber than most AI-based chatbots today. Now they’re employed in both the B2B and B2C sectors, and with the help of hardworking developers, AI and Big Data enabled chatbots are finally beginning to replace humans in many business sectors.
Given that businesses collectively spend approximately $1.3 trillion per year on customer service expenses, this is a welcomed change for many organizations. According to Leftronic, 40% of people don’t care whether a real person or a chatbot assists them. With a possible 99% higher response time, and the fact that chatbots could save organizations 30% on expenses (about $39 billion annually), there’s no doubt that chatbots will eventually become a mainstream customer service tool.
AI and Big Data Revolution
Statistics have shown that the use of AI in conjunction with Big Data speeds up processes, cuts down on wasted staff-hours, and improves the turnaround time on deliverables significantly.
Utilizing one of a plethora of cloud providers, businesses can experiment with AI like never before. With low cost access to high-quality, proven AI and machine learning providers, there’s nothing stopping business organizations from utilizing these technologies.
While just about every organization can benefit from the emergence of affordable AI technology, some sectors are expected to receive a much larger return on investment than others. The biggest benefit will naturally be seen by data-oriented organizations, such as businesses in the financial, telecommunications, and the pharmaceutical industries, who will continue to lead the charge. As AI and Big Data technologies become more widespread in these industries, other industries will begin to benefit from the technology trickling down.
At Outsource IT, we are dedicated to helping business organizations get better value for their IT investment. With extensive experience in a variety of niches, our top-notch technical team makes it a point to adhere to our motto “Being Exceptional is the Expectation”.
Contact an Outsource IT account manager to learn more about our managed IT services offerings today.
