According to a 2022 survey by Deloitte, an overwhelming majority of 94% of the surveyed 2620 global business leaders believe that AI is critical to business success over the next five years [1]. 76% of these respondents plan to increase their investments in AI for more business benefits.
With businesses across the world embracing the AI revolution, what is your take on the right AI adoption strategy? What can AI do for your business? And while we are at it, is AI any different from the much-talked-about business intelligence solutions?
Buckle down for the next 5 minutes to find some much-needed answers.
Table of Contents
What is Artificial Intelligence?
So what exactly is artificial intelligence? The term artificial intelligence was coined by Emeritus Stanford Professor John McCarthy in 1955. He defined the field as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”.
Intelligence is the ability to learn and perform suitable techniques to solve problems and achieve goals. While all computer programs are designed to solve problems, what sets AI apart is its ability to learn and continuously evolve its problem-solving capabilities. It achieves this through a set of complementary technologies like natural language processing, neural networks, computer vision, robotics, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, deep learning, machine learning, and more.
Hence artificial intelligence is a collection of technologies that work together towards the common goal of making machines learn and behave intelligently. The amalgamation of so many technologies renders a precise definition of artificial intelligence difficult. And yet, this uncertainty has only helped the field evolve further, as evidenced by this Stanford University analysis [2].
Artificial Intelligence vs Business Intelligence
Another term that is commonly thrown around and all the rage today is Business Intelligence. You will hear about it in every tech-savvy corporate strategy discussion, and C-suite executives will often swear about its effectiveness. So then, what does business intelligence entail? Are the terms business intelligence and artificial intelligence one and the same?
The short answer to that question is no. The term “Business Intelligence” was coined in the year 1865 by Richard Millar Devens to describe a banker who benefited from gathering information and acting upon it to outsmart the competition. As a discipline, business intelligence focuses on collecting, storing, and analyzing information related to a company’s business activities to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Business intelligence utilizes techniques like data mining, process analysis, data visualizations, and statistics, among others, to enable organizations to make data-driven, informed decisions. It provides a snapshot of the organization’s data and aims to derive insights about efficiencies, resource leaks, sales, and other parameters to support decision-making within the organization.
The Convergence of Artificial Intelligence and Business Intelligence
So it’s clear that AI and BI are two different disciplines that have different origins and work towards different goals. So is there a common ground?
The convergence of artificial intelligence and business intelligence enables advanced analytics and insights that enhance the capabilities of your BI solution. Artificial intelligence is already enhancing different operations like sales, marketing, inventory management, logistics, and others within an organization. The scope of these applications across domains, and the benefits of AI in business are almost as pervasive as the scope of artificial intelligence itself.
Consider, for example, the fact that machine learning algorithms are now in charge of the targeted placement of digital advertisements. E-commerce applications like Amazon and Flipkart are already employing the capabilities of AI technologies to learn your shopping platforms and display the right product at the right time.
Another ubiquitous yet commonly overlooked application of artificial intelligence is in the smartphone business. Your mobile devices now employ a range of AI algorithms to learn from your smartphone usage. From digitally enhancing photos to providing facial recognition and optimizing battery usage to sorting applications on usage patterns, smartphones are increasingly relying upon AI to deliver a better experience. Needless to say that the product that can best employ these technologies wins and retains the lion’s share of the market.
Another technology that employs AI to enable intelligent business processes is robotic process automation. RPA can integrate with technologies like NLP to enable better customer support by responding appropriately to customer emails. AI-enabled chatbots are also significantly reducing the workload of IT services teams across the globe.
These examples of artificial intelligence in business are by no means exhaustive. An exhaustive list of the applications of ai in business would warrant a series of articles in itself. Even so, an exhaustive list is barely possible. In all likelihood, a seasoned technology services provider well-versed in artificial intelligence and business intelligence can design and develop a custom solution for your business that employs the best-suited AI and BI technologies.
The Bottomline
Now that you have developed a clear understanding of artificial intelligence and are capable of making the distinction between AI and BI, where do you go from here?
It’s crucial to understand that businesses that do not adopt these technologies will inevitably face extinction at some point. A competitor with access to volumes of historical sales data and an intelligent system that makes future predictions is inevitably better poised to make better decisions and deliver superior customer service.
But it could be daunting to take that leap of faith and integrate the power of these technologies with your business. Adopting the wrong strategy could translate directly to a loss of revenue, failed implementations, and missed opportunities.
Working with a dependable AI development company with a proven track record of delivering business value is the sensible way forward for any organization dipping its toes into the AI technology pool. Such a partner could prove invaluable in designing an organizational strategy for AI and BI integration, driving the development and adoption of these systems, and enabling an organizational culture that delivers the best returns on investment.
As a digital transformation services provider, Cloudesign provides comprehensive business intelligence solutions empowered with the industry’s best AI/ML technologies. We focus on maximizing ROI with every implementation to ensure a smooth and profitable adoption of AI within organizations.
Read about our successful AI-enabled business intelligence solutions in the relevant case studies section here. You can also opt for a free AI consultation with us today on the contact page.
