Sanjay is a Technologist and founder of Vervotech, a SaaS-based accommodation data provider. He also founded Techspian.
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In 1956, a young mathematics professor at Dartmouth College organized a group of computer and cognitive scientists to develop ideas about thinking machines and called the subject “artificial intelligence” (AI). Today, according to Fortune Business Insights, the AI industry is currently valued at $387.45 billion and is expected to reach $1,394.30 billion by 2029.
The internet revolution over the last few decades was the primary catalyst for this growth, as technologists and users explored new horizons—search, social networking, e-commerce—and these applications left behind a tsunami of data debris. To manage that debris, we need AI.
Now, technologists are exploring the possibility of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), intelligence that surpasses human intelligence. So, is AI coming of age? Yes. The evolution is not going to stop.
But, in order to effectively use AI, businesses—and startups in particular—must judge intelligence on its own merits rather than dissecting the categories of “human” or “artificial.” In this information age, we will need both kinds of intelligence, so there’s no point in pitting one against another. Businesses must make the most of both human intelligence and artificial intelligence in order to thrive.
Rise Of AI: A Window Of Opportunity For Startups
Startups might have an advantage over larger organizations in using AI: Building new business processes is a lot easier than changing existing processes that affect thousands of employees. Startups should also be more inclined to invest their energies in developing domain-specific excellence and differentiation. AI enables entrepreneurs to be less dependent on the marketing team for research, for example, and it can help identify consumer behaviors and patterns to give recommendations.
The exponential rise of no-code AI tools offers startups an opportunity to introduce AI in their businesses with affordability and take the first mover’s advantage. AI tools can benefit many functions of a company—I personally believe that AI can even be a member of the boardroom—and share insights and suggestions on strategic decisions. For example, let’s look at how AI can impact marketing, sales, HR and customer relations.
AI For Marketing And Sales: Building and maintaining an online presence is not easy; without it, the sales function becomes handicapped. AI-powered marketing tools can help with market research and competitor analysis, facilitate the easy creation of marketing assets and push them to a broader audience. AI can also allow you to automate your email marketing, social media and advertisement campaigns. This can allow companies to tailor advertising and marketing messages to specific individuals rather than vague audiences. Finally, AI-based NLP applications help sales function with sentiment analysis, text classification and recommendations on potential customers.
AI For Customer Relations: For startups, returning customers are crucial, and customer retention is an uphill task, no matter how good your offerings are. When you don’t have large teams to deploy to manage customer relations, conversational AI chatbots that mimic human interactions and keep your customers informed. Also, AI can analyze sales and customer calls and suggest improvements.
AI For Managing HR Function: The biggest challenge for startups is hiring talented employees with the necessary skills. In a startup ecosystem, a single person may handle multiple tasks. There’s not enough bandwidth to spend on attracting talent. AI can complement the person looking after HR function and offload many activities by scanning résumés, automate interview scheduling and, hopefully, improve the candidate experience.
How To Implement AI
It’s one thing to understand the benefits of AI, but what about the implementation? How can startups successfully transition to using AI? Here are a few key areas to concentrate on to make AI implementation successful.
Become familiar with solutions. Once you have decided to implement AI in your business process, do not get excited too quickly about potential outcomes. Spend time understanding solutions. Look for external help and talk to the experts. Only add new technology to your business when you feel comfortable that you understand what it is and how it could impact the organization.
Identify use cases. After understanding the solutions and the technology, identify the specific use cases for your business. If you narrowed down your options to a few marketing AI tools, for example, check how they align with your marketing problems and plan accordingly.
Assess value. AI solutions are automated, but they should never be left on autopilot. Periodically review the tools you employ and gauge benefit and cost. If the tools are not making sense, experiment until you find the right balance.
Conclusion
AI is undoubtedly coming of age. Entrepreneurs should look at the massive window of opportunity. By understanding how the use cases could make the most sense for their organization and the challenges of implementation, they can find the balance of human intelligence and artificial intelligence necessary to successfully join the AI revolution.
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