In recent years, computers and technology have redefined many areas of our lives – everything from how we watch media to how we communicate and shop. However, as the tech industry has matured and software/hardware has become more complex and competent, we have seen the emergence of one particularly exciting area of computing – namely Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Although still in its relative infancy, AI is slowly starting to revolutionize the world around us and, in particular, the world of work.
From the boardroom to the production floor, companies are integrating AI systems to streamline production processes and improve efficiency. The technology has the potential to revolutionize the workplace and can bring significant benefits to your business.
Typical ways AI software is being used already
AI is particularly good at performing labor-intensive, highly-repetitive tasks – the type of jobs that would have previously taken humans many hours to complete (and often with multiple errors). Some common areas of work where AI is already in use include:
- Wages, banking and payroll: Paying staff wages used to be a highly time-consuming task, working out contributions, bonuses and the like. With new and advanced payroll software, you can simply set up employee details once, then let the software look after everything, including making the relevant payments into your employees’ bank accounts.
- Quotes and invoicing: Automated software can handle your entire procurement process – both from a buying and selling point of view – saving valuable time and money. By setting up virtual relationships within the software, you can instruct AI to attach documents, quotes and invoices on a per-project basis to individual clients. You can even teach it to automatically track each stage of a job and create invoices when appropriate – or send out reminders when payments fall overdue.
- Customer Relationship Management: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of the fastest-growing areas of business management. CRM is essentially the process of building and maintaining mutually-beneficial relationships with your clients (potential and existing) to improve service, increase sales and drive profitability. Using CRM software, you can accurately track inquiries from clients (knowing the exact product or service they were interested in) and record your interactions (e.g. emails or calls) to build an overall profile of your consumers. For a real-world example, think about how Amazon sends you regular emails with product suggestions based on previously-viewed (or previously-purchased) products. CRM is a highly effective, highly proactive form of marketing that could work wonders for generating new business for your company.
- Tracking employee productivity: Most people realize that the hours spent on a job do not necessarily equate to actual productivity. Very often, employees can become distracted or work at sub-standard levels. Using employee tracking software, you can see exactly how much time was spent on each part of a project – and even compare them against each other to work out areas of strength or weakness. Knowing workers’ weak points can help you identify staff members who might need extra training or let you see other areas where they might perform better.