Artificial intelligence is one of the most important technologies to be developed in recent years. It has the potential to improve everything from medicine to transportation. However, with so many benefits, deciding what department needs these efficiencies the most can often feel overwhelming.
The reality is AI can help any department make improvements by lowering costs and increasing operations. What your team needs to decide is which improvement to undertake first and plan out a process for slowly adopting these technologies little by little. This way, each new department will be more willing to integrate AI based on the success of the previous integration.
AI is a Versatile Business Solution
AI is a versatile business solution that can be used to solve problems in all areas of business, from marketing and sales to operations, human resources, and finance. It's not just for big companies. It can help small businesses too.
The fact that AI is so versatile means you won't need an internal department explicitly dedicated to AI technology or machine learning. Instead, there will likely be some crossover between departments as they share best practices for implementing AI solutions within their various areas of expertise.
Departments Leveraging AI
Marketing & Sales
AI can help you with your lead generation and conversion process, which can help you find the right type of leads for your business.
It also helps with sales by providing relevant information to salespeople and closing deals faster. The massive boost in data analytics alone will help streamline decision-making in marketing and sales efforts to increase potential revenue streams.
Human Resources
Human Resources (HR) is a department within every company that focuses on the people side of the business. Their primary focus is to help companies attract top talent, retain those workers, and find ways for employees to grow within their organization.
As AI continues becoming more common in the workplace, HR will have to adapt its policies and procedures to keep up with these changes. Not only will AI help manage the needs and demographics of a workforce, but it can also streamline your team's interview, application, and training process.
Research & Development
You should ensure that your R&D department is aware of the potential AI can bring to their work. AI is beneficial for tasks that are related to data analysis, data processing, and data visualization.
These AI/ML solutions are key to researching problems and generating tasks associated with the further development of possible solutions. The more you can analyze potential outcomes, the better your prototyping and modeling.
Customer Service
Many companies are using AI for customer service in various ways. For example, chatbots can respond to customer inquiries and queries quickly and efficiently. Since these chatbots are powered by artificial intelligence, they're able to answer questions accurately every time—and they don't get tired or bored after a few hours at their desk.
This creates a 24/7, 365-day call-and-response benefit to your daily operations. Thus, improving customer relations by giving the appearance you are always available to answer questions and streamline their experience with your business.
Accounting
Accounting is the field that often comes to mind when we think of AI and the business world. Accounting uses data analysis to automate repetitive tasks and improve efficiency, which clearly benefits from AI's capacity for automated processing. Accounting also uses machine learning and analytics to generate reports, audit financial statements, and detect anomalies in financial data.
This makes accounting a natural fit for AI because these activities are all high in volume but low in complexity—the type of operation that computers excel at performing with precision.
Manufacturing
When it comes to AI, manufacturing is a great place to start. This department can benefit from AI in several ways. AI can help with efficiency and productivity, including:
· Optimizing production
· Reducing waste
· Quality control and inspection of products or parts at various stages of the manufacturing process
· Predictive maintenance (using historical data) for machinery and equipment
· Improving work floor safety and flow
· And much more
IT Operations
Most companies would never be able to operate without their IT operations team. These professionals are responsible for the infrastructure that keeps your business running, from keeping your data secure to making sure you have enough bandwidth to do your work.
Now more than ever, it’s crucial that IT operations remain in high demand as AI continues to make waves in business. It’s not just because AI can help solve problems and make processes more efficient. It is also because AI requires experts to smoothly integrate into your operations, and IT is at the top of that list.
Not to mention the incredible benefits of having AI to monitor networks, crates support ticket systems, improve digital communication, and build cloud service integrations.
Executive Leadership
There are endless potential improvements in a business when using AI at the executive level. The most important is rapid and reliable decision-making.
When leadership has more data at their fingertips, more critical decisions can be made to help the company operate efficiently, grow into the future, and remain competitive in a highly volatile marketplace.
Conclusion
When it comes to AI, most companies are still in the exploratory phase. There is a lot of potential for businesses to benefit from this technology, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be used by every internal department as well.
Internal departments like HR, marketing, and sales should be aware of the AI-related opportunities that might present themselves in their workflows. Working with an experienced vendor who will support you as you onboard different AI benefits is key to making this work, no matter which department is first.