AI, or artificial intelligence, has been buzzing around for over a decade now. However, it often seems as though we're still in the early stages of discovering what machine learning and predictive analytics can do for business operations.
When studying specific use cases of how today's leading businesses and enterprises utilize AI, it's interesting to note that no two stories are exactly alike.
The one constant that runs through AI use cases; however, is that when a business kicks off an AI initiative, they need their entire team on board. They also need to see where others have already succeeded.
Because of this, we are going to take a look at three key ways AI is currently transforming business operations in the modern economy.
1. Outcome Prediction
Business, by its very nature, is highly data-driven and competitive. This is especially true at an enterprise level. Every single facet of cross-channel functionality heavily relies on data and proactive recommendations.
An excellent example of AI-powered outcome prediction can be seen at CenturyLink (now Lumen Technologies), which provides security and cloud solutions for digital businesses. Before utilizing the power of AI, they had a sales team in place of around 1,600 individuals. They needed this large of a group to field questions from their incoming leads.
Even with that big of a team, they could barely keep up with the demand.
To resolve this, CenturyLink employed a Conversica AI virtual assistant named Angie. Her job was simple: comb through many thousands of leads, contact them via email, and figure out which points were the hot ones. If she came across a high-quality lead, she would ship it off to a salesperson.
Almost immediately, Angie was sending out over 30,000 emails each month. She was incredibly efficient in her position. Angie found around 40 hot leads each week and understood 99% of the email replies she received from consumers.
The few emails she couldn't comprehend, she would forward directly to a human for assistance. Angie also impressed her "managers" by being so good at routing leads to the best possible sales reps.
In total, CenturyLink has earned around $20 for every single dollar they invested in Angie. When you do the calculation with these predictive analytics processes, you will see that they returned a 1,900% ROI.
Quite impressive for AI tech used right.
2. Resolving Issues And Recommending Next Steps
AI has also proven to be extremely valuable in the realms of customer journey and customer support. These are highly integral keys to the success of any business.
Let's take Epson America as an example of how AI works at resolving difficult issues.
Epson was absolutely drowning in customer leads. They no longer knew how to handle them. The company has never had an issue with outreach or marketing. If anything, they are probably too good at it. They receive, on average, over 50,000 leads every year.
Salesforce reports that, on average, it takes between six-eight touches for a lead to turn into a customer. These are typically the responsibility of individual reps, with limited availability and time. However, AI isn't limited in this way.
Because of this, Epson hired an AI that would follow up with leads at precisely the right time until it got a response. It did this for all 50,000+ points in a year.
Epson quickly realized the force-multiplier potential of this new AI. It also saw how AI helped human teams with upselling, cross-selling, and recurring orders. In addition, it began discovering and reporting customer issues that were unresolved and forwarded them to the right support reps right away.
The implementation of AI at Epson leads to $2 million in additional revenue within the first 90 days of use.
3. Disposable Content Creation
One of the more surprising functions of AI is its ability to replicate human-like content creation and writing. This is a phenomenon AI developer have achieved only in recent years, even though they've spent decades trying to make it happen.
For specified disposable content types, AI has proven itself to be faster and more efficient than an internal content team. It may not work for more subjected tasks, like ITAR registration, for example.
In recent years, Toyota utilized IBM Watson's machine learning to create a brand new type of ad campaign for its Rav4. The AI was able to generate slews of popular advertising scripts.
To do so, Toyota supplied Watson with a list of 1,000 activities you'd use a vehicle to get to. It then employed Watson to pair ideas together in intriguing and unexpected ways.
The video script outputs of Watson were then fed directly into another AI, a video generator that puts together original and stock footage. The result was 300 completely unique and targeted videos that Toyota used on Instagram and Facebook to successfully market the Rav4.
AI Is Transforming The Way We Do Business
These are only three examples of how AI is changing the way business is done. What can AI do for your business? The future is sure to reveal it as artificial intelligence technology continues growing and improving each year.
