Strategic Opportunities with Artificial Intelligence

One of the hottest topics on the minds of executives all around the world in 2020 is Artificial Intelligence or A.I. What will it mean to business, employees, customers and to profitability? How do you build strategies for A.I.? How will we integrate A.I. into the business?

How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Business

A.I. is being used today for everything from Customer Service to Sales, and Marketing to HR. There are even A.I. Executive Assistants being used. Just look at this YouTube video “Google Duplex: A.I. Assistant Calls Local Businesses To Make Appointments” featuring Google CEO, Sandar Pichai, using an A.I. Executive Assistant to call a live person at a hair salon and make an appointment to get a haircut.  The real live person on the phone at the hair salon does not even realize they are talking to a machine.

What is driving the Artificial Intelligence Race

Artificial Intelligence is being driven by two factors… technology and the lightning-fast pace of development in this field, as well the severe shortage of top talent.

Moore’s Law, first introduced as a concept back in 1971, stated that the speed of technology will double every 18-months and the cost of the technology will half.  That idea proved true until the late 1990’s and then the timeline dropped by half.  In the last decade, that timeline was down to around six-months.  As an example, Google spent $200,000 in 2008 to develop the technology for an autonomous vehicle – today, that price is now $20.

The other factor, a worldwide shortage of skilled talent is impacting virtually every business.  Seems like a paradox when we live in a time where there is over seven-billion people on the planet and organizations cannot find people.

A.I. is here and we need to find a way to integrate into our everyday life or… we will be left behind.

Why We Need to Embrace Artificial Intelligence

So how can we embrace A.I., or better still what can we use it for today?  Here are some examples of what some organizations are using it for:

1. Updating Files
2. Transferring Data
3. Data Analysis
4. Fraud Detection
5. Personalized Marketing– such as location-based services where consumers are pushed information based on their personal preferences and their physical location 
6. Customer Service
7. HR Functions – such as recruiting, assessing candidates, streamlining hiring, on-boarding, development and performance management 
8. Machine Learning – this is already in millions of homes in the form of Amazon’s ‘Alexa,’ Google’s Assistant or Apple’s ’Siri’ 
9. Grocery Shopping – Whole Foods is experimenting with A.I. and their ‘Grab-and-Go’ where consumers grab what they want from the grocery shelf and walk out.  The system knows who they are and what they picked up and the consumer’s credit card is debited.
10. Healthcare – through a multitude of applications where tech can predict things like heart attacks before they happen 
11. Agriculture – applications for livestock as well as produce
12. Transportation – with autonomous cars, trains, transport trucks and eventually aircraft

The list goes on and on.

So, what is your A.I. strategy and what are you doing today to prepare for the competitive advantage that it will bring you tomorrow?

Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC-based Business Strategy Consultant, #1 Best Selling Author, International Keynote Speaker, and TEC Top Speaker of the Year for 2018. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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