#8 Ways How Artificial Intelligence Can Develop and Grow Your Business To understand the various implications of the AI phenomenon, we spoke with Krishna C. Mukherjee - information technologist, who introduced AI technology at Microsoft. He tells us eight ways how AI can make a huge impact in transforming your business

The twenty-first century is considered as an era of technology. We have entered the digital world, and it has become our way of life. The novel pandemic has further increased the demand for technology. Artificial Intelligence (AI), also referred to as machine intelligence, has been drastically disrupting the world of technology. It is developing at a fast pace and will soon become an inevitable part of our lives. Businesses have been increasingly adopting AI for their development and growth. From improving communication to providing superior customer service to understanding the market demand of products, the applications of AI have been rapidly spreading across various industries.

Those who still associate AI with science fiction dystopias may note that AI is also being used in our personal lives. Today, AI has a household presence. We interact with AI when we say, "Hi Alexa, what's the news for today?" or "Hey Siri, play some music."

To understand the various implications of the AI phenomenon, we spoke with Krishna C. Mukherjee - the computer scientist and information technologist who introduced AI technology at Microsoft. Mukherjee, the technology genius, was a valuable member of the core teams which conceived and put together Microsoft's famous products such as Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, and Visual Studio. He designed and developed the proofing tools for Microsoft Office.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, Mukherjee paved the way for performing business transactions online, on the cloud, with his unique SaaS model. He created AI architectures for dynamically generating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) from high-level, natural language specifications and for controlling the user interactions within these graphical applications.

Having made an extensive contribution to the field of software architecture, AI, and cloud computing, Mukherjee tells us eight ways how AI can make a huge impact in transforming your business.

(1) Reduce costs and streamline operations

AI-driven systems can replace human workers and thus reduce costs. "Business automation helps streamline processes, improve collaboration, decrease labor cost, and improve customer and employee satisfaction," Mukherjee said.

AI and robotics have changed lives. They can even do jobs such as security, courier deliveries, and room service in hotels. Robots now can do jobs that are repetitive, difficult, or hazardous for humans.

(2) Improve security

AI technology helps to identify the behavior of potentially malicious software programs. This identification is particularly relevant in today's world, where cybersecurity is essential.

(3) Detect and prevent fraudulent transactions

With time, financial institutions have started using AI to detect fraudulent activity. Explaining how the process works, he said, "The AI software is given a large sample of data which includes both fraudulent and genuine transactions. After that, it is trained to determine whether a transaction is genuine or not, based on the large data sets. As time progresses, the AI software becomes an expert at detecting and preventing fraudulent transactions."

(4) Provide customer support

One of the most adapted trends among online businesses is the usage of chatbots. Many e-commerce sites offer chat functionality, which allows customers to interact with support and sales representatives of businesses.

"In most instances, the AI-based chatbots initiate conversations with the customers. The chatbots realistically simulate human conversations through AI. Thus, they provide superior customer service and reduce operational costs," Mukherjee elaborated.

(5) Manage Documents

The Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tools can digitize and manage documents efficiently for businesses. "AI augments OCR by improving accuracy and adding features such as categorization and tagging. Thus, AI helps businesses to solve administrative and document management problems," he said.

(6) Recognize faces and detect objects

Face recognition and object detection are two fundamental visual recognition applications of computer vision. With AI, they are getting better every day. "AI can recognize faces and match objects. Facial recognition is used by businesses to identify individuals for security. Object detection is used to analyze photos," he said.

(7) Recommend products

AI-driven product recommendation systems capture data from multiple sources to learn about users' shopping patterns, likes, and dislikes. These systems help businesses to understand consumers' shopping behavior.

Briefing how the product recommendation functions, Mukherjee explained, "These systems enable businesses to recommend products to their customers in real-time. Businesses convert users from window shoppers to purchasers. The AI-based recommendation solutions, along with machine-learning capabilities, measure the responses of customers and improve future recommendations. Thus, businesses can secure customer loyalty and increase profits."

(8) Analyze data and match patterns

Huge volumes of data often cannot be analyzed by human eyes. This is where technology has a significant impact. AI helps to analyze big data and match patterns. This advanced capability helps businesses to improve their inventory and warehousing systems in addition to streamlining logistics and shipping.

AI tools which companies need to build for the advancement of business

When undertaking an AI project, it is important to have a robust set of tools. Mukherjee recommends that ideally, an AI development platform should offer the following capabilities:

● Machine learning capabilities such as deep learning, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, and so on.

● Natural language processing capabilities, such as machine translation and classification.

● Expert Systems.

● Automation.

● Vision capabilities such as image recognition

● Speech capabilities, such as speech-to-text and text-to-speech conversions.

Top AI trends we will see

AI is starting to make impossible things possible. The AI tools enable businesses to rapidly mine large and important data sets. Businesses can adapt effectively to changes, and that is essential in the competitive business world. Understanding the AI industry and what impact it can have, Mukherjee highlights ten AI trends, which we will see soon.

● AI will increasingly monitor and refine business processes.

● AI will enable more personalization to take place in real-time.

● AI will become increasingly useful as data becomes more accurate.

● AI will increasingly appear at the edge.

● Cooperation between humans and AI will increase.

● AI will become more significant in providing cybersecurity.

● People will interact with AI without being aware of it.

● AI will recognize people.

● AI will be increasingly used in the entertainment industry.

AI is transforming the workplace. It is still in the early stages, and its full potential is yet to be explored. However, AI has demonstrated the promise which it holds for the future. It is helping businesses to offer better experiences to their customers. It is making the human activity more efficient, thus saving time and money.