Apr 15, 2024 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
The explosion in popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) is hard to ignore, as one of the biggest – if not the biggest–technology trends in 2024 and beyond. How will your business use this technology? Read on to learn about developing a strategy to harness AI’s power. Growth in Popularity of AI The popularity in and market for artificial intelligence only continues to grow. According to a CompTIA article on AI statistics, the global market is expected to grow to $407 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 36.2%. The U.S. market is expected to surpass that, increasing to $594 billion by 2032, growing 19% year over year from 2023 on. Businesses are at varying states of the adoption/implementation journey. According to the CompTIA report, 22% of firms are “aggressively” implementing artificial intelligence. Another third of firms are implementing AI in a more limited way, and the majority of firms (45%) are still exploring implementation. Even with its popularity, some hesitation exists because of challenges—including the cost of upgrading applications, building out infrastructure, along with the need to fully understand the data that goes into properly training artificial intelligence. Formulate a Strategy for AI Implementation As with other popular technology, your business needs to consider its goals and how artificial intelligence can help you reach them. Examples of such goals include automation and refinement of routine tasks; enhancement of the customer experience via personalization; analysis of data; and content creation. You’ll also need to consider how to mitigate risks associated with artificial intelligence. Start with security to ensure your staff is...
Feb 13, 2024 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
We hear so much about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and what it can do, as well as cautions about it. But how can it help your business run more efficiently as well as deliver amazing results in customer service? Read on to learn more about harnessing the power of AI for your small-to-medium-sized business. A Brief Summary of Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence, or AI, is an enabling technology made possible by machine learning. Machine learning is the process of teaching machines how to react to different data types, based on probabilities. Large language models (LLMs) are trained on huge amounts of data, which makes them able to understand and generate language and other types of content, performing a wide variety of tasks. The data is fed into these models from humans, and this plays a role in the quality of data. Business Applications of Artificial Intelligence Because it is trained on vast amounts of data, AI has the power to automate repeated processes, freeing up time for humans and labor cost for your company. Employees can focus on other tasks while AI works in the background. It has potential to be embedded in customer relationship management software, and to find information about customers based on past interaction. That way, customer service representatives can have the information at their fingertips and serve customers even more quickly. Even outside business hours, your company can continue to serve customers with chatbots that mimic human-to-human interaction. Data analysis is more rapid, and this has implications for cybersecurity. Trained on data from network traffic, AI can quickly detect suspicious activity and...
Sep 7, 2023 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
Artificial Intelligence seems to be the hot topic nowadays, in the business world and the world at large. Many of us use the technology, whether we know it or not. Visitors to a website see that chat window pop up, and it seems like a real person is on the other end. Because of AI, it is often a chatbot simulating personal interaction. With the rollout of Generative AI in the form of ChatGPT, previously unknown possibilities have arisen. Artificial Intelligence has the potential to boost business productivity but also carries risk. Read on to learn more about how to harness this technology for the benefit of your business while considering risks of its use. ChatGPT Has Started a New Conversation Recently, CompTIA published a blog post about how generative IT has created great potential to enhance everything we do, but also brings up serious questions. The article cites questions for business leaders to ask. One is, can you harness AI to improve your operations and offerings, and should you? What benefits does AI offer, and what risks? And what do customers want? As with all tech innovations, considering business goals first is key, and how the technology can be implemented to achieve these goals. One theme that stands out from the article: proceed, but with caution. Benefits Come with Considerations Some members of the CompTIA board of directors cite specific ways they’ve benefited from AI technology. For example, one is able to upload documents like contracts and let AI find any red flags ahead of time, reducing legal costs. Or an email scheduling app...
Aug 16, 2023 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used in some form for several years. Typical applications of AI include advanced-analytics and machine learning algorithms used to perform numerical and optimization tasks like predictive modeling. Generative AI, in contrast, has matured quickly due to enormous financial investment. According to a recent article by McKinsey and Company, generative AI has the potential to change how people create and the very anatomy of work. Read on to learn more about the potential and challenges of this new form of artificial intelligence. The Potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence What Generative AI is and Why it Matters In the article, generative artificial intelligence is defined as AI that is typically built using foundation models and having capabilities that earlier artificial intelligence lacked. Generative AI can generate content, which earlier AI couldn’t do. A foundational model is based on deep learning, akin to the neural layers in the human brain. The foundational model uses (is trained) on vast amounts of unstructured and unlabeled data to perform tasks immediately, or that data can be refined to accomplish specific tasks. Generative AI has the potential to add value and increase revenue in businesses across all sectors; when applied across industries, the use cases for generative AI could deliver a total value of $2.6 to $4.4 trillion of economic benefits per year. Generative AI could change the anatomy of work altogether, eliminating certain mundane tasks that take up a good part of each workday. It was forecast that AI might automate 50% of tasks between 2035 and 2070; the estimate has since been adjusted to nearly a...
Jul 8, 2023 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications have the potential to radically improve business processes. Like all technologies, it comes with risks, too. Read on to learn more how small to medium-size businesses can leverage AI while mitigating the potential risks of this growing technology. More and More Businesses Use Artificial Intelligence Use of artificial intelligence is growing, and is only expected to increase. According to a report cited by a CompTIA article, the market for AI is expected to grow by 38.1% each year until 2030–from 2022’s market of $119.7 billion. Tech and financial services are the industry sectors using it most, with telecommunications at 5%. Customer satisfaction for companies using artificial intelligence is expected to grow by 25%. What makes AI such a draw, especially for small to medium-sized businesses? Benefits of Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence can be used for business processes like automated chat, or to analyze great amounts of data in a way more time- and labor-saving than humans can. For smaller companies, having automated processes can free up a smaller staff from performing mundane tasks. Businesses can use AI to get customer feedback to change course in product/service offerings if needed. Automation by AI can even help with cybersecurity by detecting patterns and even anomalies in the sea of data generated by businesses–perhaps stopping a cyberattack in its tracks. Artificial intelligence can also be taught to shut down affected systems and isolate the threat. In terms of saving costs, businesses can allow automated chat to handle simple and quick customer service queries, allowing workers to focus on more complex issues. Moreover,...
