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Are you ready to embrace the robot overlords?
Okay – that’s not really what we’re talking about today.
I’m sure you’ve seen stories about ChatGPT, Jasper, DaVinci, and similar artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the media. These AI companies are promising easy access to untapped potential for automation, accessibility, and efficiency through their technologies. But many advisors are skeptical about the hype. And several industries are already having to adapt to the challenges these tools present. College professors must rethink their writing assignments now that students have free access to ChatGPT, with The Atlantic portending the death of the college essay. The software has even passed exams at a U.S. law school after crafting essays on topics including constitutional law, taxation, and torts.
AI is poised to change the trajectory of countless industries, but have you considered how it can help you grow your business? Leveraged properly, this technology can serve as a partner instead of an adversary.
How AI tools can boost your business
Automation
Does your team spend hours weekly, even daily, performing administrative tasks that fail to drive your growth? Here’s how AI can take some of the burden off your staff.
AI-powered chatbots, such as Meta’s Kustomer IQ, can be integrated into your website to manage customer support. Kustomer IQ can solve simple, common tickets and recognize more complex issues where enlisting human support is required. This will improve your response time and customer satisfaction while leaving your team with more time to handle complicated inquiries.
You can capture meeting notes and have tasks extracted using FireFlies AI.
You could also outsource a share of your marketing work with media planning tools. For example, the CoSchedule social scheduling tool integrates with company blogs through WordPress, and you can use it to publish social content on several outlets simultaneously. It will also give you a “top content report” that highlights your engagement, allowing you to focus on what’s really resonating with your audience with data-driven insights.
Accessibility
With AI voiceover, caption, and translation tools, your business can improve its accessibility among audiences requiring alternatives. Automated speech recognition (ASR) algorithms provide subtitles and captions for video content, and the self-learning nature of these algorithms results in improved captions over time.
Typecast can caption your content with an AI text reader and voice synthesizer, while Microsoft Translator provides captioning solutions that cross language barriers. There are even options for live captioning during video conference calls. These and similar services help you connect with new audiences in cost-effective ways.
Efficiency
We are all limited to 24 hours in a day. But the internet never sleeps.
AI tools can help optimize your operations through predictive maintenance, trend forecasting, quality control, and more. AI-based platforms endlessly comb social channels and internet archives to efficiently track consumer behavior, compile data, and predict business trends. Then, they will present these insights to you, helping you better understand your customers.
Wonder what’s trending around the world or in your space? The AnswerThePublic social listening tool scours billions of Google searches every day to pull information on what people are asking. From there, you can plan your content and even develop products tailored to the market. Interested in partnering with influencers to develop high-performing content? BuzzSumo will highlight individuals with the greatest reach and engagement in your niche, and the treasure trove of data can help you refine your marketing strategy.
These tools access and process more data than a human could ever manage, and they can do it within seconds. Allow your team to focus on strategy by having AI do all the data dirty work.
Ready or not – The revolution is here
A 2020 article published in the Business Process Management Journal was based on a review of 500 case studies from IBM, AWS, Cloudera, Nvidia, Conversica, and other companies. It found AI to be beneficial to businesses in multiple sectors, notably in “performance at both the organizational (financial, marketing and administrative) and process levels.”
It’s understandable to be wary of new technologies, especially if your team members fear getting replaced by an automated software. But used well, AI technologies will serve as a partner in everybody’s work. Many of these tools offer free versions or trials for basic use. Take the time you save through these tools and spend it on the high-level work that matters for your business. Your growth will skyrocket.
Jennifer Goldman, CFP®, is the founder and CEO of Andover, MA-based Jennifer Goldman Consulting. Jen brings 30 years of experience transforming over 1,000+ service businesses to thrive. Her mission is to increase the health of businesses so they can provide knowledge and choices to more employees and consumers.
Read more articles by Jennifer Goldman
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
