Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and top contender for richest man alive once said, “it’s hard to overstate how big of an impact (AI and machine learning) will have on society over the next 20 years”. This is no exaggeration. AI and machine learning are already having a tremendous impact on industries and our lives, often in ways that we can’t even see or detect. The content you consume via social media, streaming services and even news websites? Shaped by algorithms. The discount offers you receive and product recommendations on e-commerce platforms? Algorithms again. The assessment of your lendability for credit purposes? Algorithms. Inventing new drugs and pharmaceuticals in healthcare? Algorithms. We think you’re getting the picture. Algorithms – the ‘DNA’ of AI and machine learning – are all around us. We interact with them every day and they shape our lives to such a degree that often we don’t notice until something goes wrong. As AI technology improves, our exposure to AI is only going to become more seamless, leading to increased expectations of performance from products, services and brands.

AI has a broad range of applications across industry and the benefits from these applications are almost as expansive. The specific benefits that your business can realize through AI will depend on your business objectives, available data and the competitive forces in your industry.

It’s very easy for the subject of AI to make things more complex than they need to be. Rather than asking “which areas of my business can be improved by AI”, try brainstorming “which areas of my business can be improved?”. If you can identify areas of your business that can be improved, LightningBiz AI can apply our expertise in AI to provide the most robust recommendations possible to achieve them.

Artificial Intelligence is considered by many to be the fourth technological revolution. Therefore, a more appropriate question could be “what are the consequences of not preparing my business to adapt to this revolution?” Regardless of how the question is phrased, the consequences are consistent for any business, regardless of industry, that fails to keep pace with innovation and changing consumer needs and expectations. These businesses experience intensified competition from emerging competitors and from existing competitors who successfully adapt to the new landscape. Over time, this results in declining sales, lost market share and decreased profitability. If this pattern endures, this becomes a long-term performance trend ultimately leading to the decline of the business.