How AI Can Boost Productivity in Your Business

Few emerging technologies have generated as much buzz as AI in recent years, and it's easy to see why. From eliminating tedious manual tasks and optimising workflows to speeding up analysis and uncovering original new insights, there's a lot to be gained from integrating AI into your operations.

Whatever your business model, there's sure to be an AI solution that can make your company more efficient, productive and profitable. What's more, some of your competitors are probably already leveraging these tools. If you haven't yet explored AI, now is the time to get ahead of the curve.

In this article, I'll bring you up to speed on just some of the ways that AI can help grow productivity and allow your team to achieve more with less. I'll also cover some actionable tips for getting started.

Skip tedious manual tasks

AI tools can be used to fully automate manual tasks and free up your team to take on more meaningful and productive work. Whether it's taking meeting minutes, or transcribing calls and recordings, AI can do the heavy lifting in a fraction of the time it would take an employee. Once you've automated the transcribing process, you can then use an AI summarising tool to condense lengthy documents and create quick reports and summaries in moments.

Find fresh ideas and tap into new opportunities

As well as eliminating repetitive manual tasks, AI can help with creative work, too. Designers, writers and marketing professionals can use language learning models to spark their creativity and quickly generate rough ideas for new content, videos and campaigns. Audio and visual AI tools can be used to create new assets to accompany existing campaigns, or enhance and speed up the production process.

AI can also be used to rework content for new media formats, allowing you to tap into new audiences and get more value out of your creative assets. For example, you can quickly transcribe video or audio content into blog posts, content marketing and email newsletters.

Go global

In an increasingly global marketplace, AI is paving the way for seamless collaboration and communication between international teams — even if you don't share a common language. Businesses can use AI to quickly generate and translate meeting transcripts, or add translated captions to video recordings, making the language barrier a thing of the past.

AI tools also allow businesses to tap into new markets around the world with less hassle. AI can be used to add instant captions to videos in a different language, allowing you to reach new audiences with marketing campaigns. This can also make it much easier to localise your site for new locations, so you can reach new customers in other countries.

Find new insights without the effort

Forget trawling through datasets to find patterns or uncover insights. Your team can use AI to capture, process and interpret data in real-time, uncovering historical patterns and forecasting future trends. For example, some AI tools can use natural language processing to quickly identify patterns and key insights within text-based data. This can be great for understanding broader trends within a large text-based dataset — for example, a customer feedback survey, or employee satisfaction data.

Enhance customer experience

AI tools and plug-ins are completely transforming the customer experience, especially in the ecommerce space. AI chatbots and customer service agents can handle everyday inquiries in an instant, cutting down wait times and helping potential customers get the information they need faster than ever, meaning they're less likely to go elsewhere. This in turn frees up your staff to handle more complicated issues requiring that human touch. Plus, AI customer service chatbots can engage customers in any language, helping open up new markets for your products.

AI can enhance the customer journey in other ways, too. For example, AI can analyse customer data and use it to provide a more personalised service, such as directing users to the most suitable products for them. Not only does this drive sales and improve customer satisfaction, but it can also help reduce return rates because the customer is more likely to find the right product on their first try.

4 tips for integrating AI effectively

Incorporating AI might seem like a daunting prospect, but there's no need to fear. For a seamless and effective roll-out, follow the tips below.

Create a costed plan. As with any other major operational decision or investment, the best place to start is with a fully costed plan for integrating and scaling your new AI solution. Set measurable goals for productivity, ROI and revenue, as this will help you measure the effectiveness of the roll-out. Remember, you might experience teething issues during the initial stages of the integration, so account for these in your plan.
Don't go too fast, too soon. Trying to automate all your workflows overnight is a recipe for chaos, so roll out your AI solutions in stages. For example, you could deploy a new tool one department or team at a time to keep things manageable.
Have a backup plan contingency. Becoming completely dependent on AI tools and workflows can leave your business vulnerable to outages or downtime. Always have a contingency plan in place, so you can continue to meet your goals if a particular tool is out of commission for a while.
Find tools that suit the needs of your business. When it comes to AI, one size rarely fits all. The right tool for your company will depend on the sector you're in, the size and scale of your operations and the goals you want to achieve. So, spend plenty of time exploring your options. For example, if data confidentiality and security are key concerns within your sector, look for tools that offer enhanced security features. Many tools also offer free trials and product demos, so take full advantage of these to help identify the best option for your business.

AI has the potential to transform your business by increasing productivity, enhancing creativity and opening up new markets. So, if you haven't already, now is the time to start harnessing the power of AI to stay ahead of the competition and drive your business forward.

To read more about the latest developments in tech and AI, take a look at the technology articles on the Fleximize Knowledge Hub.

About the author

Tessa Kaday is Director of Product at Trint, an AI transcription and content creation tool that can convert video, audio and speech to text with up to 99% accuracy. With nearly two decades of experience in journalism under her belt, Tessa oversees the development and launch of Trint's market-leading digital products.