Can AI transform my business?

“Wisdom consists in giving someone else the job you were supposed to do yourself” – Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad

‘AI’ became indisputably one the most popular buzzwords in 2023. Those of us who read science-fiction stories remember many authors predicted that artificial intelligence will re-shape the future of mankind. Depending on the author’s point of view it is positive, negative or more complex. Right now, the future is happening before our eyes. Where will it lead us? – Nobody knows. I’m not going to focus on ethical or social issues of AI adoption; it is an interesting topic for a longer conversation. I will try to address the question that many of us are interested in:

• In what way the AI will transform our business?
• How may I benefit from AI?

As I mentioned the AI is no longer a science-fiction story, it is reality. Satya Nadella, Microsoft chairman and CEO, said that a golden age of AI is under way and will redefine work as we know it. “The future of work is not just about technology and tools,” he said. “It’s about new management practices and sensibilities to the workplace”.

But how can we use AI in our daily business? Fortunately, many of AI possibilities can be used not only in enterprises with seven or eight-digit budgets. My bet is the situation is similar to what we had with PCs and later with the Internet – every company is going to use it. Importantly, the adoption cost of AI is low – there are numerous services, websites and applications that offer AI-based support in many areas. They usually offer a pay-per-usage model.

OK, but how may I use the AI tools?

Well, it depends mostly on our needs and creativity. Read LinkedIn articles, expert blogs and you will find more ideas than you might think. But in everyday business it’s usually about the money – how can we save or earn more. Coming back to Lem’s quote – let’s use AI to decrease everyday work. There are some areas in which AI will fuel up your company engine.

Marketing

Instead of employing teams of copywriters, designers, web-developers or hiring agencies, a creative person may easily harness AI tools to create valuable content is short time. AI apps will help you write content, create rich media materials, and distribute them. Moreover, it will help you address new markets more easily. You may create a video in which you present your product or idea, then generate English, Spanish, Japanese or any other version – with sound, captions and lip-sync. Imagine the bill you would receive if you did it in old way. My advice – don’t forget to be creative – otherwise your message will not stand out from the crowd. This is where the AI will help you but not replace the creativity of human work. But in many areas, it will take lot of boring work off your shoulders. Do you know that a good ERP/sales system may create and publish thousands of product descriptions for your web shop in just minutes?

Back office and accounting

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU stated in her 2023 State of the Union Address “Labour and skills shortages are reaching record levels – both here and across all major economies. 74% of SMEs are saying they are facing skill shortages.”  AI will not become your new CFO or chief accountant but it can help you in two ways – enabling the experts to do more in a shorter time and taking over the routine, repetitive duties. According to my observations from projects at our clients, 80-90% of tasks done by an accounting team can be automated: document recognition, entering data, posting, payments, reporting – I’m sorry but this is the same job month in, month out. If you seek areas where you can reduce costs – you got it. In Poland we face personnel shortages – even for junior accountant positions. AI is the obvious remedy. No matter whether your company has an internal team, or outsources some processes, look on state-of-the-art cloud software that has AI capabilities or may interact with AI tools. You will soon see how your business will change.

Business processes

I won’t analyse all the possible ways you may harness AI technology in your business. But the general rule is trying to use AI whenever you want to:

• Reduce repetitive or simple but time-consuming tasks.
• Generate content: marketing materials, documents, tutorials, reports.
• Analyse data, combining internal and external data, getting insights.
• Expand your operations, scale up your business.

But pay attention to what is happening every day. This part of industry is rapidly changing. Read articles, subscribe to experts’ blogs, and use LinkedIn. You will see how many new ideas you will get.

Instead of a summary I will paraphrase Neo from The Matrix. ”It will show you the world without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice, I leave to you.”

About the author:
Paweł Prymakowski, CEO, IT Vision, https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawelprymakowski/