Humans are highly fallible and can be unreliable. They can create mistakes that can cost your business a lot, and you cannot just tell them to stop and rest easy that they will. Despite their shortcomings, your business cannot function without employees.

However, it does not mean that you should ignore artificial intelligence. It is already 21st century, and you are already living in an AI-first world. Artificial intelligence has come a long way since it was conceived more than a half-century ago, and it is better than ever thanks to machine learning (ML).

It is high time for you to take a more in-depth look at how you can use AI to help your business out. Below are five reasons you should integrate artificial intelligence in your business that may make you question how you are currently running your business today.

1. Optimize Your Business Processes

The primary goal of using artificial intelligence in your business is to optimize all your processes. AI does this by streamlining and automating time-consuming tasks.

For example, China’s JD.com (a company like Amazon) uses artificial intelligence to manage its deliveries and logistics. Instead of relying on humans to manually encode and create delivery orders, JD.com’s AI handles everything to ensure that all deliveries are on time.

Also, note that JD.com uses drones to deliver its products, so it can be a logistical nightmare for mere mortals to handle.

By optimizing your business processes, you can save both time and money. You also increase the productivity of your company and make every process efficient. Using artificial intelligence also prevents any human error and costly mistakes.

2. Analyzing Big Data

By now, the concept of big data should not be foreign to you. Most tech companies use it to innovate their business processes and improve their operations.

Processing big data is within AI territory, and you have no choice but to employ the help of artificial intelligence to process it.

Analyzing big data can help you make faster and better business decisions. You can also get insight to predict your customer and lead behavior. This insight can help you in various ways. You can increase loyalty, generate more sales, or improve your brand’s reputation.

Also, with AI, you can start mining your big data. Your own mined data can help you better identify and maximize sales opportunities, just like how Facebook does it. Its website is consistently mining data from its users. The information it collects creates a sales opportunity for anyone using Facebook Ads every time a user browses around the site.

3. Automation

Automation has been in the minds of Americans for a long time now. For regular workers, automation is terrifying. For business people, it means significant savings and increased profits.

Can you imagine how many truckers will lose their jobs when automated trucks are rolled out? Do you have an idea of how much trucking companies can profit from this situation?

The only industry that automation cannot infiltrate is the trades industry—every other industry is fair game.

For example, if you are running an eCommerce site, you can automate your customer service department by getting an AI chatbot. Some of the things a chatbot can bring to your company are:

• Answer repetitive and simple customer questions
• Let your customer care department handle more complicated interactions like customer retention
• Minimize the number of people you need for customer service

4. Create New Business Opportunities

Aside from helping your business by improving business processes, artificial intelligence can help you open new business opportunities with minimal effort.

For example, Baidu (China’s most popular search engine) uses its tool called Deep Voice to clone a voice. Instead of hiring a voice actor or the author to voice an audiobook, Baidu uses Deep Voice. This tool only needs three seconds to duplicate anyone’s voice and use it to read text and passages.

5. Stay Competitive

As mentioned before, you are already living in an AI-first world. Early adopters are already reaping the rewards. You can even safely say that almost all the top tech companies in the world today have become successful thanks to artificial intelligence.

You must also know that most of your competitors may be looking into artificial intelligence to leave you in the dust. They might be working on their machine learning setup already.

You Must Adapt to Survive

A few years back, it was the mobile-first strategy. Now, it’s AI. You must keep your business on its toes and do not let it get behind the times. It is time for you to review your business and discover how much AI can bring to the table.

Do not fear that AI will ruin your relationship with your employees. However, make sure that you explain how artificial intelligence can help your company and help them work on more meaningful tasks worthy of their time.