When people talk about artificial intelligence (AI), they often think of futuristic technologies. Think automated delivery drones, self-driving cars and houses that run themselves.
But while this is all very exciting, it’s not particularly relevant to your business right now!
Speaking as a company with a good insight into what current technology can do, we thought we’d take a look at how AI can support automation in the workplace. Read on to find out how to boost your business’ productivity — and profit!
AI in the workplace
With AI and automation, there’s always the worry it will lead to an avalanche of job losses. Or that robots will soon take over the world. But, although AI is likely to replace some service jobs in the future, most businesses and employees will only benefit from current technologies.
Rather than replace IT entirely, AI can actually assist the human decision-making process. Unlike robots and computers, we’re all prone to human error. But in industries where even the tiniest detail matters, there’s little room for this. Mistakes can prove incredibly costly — in terms of both money and productivity. Luckily, AI can help you minimise the risk of any slipups.
Certainly, we can expect AI to automate administrative and logistical tasks. In fact, this has already happened to a large extent. AI can handle mundane and repetitive tasks across your business (the types of tasks that often lead to mistakes!).
This frees up people in all departments to spend less time on redundant, time-consuming tasks. So they can spend more time doing work that matters to your business and your bottom line! By allowing your employees to focus on the most engaging parts of their jobs, AI will help make your business more productive and effective.
Coming out tops
In the finance and legal sectors, AI is already being used to benefit businesses and employees. With AI-powered solutions, both accountancy and law firms are taking the grunt work out of daily tasks, streamlining processes and gaining better insights — allowing them to focus on more strategic functions for their clients.
By automating the extraction, classification and reporting of data, AI is helping accountants stay on top of transactions amid time-consuming and tedious systems and allowing them to gain smart insights to improve financial planning. To drastically reduce the time it takes to identify compliance issues, AI can also be used to automatically scan for purchases made outside of policy — enabling auditors to quickly right the error and help enforce corporate policies. What’s more, auditors can only inspect 10 per cent of expense reports manually; AI can audit up to 100 per cent!
Lawyers are also using the latest AI software to improve business processes — enabling them to work smarter, not harder. By making the most of AI-based programmes, lawyers can log working hours and automatically generate invoices for their time, create bespoke contracts by answering just a few simple questions and easily find the most relevant material to any case.
A slow burner
Somewhat surprisingly, the energy sector is only just beginning to adopt AI. Until now, grid operators, oil and power companies have been slow to warm to these technologies.
However, the energy industry produces a massive amount of data. To turn this data into insights that can improve productivity and cut costs, major energy players are increasingly seeking automation.
Smart, AI-based software allows energy operators to collect, monitor, process, analyse and interpret the flood of data they generate. And soon, AI-enabled robots equipped with sensors and algorithms will be capable of inspecting, repairing, maintaining and certifying energy installations, too — eliminating the need for workers to access potentially dangerous locations to do so.
Once AI is more widely adopted in the sector, these technologies have the potential to revolutionise the operations and cost structure of energy companies, as well as to improve health and safety for workers.
Always one step ahead
If you wish to succeed in business and be a market leader, you can’t afford to ignore automation and AI. We now live in a world where people want everything instantly. It’s very difficult to deliver the level of service customers have come to expect without using the automation that AI provides.
Plus, if you don’t embrace the technology, you can bet your competitors will… Here at
Pro Drive IT, we don’t claim to be AI experts. But we do stay on top of the latest trends. And our strengths lie in helping our customers choose the right technology for their business — and then managing it!
Don’t let your business lose its relevance. Contact Pro Drive today to see how our expert IT consultants can help you use AI technology to stay one step ahead.
