The pandemic didn’t just change how we live but also changed how we work. We’ve seen differences in going to the office or school every day to getting up every day and sitting in front of a laptop became our reality.
Artificial intelligence and cloud solutions were two leading technologies that were looking like the next big thing from the last two decades. And with the pandemic, this just became real.
“A third of IT businesses around the world are now using Artificial Intelligence (AI)” – IBM Global AI Adoption Index.
The same survey also found that 43% of SaaS companies have accelerated the rollout of AI solutions. However, this was possible only because of having no choice but having to accommodate the lockdown and work-from-home conditions. This led to the downfall of legacy methods for newfound automated solutions powered by artificial intelligence.
For those of you who don’t know what is artificial intelligence
“Artificial intelligence is intelligence or understanding demonstrated by bots, instead of the natural intelligence displayed by humans.”
The new advancement of artificial intelligence has made it possible for us to even converse with machines like our phone in our native language and find solutions to our problems instead of the complicated, pages-long code a few decades back.
“I view [AI] as a very profound enabling technology. If you think about fire or electricity or the internet, it is like that, but I think even more profound.” – Sundar Pichai, Google CEO in a recent BBC podcast.
Artificial intelligence not just revolutionized the customer service sector with conversational AI, but entire business processes. With the help of other AI-based solutions like conversation intelligence, AI-powered CRM and Dashboards, forecasting and diagnostics tools, getting more done while working smart has become the world’s reality.
But the pandemic was not the only reason for the acceleration of Artificial Intelligence solutions; many other factors led to us talking to chatbots or virtual assistants every other day.
Why Artificial Intelligence?
It is true that AI solutions not only enhance but also improve the precision of any task. But that does not mean, it is the only reason for its widespread popularity. Let us look at some of these reasons:
Automation
An undeniable factor but an important one is that most businesses’ tasks in sales, marketing, finance, or even every industry are very monotonous and repetitive. AI can easily automate all repetitive tasks, saving a lot of time for businesses.
For example, Suki.ai allows doctors to make notes verbally without manually writing them for future reference, or solving customers’ repetitive problems like account updates with the help of a chatbot.
Ease of Use
AI-based solutions are intuitive, which makes it easier for users to use the solution. For example, setting up Alexa updates for your order delivery, or setting up a newsletter for your prospects.
One Time Integrations
The best part of these AI solutions is; businesses have to integrate these solutions into their processes once and leverage their benefits.
More Affordable
Compared to two decades back, the technology in itself has advanced a lot. And thanks to that, the prices of AI-based solutions have come down. So now, even startups can afford to deploy AI-based stack for their requirements.
Self Serve
A recent study found that 67% of respondents prefer self-service. With the market demanding tools and services for self-serve, the number of customer support and retail solutions has increased.
Let’s look at the most adopted Artificial Intelligence solutions in COVID-19, which are here to stay.
AI Solutions Adopted
Cloud Computing Platform
Amazon web services and Alibaba, who are not aware of them?
Cloud computing software provides on-demand computer software resources, like data storage and computing power, without direct active management.
Conversational AI
Apart from Alexa and Amazon assistant, the number of chatbots and virtual assistants in the market more than doubled. And this was not just for catering to customer grievances, even for sale, lead capturing, and even to remove repetitive internal query resolution. Some of the major players in the market are Haptik, Verloop, Drift, IBM Watson.
Conversation Intelligence (CI)
Conversation Intelligence powered by AI became another popular demand in the market. With work from home, the only way to talk to the internal team or prospect was through Zoom, Google meets, and your other video conferencing platforms.
CI became the go-to tool for all businesses to record, transcribe, and analyze the call for customer insights, market insights, and training new sales hires despite no contact. Some of the significant players are Gong, Convin, Wingman, and Chorus.
Forecasting Solutions
Sales forecasting in itself is a horrendous task. Think about it – tracking deals, listening to everyday conversations, tracking market trends. Sales forecasting software helps plan, budget, and forecast expenses and revenue by tracking deals cycle, patterns, and company’s expense trend. Some of the players in the market are Salesflare, Smart Demand Planner, Place Technology.
Automated Solutions
The adoption rate of AI-based solutions to automate repetitive and monotonous tasks increased, like manually adding leads to a CRM or sending out notifications and updates. Tools like Zapier, Automation Anywhere are some of the notable names. In addition, AI automation has simplified remote work.
Cloud-based CRM
Cloud CRM is CRM software where the application and data are all hosted on the CRM providers’ servers in a data center and accessed via an internet browser instead of a personal system. Some of the significant CRMs are Salesforce, Freshworks, Hubspot, and Pipedrive.
Artificial intelligence has the potential to not disrupt the business process but even our day-to-day life. For example, what previously took hours and hours of waiting in the call queue, can be quickly done by chatting with a virtual assistant.
Similarly, what used to take an SDR countless hours of work to make meeting notes and do market research for a single meeting can be easily accomplished by Conversation Intelligence.
Image Credit: RF Studio; Pexels; Thank you!
