How To Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) For Your Small Business

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for businesses is now becoming a norm for big businesses.  For small businesses,  however, using AI is quite a challenge for small business owners to understand and to invest in.  Now in 2020, small businesses no longer need to be sidelined from using AI.

How AI Helps Businesses

Using AI can improve business productivity, and ultimately, profits. AI can help to increase customer experience , including personalizing customers’ experiences, increase employee productivity, automate work processes, and help with repetitive business processes.

What Exactly Is AI?

AI is artificial intelligence in computer systems and is a simulation of human intelligence, and can demonstrate behaviors such as learning, planning, reasoning, problem-solving, knowledge representation, and manipulation.

For ordinary people, tech gadget users use AI in their phones such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa.

Types of AI

AI can be used in busineses for four main purposes:

1. Predictive Analytics

Wouldn’t it be great if we know the future?  Predictive analytics tries to achieve that by using a combination of machine learning, historical data and other processes to predict future outcomes. Using predictive analytics to take advantage of patterns and trends, companies can improve their advertising, sales product items and more.

2. Anomaly Detection

Anomaly detection is used to find problems before they happen, by viewing datasets that are abnormal from historical and present data. Most anomaly detection AI now is used to detect fraudulent transactions in retail and e-commerce.

3. AI For CyberSecurity

AI is used in cybersecurity to detect threats, viruses in technology so that businesses will not have any disruption in their digital work.

4. User-Friendly Platforms

AI is now used to help onboarding new customers and users to a new digital platform, website, mobile app and more.

AI Tools For Small Businesses

AI may sound intimidating to the average person, including a small business owner, because it is a new, complex technology that requires high investment. Thanks to the SaaS business model (software as a service), AI technology is now within reach to the average small business owner.

Here are some AI tools that can be used to help your business:

AI For Sales Chat

If your company uses messaging systems, such as Facebook Messenger, or even WhatsApp, to chat with your customers and potential customers, then you might want to try Liveperson.com .

Liveperson is a chatbot that can integrate many different messaging platforms into their AI systems. Where 67% of customers now expect a reply within 10 minutes of a message, the AI chatbot is a good investment to have.

Prices start from USD 40 per user per month.

Personalizing Web Content

You can now personalize your content depending on who visits with RightMessage. For example, an accountant visiting your website from a search engine will see different content from a student visiting your website from Facebook. This will help personalize their experience and will be able to offer lead magnets that are relevant to their interests and intent.

Prices start from USD 29 per month.

Predictive Analytics For Your Business

Would you like to know about the future of your business? Your business can now be proactive instead of just being reactive. Now predictive analytics is available to small businesses as well.  Qlik collects all the businesses’ data sets and analyzes them with AI.

Essentially, predictive analytics now helps management makes better decisions, based on data.

Prices start from USD 30 per user per month.

AI For Your Masjid Or Islamic Event

Collabdeen mobile app also uses AI for masjids and Islamic organizations to promote their events to their congregation.  The founder, Fateh Ali, spoke with us earlier on why and how he started the tech startup. 

Price is free.

Conclusion

If you have the budget for using AI, don’t miss the boat on using AI to boost your business.

Farah I, Writer & Researcher

Farah Ishak is a Content Writer at Halalop. She grew up in the United Kingdom where she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Management. Later, she completed her MBA and held senior-level positions in Malaysian based MNC. She left the corporate world to be with her young kids. She is passionate about issues concerning Muslim women, Startups and Muslim businesses in general.