The term Artificial Intelligence typically conjures images of humanoid robots or supercomputers that can outperform humans. However, these images are not reality. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere. Modern businesses use it in several different ways to make better decisions and provide better services to their customers and clients.

You might think that your business is too small to benefit from Artificial Intelligence, but you would be wrong, as we will cover later. Another common misconception that many startups hold is that Artificial Intelligence is out of their reach because it is too expensive. But again, this is also not true.

Several Artificial Intelligence solutions can be purchased off-the-shelf by startups who don’t want to incur the cost of developing a custom AI solution for their business. In addition, if you partner with an app development company that takes the time to understand your goals and business needs, they can likely develop you a custom AI solution within your target budget.

Artificial Intelligence might seem like it is out of your reach, but the truth is your startup could greatly benefit from the power of AI. There are several ways Artificial Intelligence is put to use every day by startups and small businesses around the world, including:

• Making better decisions
• Providing better customer service
• Hiring the best job candidates
• Improving security

Let’s take a closer look at these everyday use cases, and elaborate on the ways your business could potentially harness the power of Artificial Intelligence.

Making Better Decisions

Artificial Intelligence is often lauded for its ability to make better decisions than humans. This has been illustrated most prominently in the medical field. For example, Artificial Intelligence using image recognition has been more accurate in diagnosing skin conditions like malignancies and STDs than dermatologists. In addition, AI can make accurate diagnoses earlier than a trained human. This is impressive, but how does this help your startup?

The above example is just one way Artificial Intelligence can assess several data points and make a decision. As a result, businesses large and small use AI tools to analyze their data and help them make better strategic business decisions.

Not only is Artificial Intelligence used to analyze the data your business collects through its various channels, but it can also be used to analyze the broader market that your business operates in and your direct competitors. Acquiring real-time insights into market shifts and competitor strategies helps you compete at a higher level and develop better products and services for your customers.

Providing Better Customer Service

One of the most common forms of Artificial Intelligence is the chatbot. If you haven’t interacted with a chatbot on the Internet in the last five years, things have changed significantly. Modern chatbots are powered by Artificial Intelligence and natural language processing tools. As a result, businesses can trust chatbots to handle a wide range of customer needs online.

The best part about AI-powered chatbots is that the more they are interacted with, the better they get at providing answers and solutions. The modern business world moves fast, but many businesses can’t afford to have people working 24/7. AI chatbots are a great way to extend the availability of your business and communicate with customers who require help at odd hours.

Restaurants are even using Artificial Intelligence to provide more accurate delivery times, which leads to a greater sense of customer satisfaction.

Hiring the Best Job Candidates

Even small businesses can get flooded by resumes when they post open positions on a job board. Sorting through all of these resumes manually not only takes a lot of time but can lead to great candidates getting lost in the shuffle.

Artificial Intelligence tools won’t be making the final hiring decisions. However, your HR team will be more efficient if your business can use AI to pre-screen resumes and highlight the best candidates. Additionally, you will be able to spend more time interacting with the candidates that impress you.

It should be noted that if you rely on historic hiring data, Artificial Intelligence hiring tools might miss underrepresented populations. Therefore, it is important to clearly define the candidates you are looking for to avoid excluding anyone.

Improving Security

The importance of cybersecurity is demonstrated repeatedly by high-profile data breaches. However, just because your business is small doesn’t mean you are immune to cyberattacks. Cyberattacks happen to businesses of all sizes, and they can be devastating to startups trying to establish a brand identity.

Artificial Intelligence is commonly used to help improve data security. AI tools analyze past attack strategies, learn common attacks and typical user patterns, and predict future vulnerabilities and attacks before they can be exploited.

For example, if an unfamiliar action occurs, such as an employee opening a risky link or attachment in an email, AI can step in and neutralize the threat before it can take root. Cyberattacks can cost thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to fully recover from. AI is a tool that can protect your startup from the ever-evolving cyber threat present online.

Final Thoughts

Artificial Intelligence might seem like science fiction, but it is actually handling a number of common, repetitive tasks on a daily basis. You might be surprised to learn how affordable and attainable high-quality AI solutions are. Just because you are a small business or a startup doesn’t mean you can’t utilize big tech tools like Artificial Intelligence.