Artificial intelligence (AI) has gone from being a futuristic dream to a modern-day reality for households and businesses across the globe. When harnessed correctly, AI has the potential to dramatically enhance business operations, with business communication one area that is already benefitting from this ground-breaking technology.
What are the benefits of AI in business communication?
Here’s a look at some of the ways that AI is enhancing business communication for everything from smaller start-ups to large corporations.
1. Increased Efficiency
The primary role of AI should be to make our lives easier, which it is doing by taking over the routine communication-related tasks that take up time unnecessarily. Things like data analysis, scheduling, and responses are now being co-ordinated by AI which increases the efficiency of business operations.
2. Personalised Communication
It seems contrary that AI is putting the ‘personal’ in communication, but because it can access data such as historical records and personal information, it can offer personalised engagement with clients. When it comes to marketing, AI tailors recommendations and products to the individual based on previous interactions.
3. 24/7 availability
Humans need a break, whether it’s to go home at the end of the day, sleep, deal with personal issues, enjoy a holiday, or more. AI doesn’t! This means that it offers your clients consistent, uninterrupted attention. This is important for business communication as the modern consumer expects to connect immediately. It’s also particularly beneficial for global corporations that operate across time zones.
4. Data Insights
Data is gold in the business world – it holds valuable insights into customer trends, customer behaviour and niche information that can put your business ahead through marketing strategies and more. However, consolidating and analysing that data manually is laborious and counter-productive. Fortunately, AI can take over this mundane yet necessary task so that you have insights into business communication that will further your opportunities. By analysing network traffic patterns, AI can optimise your resource allocation, as well as the routing of data to reduce congestion.
5. Better Customer Service
AI-powered chatbots have quickly become a mainstay of most organisations, tackling routine business communication to free up human agents for more demanding tasks. Because customers are being attended to at all times, quickly and with a personalised touch, they’re experiencing better customer service with AI.
6. Natural Language Processing (NLP)
As AI develops, its ability to better understand human language is improved. The NLP capabilities mean that AI can assist businesses in communicating with their customers even better, with a much more natural engagement. Further to this, elements like immediate translation ensure that customers anywhere in the world can engage with the business in their mother tongue.
7. Energy Savings
The rising cost of energy, coupled with the ongoing threat of load-shedding means that reducing power-related use is a must for all businesses. AI can maximise your network use without impacting the energy-saving features, as well as acting autonomously to reduce the energy consumption of your organisation. This will get you closer to your sustainability goals as well as lower operational costs.
8. Cost Savings
One of the biggest benefits of AI for business communication is the cost savings. Through operational cost savings, energy cost savings, marketing advantages and more, AI eliminates the massive price tag while boosting your bottom line.
What are the challenges of using AI in business communication?
While AI has come a long way, there are still some areas where it is still being improved to better work for business communications. These areas include:
- Privacy: AI will have access to sensitive data which means companies must ensure they have the best data security and other cyber security measures to protect customers.
- Integration: AI does not integrate with all existing communication tools and platforms so businesses may need technological investment.
- Human Element: As far as AI can replicate humans, it’s still missing that human touch which many customers crave when communicating with a business.
- Inaccuracies: If the AI algorithms aren’t relying on accurate data, there can be bias in the outcomes.
- Costs: AI might save businesses in the long run, but the upfront costs of technology, training, and integration can be prohibitive.
- Acceptance: Employees will need to be trained in the use of AI and some may resist it because of job security concerns. Likewise, customers could be hesitant to use AI systems as they miss the human touch.
AI could very well be the right fit for your business communications offerings. If you’re interested in finding out more, get in touch with ECN, a leading telecommunications provider.