How AI Isn’t Just Revolutionizing The Tech Industry

Common perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) are warped. As soon as you mention the word, we picture robots.

When you talk about AI in businesses, we picture machine arms building cars. We picture big, industrial warehouses practically run by themselves.

But, technology and industrial sectors aren’t the only ones to be revolutionized through AI. It’s happening everywhere.

In fact, by 2030, the UK’s GDP could grow by 10% from AI alone, which is an extra $289 billion. That’s just the UK. Globally, it’s predicted to be closer to 13%.

AI unlocks the potential for growth and expansion across every industry. To give you a taste of that, here are some uses you might not have thought of.

Netflix’s AI Helps Commission Shows and Keep You Watching

There are AI systems that we encounter every day without realizing it. Netflix is a great example of this with its AI "Cinematch".

Whenever you load up Netflix, you’ll see a list of categories and titles, specially chosen for you.

These aren’t selected by a human.

They’re compiled by their AI to help users find something they’re interested in faster, so they keep watching and paying their subscription.

This works by gathering information about:

• What you watch.

• The titles you look at.

• The titles similar users are watching.

It also looks at how you watch. Yup, Cinematch gathers data on how long people watch for, what bits they pause and replay, whether they binge an entire series or watch an episode at a time.

In addition, AI helps Netflix commission shows. Using the data collected from Cinematch, they see what shows are performing best and order more. Their first "Netflix Original" House Of Cards is a great example of this.

Netflix purchased two entire seasons at $100 million without seeing a single scene. There was no pilot script or episode. They didn’t even wait to see how the first season did. They purchased 2 seasons at once because their AI predicted its audience would like it.

Thanks to their AI, Netflix has grown exponentially. In 2012, they had a revenue of $3,609 million. Last year, this had grown to $20,156 million.

Deliveroo’s AI Manages Orders and Saves Time

Deliveroo has one of the best named AI ever. It’s called Frank.

Frank is Deliveroo’s secret logistic weapon that calculates the most efficient routes and delivery times. It does this by taking note of all the riders in the area and how long a restaurant will take to prepare a meal based on factors like time and location.

For example, 6pm on a Friday night will be a lot busier than 2pm on a Tuesday.

Once it’s selected the best rider, Frank will then calculate the best route to follow. So far, Frank has helped reduce delivery times by 20%.

On top of Frank, Deliveroo also provides a restaurant partner API to all of their partners. This allows the restaurants to see orders coming through Deliveroo, to accept or reject orders and complete status reports in real-time.

You don’t need to be in the restaurant industry to benefit from POS (Point Of Sale) systems either. They’re a great way to keep track of stock, help process payments and provide a better customer experience.

All thanks to AI.

Chatbots Cutting Customer Support Time in Half

Chatbots are an incredibly valuable tool for providing customer support, sorting leads and keeping costs down.

If you’re a customer based business, your customer support team might be overwhelmed trying to answer every single message they get. They can only do one at a time and they don’t work 24/7, meaning you’ll be keeping your customers on hold.

No one likes to be left waiting.

Chatbots reply instantly. An instant reply means that users will feel like their question has been heard and is being processed. They feel important, and like they’ve achieved something with their request. If it’s a common question, the chatbot can even solve their problem there and then.

If the chatbot can’t solve the problem and they need to speak to customer support, they’ll already know what the problem is and have context before jumping on the chat. This saves valuable time and makes sure that the right person can answer.

What’s more, research by SUMO Heavy has shown that after using a chatbot, 72% found the experience helpful and informative. Chatbot AIs cut downtime, costs, ease the strain on customer support teams and are liked by customers.

That’s a big win-win right there.

Smarter Targeted Advertising with AI

Digital advertising has seen one of the biggest boosts of AI software and tools, particularly within PPC (pay-per-click) advertising.

Currently, AI runs most of the core features that make PPC campaigns work. This includes features like Google’s Smart Bidding and Facebook’s CBO (Campaign Budget Optimization) which automatically sets and adjusts budgets for campaigns.

So, the best performing campaigns have more budget, giving them a better chance to bring in more of the positive results.

In addition, Facebook’s lookalike audiences uses AI to find users similar to the people that companies are already targeting. It basically expands their reach to a wider audience at the click of a button. Using this feature, Lounge Underwear achieved a 6X return on ad spend.

It’s almost impossible to advertise without AI.

Unlimited Potential For AI

AI has the power to speed up endless parts of any business and industry. There are countless examples out there, far beyond the small number that we’ve included in this post.

Every single business has the potential to use AI. All they need to do is see which processes that they currently struggle with, then access the tools to help.

By working with AI, businesses of every industry can thrive and grow.