The Benefits of Machine Learning For Your Business

The AI revolution is here, and it is already changing our world. You can see that AI solutions are present everywhere if you look around.

From self-driving cars to improved medical diagnoses to digital assistants on your smartphone, AI has become a part of our life. AI is also changing how businesses operate, helping them drive digital transformation.

When talking about Artificial intelligence, it’s important to remember that it’s not one technology but a collection of them. Today we’ll be looking at Machine Learning, a subset of AI, and its practical implications for business transformation.

What is Machine Learning?

According to the definition from IBM, “Machine Learning (ML) is a method of data analysis that automates the building of analytical models.”

But in simpler terms, we can just say that ML is a group of algorithms or technology that enable machines to learn from data to perform their tasks better. As more data is provided, ML enables better accuracy and performance without reprogramming.

One of the most popular and widespread examples of ML in the real world is image recognition. In healthcare, applying machine learning models on chest X-Ray images enables automatic detection of COVID-19 cases with high accuracy. On social media, image recognition helps with tagging. And law enforcement agencies can use it to identify suspects. ?

Of course, ML is way more than just image recognition. It’s widely used by businesses big and small. Studies report a big opportunity for ML globally in terms of future growth. According to an MIT Technology Review survey of 375 leading companies in over 30 countries, 60% of respondents had already implemented an ML strategy and committed to ongoing ML investment.

And according to Deloitte’s report “Business impacts of machine learning,” “Global market revenue for ML as a service (MLaaS), or vendor platforms for ML, totaled US$1.07 billion in 2016, and is expected to grow to US$20 billion by 2025.”

How can machine learning improve your business?

As we mentioned, ML lets computers learn and interpret without being explicitly programmed. This allows AI-based systems to detect patterns in structured data and discover market trends or customer preferences. Based on that data, organizations can make better-informed business decisions, develop innovative solutions and products, or improve existing processes.

But the scope of ML is way more than just business analytics. Benefits of adopting ML-based solutions vary depending on the organization and niche, but generally, the main benefits include:

1.????Increased Revenue and Growth

There are numerous ways in which ML can help your business increase revenue and growth:

- Thanks to advanced analytics, companies that implement ML can predict future business outcomes. By analyzing current and historical data, it is possible to foresee upcoming market and customer trends with a high level of accuracy.

A good example is demand forecasting, where ML models are more accurate than traditional statistical forecasting methods.

- Another area where ML can help is customer service, customer engagement, and sales.

Analyzing customer insights allows businesses to understand how their audience thinks and feels. This means companies can provide better and faster customer service, improve engagement, and increase customer retention.

Machine-learned Ranking (MLR) can be used to improve product search and recommendations, increasing sales.

The best example to demonstrate how effective MLR can be is Amazon. The company has reorganized its entire business model around artificial intelligence and machine learning. Today, over 35% of Amazon’s revenue is generated by its recommendation engine.

2.????Increased Performance & Time Saving ?

Companies can increase performance and save time by utilizing machine learning technologies to optimize processes and redirect human resources to higher-value tasks.

Machine learning assists in developing applications that automate operations and enhance current processes, resulting in increased productivity and cost savings.

Depending on the business model, ML can increase performance in numerous ways:

- According to a survey conducted by MIT Technology Review, 30% of companies that adopted ML saw an increase in various internal process efficiencies.

- For client/customer-facing companies, ML can help streamline customer interactions. Using natural language processing and chatbots can decrease call volume, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce churn rate.

- ML can also tremendously reduce time and search costs in data-heavy information retrieval tasks. Models can perform those tasks faster than humans whenever there is a need to scan and cross-reference documents.

3. Capital Savings

As we mentioned, ML can help businesses make better decisions, improve processes, help generate more sales.

ML technologies can also lead to significant savings directly by optimizing production processes, from inventory management to quality control:

- Predictive ML models can keep track of asset conditions by gathering data on the operational performance of equipment and components from various sensors.

Then, models can be trained to analyze performance and compute crucial metrics like the remaining component’s lifetime. This allows engineers to better prioritize asset inspection and maintenance.

- Machine learning can also improve quality control, which is especially important to manufacturers. Very often, QC that is solely performed by human inspectors is subject to bias and can be limited by an individual inspector’s skillset. Automated ML quality inspection extracts relevant relationships systematically to discover the root causes of problems.

Why is machine learning important for your businesses?

The importance of machine learning can be described in one sentence – “increased competitiveness.” Companies that utilize ML can increase revenue, improve internal processes, and make better business decisions. All of this leads to a competitive advantage no matter what industry you are in.

But as more companies undergo digital transformation and adopt machine learning, the technology will no longer provide an advantage over the competition. It’ll be necessary to stay competitive. Companies that don’t undergo a transformation or do it too late will be left behind. That’s why it’s crucial to adapt ML as soon as possible.

Of course, implementing ML-based technologies is not an easy task. Companies that go through digital transformation face many challenges, from lack of proper infrastructure to lack of experience or ability to deal with data. One of the biggest obstacles is company culture; people often oppose the change.

Transformation also requires significant investments in terms of time and money, but with an ROI of between two to five times the investment in the first year of implementation, the process is worth it.

Contact us if you want to learn more about machine learning and its importance to your business.?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????