2023 felt like the year of AI hype. Leaders scrambled to figure out ways to use AI in their business, spurred on by a fear of missing out and being left behind. While companies continue trying to figure out ways to incorporate AI into their operations, three in four early adopters are bringing their own AI to work.
For many business leaders, it feels like as soon as they get their head around one use case, another raises its head. The technology is changing so fast that it’s hard to keep up.
It may sound cliché, but AI really is here to stay and will impact every single function within our organisations—from sales and operations to finance and legal teams. So, as business leaders, how can you start to leverage AI to improve your organisations?
I am often asked,“ How can I use AI in my business?” Despite the simplicity of the question, there’s a lot to unpack and navigating where to apply it in an organisation can be challenging. In this article, I’ll unpack five common areas where AI can help drive productivity gains, create organisational efficiencies, alleviate your employees from the burden of administrative work and free them to focus on your customers.
- Customer engagement and experience
As a business leader, enhancing customer and employee experience directly impacts loyalty and revenue growth. AI for customer experience is the most widely implemented AI because it can personalise experiences and increase customer loyalty by up to 69 per cent.
Take surf and street fashion retailer City Beach, who wanted to enhance the experience of its 1.4 million customers. It used embedded AI to engage customers on a personal level, leading to a 38 per cent increase in retention. Similarly, women’s fashion retailer, Cue Clothing, also bridged the gap between the online and physical experience to provide AI-enabled post-sale recommendations, increasing the average order value by five to six times.
2. Operational efficiency and automation
In Australia, we are experiencing some of the lowest productivity rates in over four decades. So leaders are naturally looking towards how AI can streamline operations by reducing costs, minimising errors and helping to improve overall productivity.
For many organisations, one of the easiest places to drive those productivity gains is by automating routine and repetitive tasks, such as expense management and end-of-month reporting, allowing employees to focus on higher-value activities. Take global insurance broker and risk management company Gallagher. Its employees take photos of their expense receipts from anywhere and an AI-enabled information extraction automatically completes the expense claims, reducing errors and streamlining the finance team approval process.
3. Predicting future demand and reducing inventory
Accurately predicting future demand helps minimise overstock and stock-outs, reducing inventory cost and wastage. Plus, effectively managing inventory ensures the right products are available at the right time, improving customer satisfaction.
That’s why leading grocery retailer Foodstuffs South Island implemented an AI-enabled demand forecasting application within SAP. The solution has helped predict demand for its products, reducing overall food wastage and increasing shelf life for high turnover items. Forecast accuracy has improved by more than 10 per cent and it is now looking at how to leverage AI for further improvements in forecasting and inventory management.
4. Enabling data-driven decisions
More data is available than ever, yet more than half of business decisions are still based on gut feel or experience alone. Using AI to aid data analysis by identifying patterns helps organisations make data-driven decisions and respond to changing business needs.
For example, DXC Australia and SAP used AI to better care for people with Parkinson’s Disease. The solution helped patients capture data, assisting clinicians in monitoring symptoms remotely and enabling support for patients in real-time. Using data and AI helped clinicians create personalised treatment plans for their patients.
5. Improving experience for customers and employees
One reason Australians leave their jobs is being overworked, partly due to manual workarounds and inefficient processes. Augmenting employees’ workload with AI can help them find information, automate manual work, and free up time to focus on high-value tasks.
A wine producer, Indevin Group, used AI automation to enable a new way of working, removing manual workarounds in spreadsheets and improving visibility across all HR functions. Using AI for employee experience helps the group toward its goal of becoming the employer of choice. Similarly, HomeMade, an administrator of home care packages, implemented an AI-enabled self-service portal to help participants have visibility into costs and budgets. The portal empowers recipients with greater flexibility, choice, and control over their services, improving the overall care experience.
The here and now of AI
AI is here, today. Finding ways to bring it into your operations helps how businesses operate in a range of ways, enhancing customer engagement, streamlining operations, predicting future demand, making data-driven decisions, and improving customer and employee experiences.
The examples provided demonstrate AI’s significant impact on driving productivity gains and enabling innovation. As AI continues to evolve, its potential to transform businesses and create new opportunities will only grow. Embracing AI is a competitive advantage and necessary for organisations looking to thrive in the digital age.
Dr Kim Oosthuizen is head of AI at SAP Australia and New Zealand.
