Our thought leadership blog offers perspectives on how digital technology is revolutionizing the modern enterprise.

How AI will Impact Business in 2020 and Beyond

We are living in exciting and innovative times with futuristic technology literally at our fingertips. But for the longest time, small to medium sized businesses were not serviced by the latest tech trends enterprises have been able to benefit from. Just 4 months ago, an AI machine managed to complete a University level math exam 12 times faster than it normally takes the average human. How? Through the art of machine learning; where computers learn and adapt through experience without explicitly being programmed.

Furthermore, Facebook made headlines earlier this year when their chatbots created their own language. This evolving area of computer science is the future for service businesses, and it’s already affecting the way we live and work today. In fact, research firm Markets and Markets estimates that the machine learning market will grow from $1.41 billion in 2017 to $8.81 billion by 2022!

However, what people were most excited about is AI’s potential impact on social media listening and lead nurturing. In the not so distant future, AI will become increasingly sophisticated and a powerful tool for social media marketing. Currently, savvy marketers that are using social listening as way to nurture leads don’t have the necessary enhancement of AI, so it is time consuming, manual and not in real-time.

Accounting Automation

If there is one data-entry heavy department it would be Accounting. The problem is that as humans, we are fallible and much slower at data entry than a machine.Research, done by Xero, suggests that by 2020, automation will be commonplace in accounting, and a significant number of finance professionals will be using the next level of analytical tools to help them add value to business models across the globe.

Payroll/HR Automation

Finally, the Cloud and Automation has come to the Payroll and Human Resources sector. These important areas of a business too often suffer because small businesses aren’t big enough to afford a full time HR department. With new automation technology, compliance is automated by platforms and the effort of keeping time-off approvals in sync with PTO balances

In the near future, we will see the rise of great technology, powered by the Cloud, Automation, AI and Machine Learning. This truly is the start of the Golden Age of Information Technology and it is time for businesses to take a hard look at their organizations and find ways to start integrating these tech trends.

Automation Now and in 2018

Though Machine Learning and AI are hot topics in the tech world, it is not to a point that small to medium size businesses can leverage it in the immediate future. But there is still hope for them with automation. Powered by the Cloud, this type of technology has already revolutionized Marketing and Sales workflows and interactions but it is also starting to touch the various other parts of a business. For example.

Operations Automation

With the use of operations automation and a powerful CRM you will be able to read the interactions and see all the various touch points a client had with your company before that kick off call even happens. This will give all service businesses a head start in providing great client relations and managing expectations.