Small Business

Over the past decade, the field of artificial intelligence has made massive leaps forward. Today, those advancements are helping businesses differentiate themselves from the competition. AI can help startups deliver a top-notch customer experience. AI-powered marketing tools deliver value. They can help business owners better understand the market. And they can help in hiring and retention.

A short time ago getting started with AI (Artificial Intelligence) was unmanageable for startups and small businesses. It required a highly skilled data scientist and machine learning experts experimenting with algorithms. But in a very short amount of time things have changed. AI that can recognize objects in images, understand documents and texts, and make high accuracy predictions on your user data can now be done in a few hours and without coding. Let’s say you want to teach an AI to do quality control on the assembly line, so you don’t ship products that are ultimately going to be returned. That can actually be done by utilizing a number of tools for AI that are similar to Wix and Squarespace. The tools are not surprisingly being made by big tech such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon. But there are already a good number of startups trying to do the same.

Talent intelligence software is AI technology that provides solutions for recruiting, candidate engagement, and career development, to name a few. The AI at the core of talent intelligence software provides organizations and users with a solution that can learn, personalize, and optimize for company-specific talent requirements. Talent intelligence solutions include features to focus on recruiting, talent/employee management, or both. These software solutions can also assist in recruiting more women and people of color. Ask your employer if they are using software to improve diversity and inclusion.

"We've been talking about AI for years as an emerging technology," says Ayanna Howard, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. "But with increased scrutiny placed on its use in applications that may impact our daily lives and civil liberties, we are now seeing an increased focus on accountability. Thus, I think one of the most important technologies in 2021 will be AI – rather, the ethical use of AI. AI is not just an application, as its algorithms feed into most of the other technologies we will continue to use, whether that's entertainment, 3D design, or even shopping chatbots."

A "pushout" is the act of filling a shopping cart full of merchandise and rushing it out of the door without paying. This thieving strategy costs retailers millions of lost dollars each year. Indeed, the National Retail Federation finds that each pushout nationally averages $500 in merchandise. A system from Indyme Solutions called SmartDepart uses AI to turn ordinary security cameras into powerful "pushout-prevention tools." Their algorithms detect shopping carts as they approach the exit, identifying those that bypassed the checkout process. In conjunction with other Indyme security measures such as flashing lights and customizable voice messages, SmartDepart can cut down on the annual loss due to pushouts.

A new startup business that used artificial intelligence to make email writing easier has been bought for $2.6 million. The startup — OthersideAI Inc. — offers a tool that can automatically write full-length emails based on a handful of bullet points written by the user. In other words, you list a few points you want to get across to your recipient, and the AI program writes the email for you, increasing your efficiency; decreasing the human touch.