3 Forward-Looking Mindsets Entrepreneurs Need to Have About AI
The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for some time. Government organizations and big enterprises have been experimenting with this technology for decades.
The results have led to all kinds of solutions that make the world smarter and more efficient. However, AI’s mass implementation into the small-business sector is still relatively new.
For entrepreneurs who aren’t specialized in areas like machine-learning and big data analytics, reading up on the potential of AI and how to incorporate it into everyday business practices can certainly be overwhelming.
Yet, ignoring the AI trend is simply not an option for either new or veteran entrepreneurs. What’s more, the skeptical mindset and overall resistance many of them have long had about and to new technology need to be left behind.
Here are three mindsets entrepreneurs need to have about AI if they want to use it to improve their day-to-day operations:
Using AI to enhance the customer journey is the concept that’s gotten most of the media coverage thus far. However, one of the most important things to remember about business is that providing a stellar customer experience starts on the inside.
So, if your employees aren’t able to do their jobs effectively, this problem will inevitably spill to the outside. When you are doing your research on AI, a good mindset will revolve around the question: “How can this be used to improve the employee experience?”
Fortunately, plenty of AI tools exist and can be game-changers for both predicting and improving employee performance. Some of them can even be applied before a new employee is brought on board.
For instance, during the hiring process, AI resources can be used to screen candidates with specialized assessments, to gauge key traits like problem-solving ability, communication skills, organization and more. From there, machine-learning capabilities draw on a number of publicly available and company-specific datasets to predict how a particular employee might perform on the job.
In terms of using AI to improve employee performance, there are a number of tools you can use to track each person’s performance metrics and compare them to your overall ROI. From there, AI tools are equipped to identify patterns that determine the average performance of a certain department and traits in the top performers, and, of course, the sources of weak spots.
These detailed insights can then be used to create a “gold standard” that employees need to be held to. This might relate to time management, email habits, approaches to multitasking and other factors. Furthermore, these clear standards of achievement can essentially eliminate bias in the workplace.
According to a study by Accenture, businesses that successfully apply AI could potentially increase productivity (and profitability) by nearly 40 percent over the next two decades.
The takeaway: Adopting the mindset that AI is a powerful tool to refine employee performance is one of the best things you can do for long-term growth.
One of the biggest fears employees have about AI is that it will eventually take a huge number of human-operated jobs. While there is certainly no denying this, AI can also be a lifesaver for newer entrepreneurs looking to get their startups off the ground.
In short, AI can automate many of the day-to-day tasks that in previous decades required either that an entrepreneur either: (a) work endless hours or (b) increase his or her overhead by hiring an employee on a shoestring budget.
To put things in perspective, sales-forecasting is one of AI’s most crucial roles in today’s business landscape.
