By Richard J. Gilmartin, CPA, Principal
Artificial Intelligence or “AI” for short is dominating today’s business headlines with 88 percent of businesses saying they are currently adopting AI according to the research organization McKinsey.
Industries leading the way in the adoption of AI include healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, retail, transportation, and logistics. In healthcare, AI is being utilized to analyze medical images with speed and accuracy leading to earlier and more precise diagnostics, development of personalized treatment plans, and tracking of patient health metrics by using wearable technology. Financial service organizations are using AI to analyze data in real time, which can spot unusual transactions that may help prevent or detect fraud; perform risk management, assess market trends, and provide 24/7 customer support.
In manufacturing, “smart factories” use automation and robotics to improve production efficiency, reduce waste, and improve quality control. AI is also using sensors to predict potential equipment failures to minimize downtime and maintenance costs. Supply chain optimization improves production schedules and inventory levels. Uses of AI in retail include personalizing shopping experiences based upon customer data and buying history to recommend products that may yield increased sales and customer satisfaction. AI aids with inventory management that can reduce over stocking and waste; and AI powered chatbots provide fast customer service, answer questions and can resolve issues. Transportation and logistics businesses are using AI for route optimization which reduces fuel costs and improves delivery times, to analyze real-time traffic data to reduce traffic congestion and to even deploy self-driving vehicles.
The above are just a few of the industries currently utilizing AI, which has applications for virtually every business from screening resumes to streamline the hiring process; to analyzing employee feedback to identify areas for organizational improvement; to creating marketing and social media posts using generative AI; to extracting key information from lengthy documents, handling IT support tickets and just about any other routine tasks previously performed by humans.
While there is no denying the potential transformative power of AI that can be measured in saved work hours that shifts the human role to higher value work, and increased productivity and efficiency, there are cautionary factors that businesses need to be aware of. These include the cost to invest in data infrastructure, governance, and security. Cybersecurity professionals emphasize the risk of connecting AI with private company data; and lawmakers want regulations implemented. Businesses and the individuals they employ will need skills, adaptability, creativity, and resilience when implementing AI to capitalize on the great opportunities that this technology offers.