6 Benefits of Using AI and IoT in Small Businesses

AI and IoT have established themselves as the most new-gen set of technologies that the sectors, across several industries, have worked around.

Both technologies have found a keyspace in a number of crucial sectors like Fintech, Healthcare, Education, etc. But the capabilities set doesn't just stop there. The power of connectivity and intelligence when merged together introduces a series of use cases in the business spaces as well.

In this article, we are going to look into the different ways businesses can become more efficient with the inclusion of AI and IoT in their processes.

• Better Customer Relationship

The right implementation of AI and IoT leads to the benefits of the combination not being confined to the employees. The technologies help enhance the customers' experiences as well. Meaning, the days of guessing what customers want and need are long gone.

Enterprises are making use of these innovative technologies for gathering data about their customers in real-time. Both IoT and AI play a crucial role in the process.

Enterprises are now able to automate the complete process of organizing data, ensuring that the customers receive a relevant and quick response.
Customers' interaction with brands, across devices, are getting personalized at the back of learning generated by users' preferences and movements within the platforms. The result? Customers are increasing their loyalty towards a brand that gets them the most accurate and quick response.

• Cost-Effectiveness

With the present COVID19 situation, a number of businesses are working under economic pressure and finding ways to cut down costs without losing their productivity levels. IoT and AI are emerging as a solution for preventing firm's expenses. The technologies can gather and analyze data for determining if a process or tool has become too expensive for a business to continue with. Early access to data of this sort helps businesses identify cost-saving processes without compromising on productivity. By identifying the cost drivers and cost harming elements, businesses can implement those changes with low expense. These new-gen technologies can also empower the leaders to lower unnecessary spendings and optimize their business processes.

• Bettering Operational Efficiency

Combining IoT and AI can help gain increased operational efficiency. Machine learning abilities can process the data and make predictions in ways that humans cannot.

The fact that the technologies are able to calculate large sets of data in less time makes it possible for businesses to make recommendations for making their processes more efficient.

Enterprises have already started investing in the technologies set to better productivity. IoT and AI can spot the inefficiencies and advise the best practices for improving the process. McKinsey established that around 82% of the enterprises that have adopted AI and machine learning have gathered a financial return from investments.

• Highly Safe and Secure Business Operation

A merger of IoT and AI provides an extra layer of security in a business process. The combination plays a massive role in lowering workplace accidents. This is how - Pairing machine learning with a machine to machine communication helps enterprises predict potential security issues while automating immediate responses. The connected sensors and data can be used for determining potential environmental safety hazards that the workers don't know of.

There are also a number of applications paired with AI and IoT that helps organizations predict and manage a number of threats and risks like cyber threat, worker safety, financial loss, etc.

• Data Gathering, Sharing, and Gaining User Perceptions.

Data gathering is extremely crucial for businesses' development and growth. A brand with an active IoT strategy understands how technology can transform data management processes by giving teams access to consumer information by using AI capabilities. Businesses can also make use of IoT platforms that come with a unique mechanism for tracking, recording, and observing patterns in a user journey and their interaction with the devices.

• Reduction of System Downtime

Gas and oil manufacturing businesses make use of heavy machinery that might suffer from unplanned breakdowns. This leads to downtime which can lead to massive losses.
With the help of AI-backed IoT solutions, predictive maintenance can be employed to prevent breakdowns in machinery and equipment. These solutions can help in predicting failures by using a system to generate analytics so that a plan of action is ready and the operations are not affected. A Deloitte study on the impact of IoT and AI on predictive maintenance led to the following observations -

20-50% lowering of time taken in maintenance planning
5-10% cutting of maintenance costs
10-20% growth in equipment availability and its uptime

Here were the six ways the combination of AI and IoT can be used for making small businesses better. Do you know of any other ways the merger can make a difference in SMEs? Share with us in the comments below.