Cathie Wood, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ark Invest, believes that artificial intelligence(AI) will grow into a bigger market than mobile, within the next two decades. Companies from equipment maker John Deere to Google, have embraced artificial intelligence. Retailers such as Amazon have been at the forefront of embracing AI. As the world embraces the AI revolution, it’s important for retailers such as yourself to understand how to use AI to boost their eCommerce sales.
According to research published last year by the Society for Human Resource Management, nearly 43% of small businesses with 500 or less employees had adopted a range of solutions in order to survive. CHief among these solutions were:
- The use of contactless deliveries
- Adopting continuous learning in the workplace so that workers could upgrade their skills in response to business changes
- Embracing new technology and processes
The pandemic forced businesses to experiment with an array of tools and offerings in order to survive at a time when the risk of business failure had never been greater. Technology has been at the forefront of those efforts.
AI can be used to help businesses with a variety of issues.
Preventing Cash Flow Problems
Although there are federal recovery funds available, the risk of business failure due to the pandemic is still high. According to a 2020 report by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the number of active entrepreneurs in the country fell by 22% por some 3.3 million people, in the February-April 2020 period. Roughly a third of small businesses had cash flow problems, preventing them from making payroll or paying their bills.
AI can help small businesses make forecasts on their cash flows, allowing them to make more high quality decisions and avoid those cash flow pitfalls that can be so devastating to entrepreneurs.
Streamlining Check Out Processes
AI can also help your business streamline its check out processes, which is especially important for e-commerce sites. Streamlining can be done by using tools that allow for pre-qualification of prospects and leads. This is because many visitors to your websites will not actually buy anything. Traffic is not sales. You want to target the right audience in order to push sales. A failure to target the right audience is costly and prevents revenue generation. One study found that 80% of new leads were not converted into sales.
Ai, through chatbots and other such tools, can use the extensive data it collects to unearth insights about which visitors are likely to become paying customers. This allows you to be more successful in converting leads to customers.
Find Security Vulnerabilities
In an age of data, securing that data has never been more important. The risks have increased because of remote and hybrid work models. With so many workers working offsite, securing company data is more complex than anyone can imagine. I(t;s not a surprise that the rate of cybercrime complaints has risen by more than 300% since the start of the pandemic.
AI can help your business find security vulnerabilities, often more efficiently than your cybersecurity people can.
So as you wait to get your firewood delivered, consider how AI can help your small business navigate through the challenges and threats of the era.
