Opinion: AI won’t wait to optimize businesses

Meta recently launched a new support service for Portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises, aimed at helping them during the holiday season and offering insights on how to optimize their businesses. It’s no surprise that Christmas, Black Friday, or sales events are often “scary” times for many businesses. Perhaps “challenging” is a better word. Many managers wonder about the best ways to optimize their sales and operations, how to handle a spike in demand, and how to best communicate the services and products they offer. That’s why this type of support tends to emerge during such periods. However, this leads me to another question: why wait to optimize your business?

‍

I’m a firm believer in the power of Artificial Intelligence for business, especially in today’s dynamic and competitive market. It’s an essential tool year-round, not just during periods of sudden sales peaks. In this article, I will explain the three essential reasons why every business should adopt AI systems to enhance their operations, achieving efficiency and service quality.

‍

First and foremost, let’s talk about customer service and support. With AI, we can improve the customer experience from pre-sale to post-sale. Simple things, like suggesting the right product size for a given customer, generate multiple gains along the sales chain. Imagine a customer is buying a sweater. If we can ensure the right size is selected the first time, it increases customer satisfaction when shopping online. At the same time, it reduces operational costs associated with returns, which are often borne by the seller.

‍

In both the pre-sale and post-sale moments, customers often have questions they want answered immediately, and during periods of high demand, it’s difficult to scale human support. This is where chatbots, or virtual agents, come in. AI professionals can create chatbots that automatically answer frequently asked questions, guiding customers without the need to spend time on routine tasks. As a result, businesses can “focus their energy” on activities that require more attention, creativity, and focus.

‍

This is how business value is created—through efficiency. This attention to customer service leads, in the long term, to a critical factor for any business: customer loyalty.

‍

This continuous “dialogue” allows businesses to anticipate customer needs and maintain a strategic relationship with each client. And, of course, during seasonal periods, this makes all the difference when it comes to customer decision-making.

‍

Lastly, I want to address the more human aspect of all of this. It’s true that there is fear of being replaced by Artificial Intelligence. We live in an era where many people ask themselves, “Will I be replaced by a machine?” This moment is not far from what many of our ancestors felt during the industrial revolution.

‍

Now, looking back at the tasks that machines replaced, would we consider it dignified for a person to perform that task all day? It’s an interesting reflection. AI will not replace us. It will, instead, be another tool that helps us improve our day, much like what happened during the industrial revolution. Does it make sense for someone to spend their entire day processing invoices? Or answering questions that have routine answers?

‍

These advances won’t result in us being replaced by machines. Jobs will become increasingly dignified—and intellectually stimulating—while (who knows?) we may work fewer hours per week.

‍

At the end of the day, trust between businesses and consumers should be at the heart of every decision. Managers must be very attentive to technological advancements, which are evolving faster than we can comprehend, and decide whether to take the critical step of increasing business agility or risk falling behind and losing relevance.