Artificial intelligence is more than just a trend. In today's business environment, it is becoming a powerful tool for process automation and resource optimization.
Thanks to this technology, companies can develop innovative strategies in various fields. They can facilitate the tasks of their employees and improve the experience of their customers.
In fact, a study conducted by Adobe found that today, only 15% of companies are using AI, and 31% said it was on the agenda for the next 12 months.
Despite its popularity, the field of artificial intelligence can sometimes be intimidating, but that ends today. In this article, Locuta clarifies concepts and answers questions so you can get up to speed or stay current on key AI knowledge.
"Artificial intelligence is wonderful, but there is no magic in it".
What is artificial intelligence?
When we talk about artificial intelligence, the first thing that comes to mind is a machine that mimics the cognitive functions of "intelligent beings", such as reasoning, learning or problem solving.
A more intellectual definition of AI is the ability of a system to correctly interpret external data, learn from that data, and use that knowledge to accomplish concrete tasks and goals through flexible adaptation.
Contrary to what many believe (perhaps inspired by science fiction), AI is not yet a "general intelligence"; it is still far from it. It is not a system capable of solving any given task as a human being would (like the Terminator).
AI as we know it today represents "narrow intelligence". That is, it is a system that is intelligent enough to perform a specific task. It does not know how to do anything other than the activity it has been trained to do.
What do we call "intelligence" when we talk about artificial intelligence? In other words, what makes technology "smart"?
In general, this technology is defined as "intelligent" because it can imitate what is understood as intelligent behavior. For example, it learns from experience and figures out how to solve a certain problem.
Furthermore, in order to assess the degree of "intelligence" of current systems, we can take into account what Andrew Ng, a renowned researcher in artificial intelligence, has suggested as an "imperfect rule of thumb." This rule states that "almost anything that a typical human being can do with less than a second of mental processing can be automated by artificial intelligence."
In the future, the "intelligence" of these machines will continue to evolve. In fact, 42% of AI researchers predict that by 2030, artificial intelligence will be similar to human intelligence.
What is the difference between Machine Learning and Deep Learning?
There are many ways to develop artificial intelligence. It is a very broad field with different sectors.
One of them is Machine Learning. It could be defined as a way to develop systems without programming them specifically to perform a particular task. In other words, a system is trained so that it learns by itself.
To do this, an algorithm is implemented that defines how the system should learn to perform a task. Then, the system is trained using examples. It is essential to tell the system what features it should keep in mind to perform a task. This is how it can make decisions based on the established information.
In addition, Deep Learning is a branch of machine learning that uses algorithms that are able to "realize by themselves" what features are important in a group of raw data, based on context.
Is it essential for companies to add AI technologies? Why?
It's not necessarily essential, but it's pretty handy. Artificial intelligence can make many processes easier and faster and significantly reduce costs, errors and delivery times.
Mainly, it allows us to focus on more complex activities and leave repetitive tasks to autonomous systems. For example, in customer service, we can let a robot like an intelligent Callbot handle most requests autonomously. This way, humans will only deal with situations that require human service.
The benefits are many: 24/7 availability, quick troubleshooting, less customer effort, increased security and privacy. Plus, with AI, interactions can be customized for each type of customer based on the direction of the conversation.
Some tips for a company that has never used artificial intelligence and wants to add it to its customer service strategy.
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- Don't use AI for the sole purpose of innovation. Its implementation must be based on a strategy aligned with the goals and mission of the company as a whole. In addition, it must solve problems.
- Not all companies have the capacity or resources to develop their own AI. In this case, it is advisable to seek help from AI partners and solution providers like Locuta who have already developed this technology and are ready to use it in different cases and sectors.
- It is advisable to understand from the beginning that AI will not solve all problems or replace employees. This technology needs to work in collaboration with teams. There are certain human characteristics and abilities, such as creativity and sensitivity, that can solve more complex problems. None of these can be replaced by a machine. What AI can do is expand the capabilities of humans by suggesting automatic responses, offering shortcuts, collaborating on problem solving, and assisting with daily tasks.
- To effectively solve problems, AI needs a good amount of quality data. The data must contain enough information to answer questions and solve problems. Moreover, they must be diversified in order to represent a maximum of situations and thus train the system
How do we imagine technology in the next ten years? What will be integrated into daily life that does not yet exist?
Artificial intelligence is already part of our lives. If you think about it, today we have virtual assistants like Alexa or Callbots that answer the majority of our questions. In less than ten years, AI will be so internalized in our lives that it will be natural and everyday.
The current uses are already in various fields and are almost endless. Many of these uses are implemented for the entertainment of users.
Others are helping to generate more data in high-impact areas, such as healthcare and the entertainment industry.
In fact, the technology used to develop "entertainment" applications such as FaceApp is the same technology used to detect and identify different types of breast cancer, for example.
In this sense, the future will be inhabited by artificial intelligence. Autonomous cars, household robots and virtual assistants are already part of our lives and in the future they will be even more present in our routines.
How to Locuta implement artificial intelligence in its solutions?
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Artificial Intelligence is one of the key aspects of our value proposition. Our product suite, which includes Callbot, Chatbot, Voice, Live Chat and Knowledge solutions, assists businesses with their customer service and helps them deliver a great customer experience through AI.
Overall, we use AI for conversation, language understanding and empathetic interactions. With it, we ensure that our solutions understand the intent behind users' questions.
For this, we use, among others, traditional NLP, Deep Learning based on embeddings and different types of Machine Learning models. This technology is useful not only for understanding customers, but also for assisting human agents when they interact live.
Using AI, our solutions enable companies to automatically interact with their customers at a deeper level, with natural language, and at any time.
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And you, what do you think about artificial intelligence?
With so much information, I imagine you have tons of questions.
Don't be shy, give us your opinion. We love to talk about these topics (all topics, actually).
