The age of automation is upon us. While businesses have started embracing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to help automate many of their business systems, some companies persist in using manual methods for processes that could be more efficiently and cost-effectively managed through automation. This can lead to a range of problems, including human error, time wastage and delays in product delivery.
Businesses should explore all the possibilities and benefits of automation and seek to implement AI and ML wherever possible to increase operational efficiency. Below, 11 members of Forbes Technology Council offer valuable advice on functions that businesses should look into automating.
1. Customer Support
Operational costs are typically heavy, especially when it comes to customer support. Many organizations still maintain a large number of representatives to handle the high number of calls and customer interactions. Automating many of these actions is doable and can even enhance the quality level in some cases due to the superhuman scale of calculations machines are capable of. - Hisham Abdulhalim, PayPal
2. Marketing Testing
Marketers spend a lot of time testing ideas to see what will persuade their prospects to become customers. Typically, marketers do this work manually, checking their tests every day and manually declaring winners. The rote work of experiment management is ripe for automation, which should free up marketers to spend more time understanding a day in the life of their prospects. - Guy Yalif, Intellimize
3. Mass-Scale Data Analysis
Business leaders still have too much reliance on mass-scale data analysis. They should utilize plug-and-play AI and ML solutions that perform the grunt work. Machine-led discoveries combined with human innovation make for a powerful combination that drives outcomes far more quickly than the competition. Using ML across more constrained data sets generally produces better and more actionable results. - Joshua Gebhardt, MetricStory
4. Security And Data Protection
One area where AI and ML are integral to all modern businesses is security and data protection. Using machine learning to help automate the time-consuming tasks of cybersecurity and IT disaster recovery can save an IT team substantial time in identifying suspicious behaviors, data breaches or cyberattacks and taking swift action to mitigate those threats. - Jeffrey Ton, InterVision
5. Repetitive Customer Management Tasks
I see a lot of businesses that still organize leads and prospects manually. The same goes for handling billing/invoices/expenses/payments. These types of tasks—which are simple, but time-consuming—are what should be automated. These types of processes would be better if they were not handled manually. There would be less risk for error and more time for people to work on more human, fulfilling tasks. - Joshua Davidson, ChopDawg.com
6. Measuring And Forecasting
Measuring and forecasting are among the most valuable use cases for AI. What’s being measured can vary widely—it could be inventory levels, employee productivity, demand forecasting or a host of other functions. In any case, the technology will drive efficiencies and allow the people who had been doing tasks manually to do higher-value work. - Vidyuth Srinivasan, Entrupy
7. Recruiting
CEOs of tech companies are always seeking top talent. It would be great to see AI handle part of the recruiting process. If AI could do the initial résumé screening, the hiring manager could vet candidates faster, moving the right candidates to interview. Hiring would be more efficient and it would reduce the chance of overlooking the ideal hire—who wouldn’t want a fast response after submitting a résumé? - Jun Pei, Cepton
8. Brand Reputation Management
Website spoofing and brand reputation management still largely rely on manual monitoring and response efforts. Advanced technologies offer more options for early detection and immediate, automated responses. Given that phishing attacks using website and brand assets collect 70% of credentials within the first hour, it is crazy that more brands are not adopting more automated approaches. - Salvatore Stolfo, Allure Security
9. Password Resets And VPN Access
There are many tasks in IT that can be augmented with AI, such as password resets and VPN access. Businesses should look for these repetitive actions and replace them with automation. If tasks can be broken down into multiple subtasks, that’s a good sign they’re amenable to AI. - Muddu Sudhakar, Aisera
10. Email Marketing
Many businesses still reply to emails manually when they can use email marketing automation to speed up this process and provide more personalized messages to their customers. For instance, when a customer fills out a form on your site, with email marketing automation you can respond to their request immediately. Plus, you can send emails automatically based on the actions they take on your website. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
11. Contact Center Call Monitoring
The most common way contact center managers measure agent behavior and performance is by listening to recorded calls. When those calls are recorded and immediately transcribed into text, that text can be much more precisely analyzed, including creating alerts triggered by keywords, which can surface issues in near-real time. This frees up managers to coach agents—assisted with automated reporting. - Joseph Galvin, Customer View
