Co-founder and CEO of FitPeo Inc., an initiative to provide better preventive care to those who need it most.
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We’ve seen no shortage of impressive technological developments over the past few decades. However, few are more exciting or have more potential to transform life as we know it than machine learning (ML).
Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that describes applications that learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed, and machine learning now accounts for the majority of AI funding.
Cars getting smarter over time may sound like science fiction, but it’s a reality. And in today’s fast-paced, fiercely competitive world, ML can be the difference between stagnating or racing ahead of the competition.
At FitPeo, we use machine learning in several areas of our business. Based on our experience, let’s see how entrepreneurs can use machine learning to help their businesses too.
1. Leverage customer data for better insights
Companies today collect large amounts of customer data. This includes basic data such as email addresses, IP addresses, age, gender, etc. But it also includes interaction data such as website visits, user flow, engagement (post likes, shares, replies), click-through rate and conversions, as well as behavioral data such as subscription details, previous purchases, devices and value order average.
Machine learning applications can analyze this data to find insights you can leverage for more targeted and compelling marketing campaigns and better product ideas. For example, you may find a whole new group of consumers using your product in a way you didn’t anticipate. Armed with this information, you can start targeting this new customer segment.
2. AI-driven marketing
Marketing experts recommend that small businesses should spend 7%-8% of their gross revenue on marketing. This is an important part and you want to make sure you spend that money wisely. Additionally, you don’t want your marketing obligations to take you away from other urgent or important tasks.
Automated marketing tools can do a lot of work by selecting and analyzing keywords, searching for suitable content topics, automatically publishing social media posts and sending regular emails. Some AI tools can also create ads that appeal to each individual user, so your content has a better chance of resonating and reaching the right people at the right time.
3. Enhanced decision making for stronger business plans
Developing an effective business plan requires knowledge of current market trends and customer segments you are targeting, as well as a deep understanding of the issues you want to solve with your product or service. Machine learning can speed up and simplify this research by analyzing market and consumer data and providing the best recommendations on where to focus.
4. Analysis of feelings
Sentiment analysis is a powerful and increasingly popular marketing tool that enables companies to understand customer emotions. By understanding how your customers feel about your brand or product, you can improve the customer experience and improve customer service.
Machine learning tools can analyze thousands of data points on your social media channels, comments and content responses to gauge customer sentiment. This allows you to quickly respond to customer needs, goals and preferences and gain an edge over your competitors.
5. Automation of routine tasks
Repetitive, rule-based tasks can eat up a significant amount of time when done manually. These tasks include creating and processing invoices, backing up data, and answering simple customer questions. Fortunately, much of this tedious work can be handled by intelligent robots today. And intelligent ML-driven bots improve over time, finding new ways to improve efficiency and reduce your workload.
6. Chatbots for customer service
Gone are the days when chatbots were clunky, unresponsive and, frankly, not smart or helpful. Today, conversational AI-powered chatbots can mimic human interactions to deliver intelligent, helpful, and natural-sounding responses. These conversational AI chatbots use machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to facilitate fast, personalized customer service anytime, anywhere without the need to program responses.
7. Cyber security
We live in a world where a cyber attack happens every 39 seconds and the annual damage from cyber crime is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. Many smaller businesses mistakenly think they are too small to be on hackers’ radars, but this is false. Cybercriminals can make just as much money targeting many smaller businesses as one large business, and smaller companies tend to have weaker security protections.
ML-driven cybersecurity applications can analyze patterns and find anomalies so you can catch cyberattacks before they become a problem. They can also automatically scan for updates and patches and install them to protect your systems from vulnerabilities.
8. Sales Forecast
Sales forecasting is the process of estimating your sales revenue for a given period of time. It’s an essential activity for any entrepreneur because it helps you make informed decisions about everything from marketing efforts, staffing, and inventory to new product lines.
The key to good sales forecasting is accuracy. Machine learning tools use historical and real-time data to make highly accurate predictions about consumer behavior. These tools can predict which days, weeks and months of the year will result in the highest sales. They can also analyze the effects of holidays (special days) for positive and negative impacts.
9. Price optimization
Pricing your products or services is one of the most important decisions entrepreneurs make, and it can be challenging. Entrepreneurs must be aware of price sensitivity (how a price change would affect the customer’s decision).
Traditionally, businesses have had to rely on questionnaires to understand people’s willingness to pay in different ranges. Today, data-driven models can provide intelligent dynamic pricing. These machine learning algorithms ensure that you always price your products appropriately for your target audience and market.
cONcluSiON
Machine learning tools are becoming more advanced and affordable every year. Today, a simple Google search can turn up ML-powered tools for almost any business use case. However, it’s always a good idea to shop around and see which tools best meet your needs today and in the future.
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