Beyond the Hype: Practical AI Applications for Today's Businesses

The use of artificial intelligence in business is slowly becoming the norm and a necessity in competition. Today it is a powerful tool for developing companies, solving business problems, deep analytics, and process automation.

This article details how AI is helping businesses right now and how to bring smart technology into business practice.

Contents

1. What is artificial intelligence?
2. The importance of AI in modern business
3. Basic AI technologies in business
4. Advantages of using artificial intelligence in business
5. Introducing artificial intelligence into business practice
6. Summary

What is artificial intelligence?

In simple words – is the ability of computer systems to self-learn and perform narrow-profile tasks that were previously solved only by humans. AI reproduces the intellectual behavior of people, but never gets tired, experiences emotions, or makes mistakes.

Neural networks and artificial intelligence technologies in business are one of the most promising and rapidly developing areas, as we wrote about in the article Digital Business Transformation in 2025. We encounter them everywhere:

• When we see content in the feed based on our preferences;
• When communicating with the bank’s voice assistant or chatting with the chatbot;
• When we receive an advertisement selected by the AI based on «overheard» conversations on the phone and search queries.

AI in business helps automate routines, process data sets, predict decisions, report and draw conclusions. If previously all this was done by a person, today machines cope with this work much better.

The importance of AI in modern business

The potential of AI for business is difficult to overestimate. Companies that implement neural networks and machine learning technologies increase profits, improve productivity, and demonstrate their competitiveness and efficiency in the market.

In practice, artificial intelligence is trusted to:

• solve routine tasks and automate processes;
• ensure cybersecurity, protect against data leakage and fraud;
• optimization of production in order to reduce energy and raw material costs;
• forecasting trends, demand, and audience behavior;
• content creation, creatives;
• customer service, improving customer experience.

And one more thing. When a company implements and actively uses AI technologies, it improves its image in the eyes of customers, partners and investors. In small and medium-sized businesses this is a real competitive advantage.

Basic AI technologies in business

Machine learning

This is an AI method that allows you to improve the performance of systems by learning from large databases. The key difference between machine learning and standard algorithms is adaptability and constant development. The more data and information the algorithm collects, the more accurate its analytics will be.

Examples of machine learning in business include

• Chatbots that advise users

Machine learning helps develop the chatbot's knowledge base, and after 6-12 months a virtual consultant can answer almost all questions.

• Personalization and improvement of customer service

Machine learning increases customer engagement and satisfaction. For example, it offers a personal selection of products based on recent purchases.

• Review of CVs and documentation

Machine learning allows you to create a profile of the ideal candidate, simplify the hiring process, and speed up resume analysis. As a result, the amount of routine for HR specialists decreases.

Neural networks

The most common representatives of artificial intelligence in business. Essentially, this is software code that processes data and simulates the functioning of the human brain. Neural networks have found wide application in design, marketing, copywriting, customer service, statistics, calculations, industry, and banking.

For example, neural networks for SEO have completely changed the rules by which companies work with search engines Google and Yandex. Previously, content could only be created by a person. Now that powerful AI-based tools have appeared, it has become clear that neural networks do an excellent job of writing SEO texts, translating articles, and generating all kinds of media. And at the same time they do everything cheaper and faster.

What the simplest and most inexpensive can do neural network?

• Writes texts based on specified keywords;
• Creates product descriptions, headers, meta tags
• Makes extracts from texts
• Generates images from a text description
• Creates scripts for YouTube

NLP Natural Language Processing

Machine learning technology that gives computers the ability to understand human language. Modern companies have huge volumes of voice and text data – email correspondence, messages, social media news, video, audio, etc. To process all this and use it to the benefit of business, NLP technology is used.

For example, NLPs can recognize three basic types of emotions – positive, negative and neutral - by voice with an accuracy of 95%. According to forecasts, by 2025 half of online advertising will be based on this technology. Disney is already determining whether viewers like the content through a streaming platform. And Ping An claims to have reduced financial losses when issuing loans by 60% thanks to new algorithms.

Robotics

By combining robotics and AI, businesses get robot hotel administrators, product collectors, and driverless car drivers. Robots with intelligence control their own accuracy and performance, train and improve.

Examples of robotics in business include

Medical robots

The most famous – robot surgeon Da Vinci, with the help of which tens of thousands of complex operations on the heart and brain are performed every day around the world.

Software robots or robotization

This is software code that imitates the user's work. In companies that use CRM, «robots» send letters every day, create documents according to a template, and schedule calls and meetings.

Self-driving cars

One of the most striking and popular technologies in robotics. Robocars show impressive prospects on the roads. In the future, most cars will be controlled by autopilots, which will significantly improve road safety.

Advantages of using artificial intelligence in business

Automation of business processes

AI quickly and easily handles a wide range of routine tasks:

• Data processing, analysis of voluminous financial reports, customer record keeping.
• Selection of resumes, classification of portfolios according to specified criteria.
• Working with orders, processing applications, optimizing delivery.
• Processing payments, analyzing and classifying the transaction to protect against fraud.
• Email classification, sorting messages by importance and category.

Improved forecasting accuracy

The use of artificial intelligence technologies makes it possible to quickly collect and analyze huge amounts of data from different sources, reduce the influence of the human factor and prevent errors. For example, AI systems can predict demand in the market and reduce risks associated with decision-making.

Improving marketing and sales efficiency

AI helps companies find and exploit new business opportunities. For example, systems analyze customer needs data and offer new products and services that will be in demand. And neural networks allow you to create new creatives and any form of content – video, text, commercial offers, images to promote products.

Reducing costs

The use of AI-based robotics leads to reduced industrial costs, increased productivity and product quality. And the introduction of machine learning and neural networks can reduce labor costs.

Introducing artificial intelligence into business practice

Assessing needs and opportunities

Find out what artificial intelligence can do, and then identify the problems that can be solved with its help.

Selection of suitable technologies and tools

AI systems must meet business needs and challenges. Assess the potential financial value of implementing each individual AI technology and choose the most promising and profitable one for your niche.

Testing and implementation

The time it takes to test AI depends on the complexity of the tool itself and the industry. The period can vary from 2-3 weeks to several months. During the testing period, monitor customer satisfaction and employee performance. If sales and productivity increase, order processing time decreases, and feedback improves, then the right AI services have been selected and implemented.

Summary

• AI technologies have penetrated business and society. They are already changing the market, helping companies quickly develop new products, optimize advertising campaigns, and create effective sales strategies.
• In business, you can successfully use any AI technology – machine learning, neural networks, robotics, natural language processing.
• With the help of artificial intelligence, you can automate routine business processes, improve forecasting, increase marketing efficiency, and reduce costs.
• To get AI tools into business, first decide what tasks they should solve and what financial benefits they should bring.