All businesses are constantly evolving in a wide range of different ways. Everything from the market you’re operating in to the audience you’re trying to serve will dictate regular changes to the foundation of your organization and as a leader, it is up to you to respond as confidently as possible. For years, many businesses have been using data analytics to help accomplish precisely that. Now, machine learning may be poised to go above and beyond what even something as powerful as analytics are able to accomplish on their own, changing the way we think about businesses (and business development) for all time and for the better.
What is Machine Learning?
At its core, machine learning is the idea that computers can essentially “learn” without being explicitly programmed to do so. Whenever a particular application or other piece of software is exposed to new information, it uses that data to improve its own internal processes to the point where it changes, develops or even grows – essentially all on its on.
Maybe the most straightforward example of this is the Photos app on MacOS, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help users tag photos. When you identify one of your friend’s faces in a photo and provide the Photos app with a name, it then goes through all of your other photos in search of instances of that person. Instead of you needing to manually tag them all by hand, the application does it for you – because machine learning allowed it to “learn” who your friend was and what their name is.
Machine learning is also poised to make a big impact in the world of business development, albeit on a much larger and more important scale.
Why Machine Learning Matters
Machine learning is hugely important in terms of business development thanks to the massive volumes of data that you – and your customers – are already creating. Organizations have long used automation and artificial intelligence to help unlock valuable insight from all that data – machine learning just takes things one step further.
Machine learning can be effectively utilized to help transform the way employees work, for example, automating slow and usually repetitive tasks in a much more efficient and logical way. You don’t have to spend time sifting through reams of resumes whenever you want to bring in a new employee, for example – with the right machine learning algorithm, software can help you weed through all the noise and immediately serve up the candidates that are likely to excel at the job you’re trying to fill.
Machine learning can also be used to help create more collaborative workspaces within a business. Natural Language Processing and chatbots can be employed to help employees work “smarter, not harder,” allowing them to talk and interact with their applications the way they would with an actual human being. It can even be used to help anticipate human behavior and meet unfulfilled needs, revolutionizing customer service and support in particular.
Customers can now interact with an “employee” by way of a chatbot at any time of day or night, all using natural language, all without the intervention of an actual human being. In fact, it’s so powerful that they probably wouldn’t even realize that they weren’t talking to a human being at all.
All of this brings with it the most important benefits of all – the ability to remain as agile as possible, responding to changing market conditions and audience needs in the fastest, most efficient and most logical ways possible. From that perspective, machine learning isn’t just important in terms of business development – it is absolutely critical and it will only continue to get more important over the next few years.
Contact us today to discuss machine learning for your organization!
Image by freepik.com.
