Archive for the ‘Artificial Intelligence’ Category

Why Artificial Intelligence Should Be on the Menu this Season – FSR magazine

The perfect blend of AI collaboration needs workers to focus on the tasks where they excel.

Faced with the business impacts of one of the largest health crises to date, restaurants of all sizes are in a pivotal moment in time where every decisionshort term and long termcounts. For their businesses to survive, restaurant owners have had to act fast by rethinking operations and introducing pandemic-related initiatives.

Watching the worlds largest chains all the way down to the local mom-and-pops become innovators in such extreme times has shown the industrys tenacity and survival instinct, even when all odds are stacked against their favor. None of these initiatives would be possible without technology as the driving factor.

Why AI is on the Menu This Season

A recent Dragontail Systems survey found that 70 percent of respondents would be more comfortable with delivery if they were able to monitor their orders preparation from start to finish. Consumers want to be at the forefront of their meals creationthey dont want to cook it, but they do want to know it was prepared in a safe environment and delivered hot and fresh to their door.

Aside from AIs role on the back-end helping with preparation time estimation and driver scheduling, the technology is now being used in cameras, for example, which share real-time images with consumers so that they can be sure their orders are handled with care. Amid the pandemic, this means making sure that gloves and masks are used during the preparation process and that workspaces are properly sanitized.

It is clear that AI is already radically altering how work gets done in and out of the kitchen. Fearmongers often tout AIs ability to automate processes and make better decisions in faster time compared to humans, but restaurants that deploy it mainly to displace employees will see only short-term productivity gains.

The perfect blend of AI collaboration needs workers to focus on the tasks where they excel, like customer service, so that the human element of the experience is never lost, only augmented.

AI on the Back-End

Ask any store or shift manager how they feel about workforce scheduling, and almost none will say its their favorite part of the job. Its a Catch-22: even when its done, its never perfect. However, when AI is in charge, everything looks different.

Parameters such as roles in the restaurants, peak days and hours, special events such as a Presidential debate, overtime, seniority, skills, days-off and more can be easily tracked. Managers are not only saving time in handing off this daunting task, but also allowing the best decisions to be made for optimal restaurant efficiency.

Another aspect is order prioritizationby nature, most kitchens and restaurants prepare meals based on FIFO (first-in-first-out). When using AI that enhances kitchen prioritization, for example, cooks are informed when to cook an order, ensuring that there are actually drivers available to deliver it to the customer in a timely manner.

Delivery management then allows drivers to make more deliveries per hour just by following the systems decisions, which improve and optimize the dispatching functionality.

The Birth of the Pandemic Intelligent Kitchen/Store

With the pandemic, our awareness of sanitation and cleanliness went dramatically up and the demand for solutions came with it. AI cameras give customers exactly thata real-time, never-before-seen view inside the kitchen to monitor how their order is being prepped, managed, and delivered.

Another aspect where AI comes in handy is avoiding dine-in and doing more take-out and drive-thru. When a customer is making an order online and picking the order up in their car, an AI camera can detect the car plate number in addition to the customer location (phone GPS) when entering the drive-thru area to provide a faster service with a runner from the restaurant.

In addition, the new concept of contactless menus where the whole menu is online with a quick scan of a QR code is another element building popularity during the pandemic. The benefits go beyond minimizing contact with physical menus; when a restaurant implements a smart online menu, they can collect data and offer personalized suggestions based on customers favorite foods, food/drink combos, weather-based food recommendations, upsell, cross-sell personalized etc.all powered by AI.

Restaurants can no Longer Afford Aversion to Technology

Challenges associated with technology, including implementation and a long-roadmap, are fading awaymost technology providers are offering Plug & Play products or services, and most of them are working on a SaaS model. This means theres no commitment, they are easy to use, and integrate seamlessly with the POS.

Restaurants dont have to make a big investment to reap the benefits technology bringstaking little steps that slowly improve restaurant operations and customer experience can still lead to increased growth and higher profit margins, especially during the pandemic when money is tight.

Technology enhances the experience, giving consumers a reason to keep ordering from their favorite places at a time when the stakes have never been so high, and the competition has never been as fierce. The pandemic is far from over but the changes we are seeing will be here for a lifetime. Thats why it is so important to leverage technology and AI now in order to see improvements in customer satisfaction and restaurant efficiency in the long term.

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Why Artificial Intelligence Should Be on the Menu this Season - FSR magazine

3 Important Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Your Business And Turbocharge Success – Forbes

From the smallest local business to the largest global players, I believe every organization must embrace the AI revolution, and identify how AI (artificial intelligence) will make the biggest difference to their business.

3 Important Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Your Business And Turbocharge Success

But before you can develop a robust AI strategy in which you work out how best to use AI to drive business success you first need to understand whats possible with AI. To put it another way, how are other companies using AI to drive success?

Broadly speaking, organizations are using AI in three main ways:

Creating more intelligent products

Offering a more intelligent service

Improving internal business processes

Lets briefly look at each area in turn.

Creating more intelligent products

Thanks to the Internet of Things, a whole host of everyday products are getting smarter. What started with smartphones has now grown to include smart TVs, smartwatches, smart speakers, and smart home thermostats plus a range of more eyebrow-raising "smart" products such as smart nappies, smart yoga mats, smart office chairs, and smart toilets.

Generally, these smart products are designed to make customers lives easier and remove those annoying bugbears from everyday life. For example, you can now get digital insoles that slip into your running shoes and gather data (using pressure sensors) about your running style. An accompanying app will give you real-time analysis of your running performance and technique, thereby helping you avoid injuries and become a better runner.

Offering a more intelligent service

Instead of the traditional approach of selling a product or service as a one-off transaction, more and more businesses are transitioning to a servitization model, in which the product or service is delivered as an ongoing subscription. Netflix is a prime example of this model in action. For a less obvious example, how about the Dollar Shave Club, which will deliver razor blades and grooming products to your door on a regular basis. Or Stich Fix, a personalized styling service that delivers clothes to your door based on your personal style, size, and budget.

Intelligent services like this are reliant on data and AI. Businesses like Netflix have access to a wealth of valuable customer data data that helps the company provide a more thoughtful service, based on what it knows the customer really wants (whether its movies, clothes, grooming products or whatever).

Improving internal business processes

In theory, AI could be worked into pretty much any aspect of a business: manufacturing, HR, marketing, sales, supply chain and logistics, customer services, quality control, IT, finance and more.

From automated machinery and vehicles to customer service chatbots and algorithms that detect customer fraud, AI solutions and technologies are being incorporated into all sorts of business functions in order to maximize efficiency, save money and improve business performance.

So, which area should you focus on products, services, or business processes?

Every business is different, and how you decide to use AI may differ wildly from even your closest competitor. For AI to truly add value in your business, it must be aligned with your companys key strategic goals which means you need to be clear on what it is you're trying to achieve before you can identify how AI can help you get there.

That said, its well worth considering all three areas: products, services and business processes. Sure, one of the areas is likely to be more of a priority than the others, and that priority will depend on your companys strategic goals. But you shouldnt ignore the potential of the other AI uses.

For example, a product-based business might be tempted to skip over the potential for intelligent services, while a service-based company could easily think smart products arent relevant to its business model. Both might think AI-driven business processes are beyond their capabilities at this point in time.

But the most successful, most talked-about companies on the planet are those that deploy AI across all three areas. Take Apple as an example. Apple built its reputation on making and selling iconic products like the iPad. Yet, nowadays, Apple services (including Apple Music and Apple TV) generate more revenue than iPad sales. The company has transitioned from purely a product company to a service provider, with its iconic products supporting intelligent services. And you can be certain that Apple uses AI and data to enhance its internal processes.

In this way, AI can throw up surprising additions and improvements to your business model or even lead you to an entirely new business model that you never previously considered. It can lead you from products to services, or vice versa. And it can throw up exciting opportunities to enhance the way you operate.

Thats why I recommend looking at products, services, and business processes when working out your AI priorities. You may ultimately decide that optimizing your internal processes (for example, automating your manufacturing) is several years away, and thats fine. The important thing is to consider all the AI opportunities, so that you can properly prioritize what you want to achieve and develop an AI strategy that works for your business.

AI is going to impact businesses of all shapes and sizes, across all industries. Discover how to prepare your organization for an AI-driven world in my new book, The Intelligence Revolution: Transforming Your Business With AI.

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3 Important Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Your Business And Turbocharge Success - Forbes

Best Competency With Artificial Intelligence is by Having Intelligent Experience – ReadWrite

AI is changing the way customers interact with businesses. AI changes everything with how websites and bots will work along with many other tools and integrated systems. Businesses protect and manage digital assets and data of the company. There is a day-to-day struggle in businesses currently using artificial intelligence, which is made more difficult because of sequential technologies.

Many businesses are intrigued by the idea of turning to artificial intelligence for help in the sales process. AI is certainly capable of finding your best-qualified sales leads. AI can give you efficient issue resolution, and systems that feed actual data back in for future process and product improvements. However, most enterprises do not know where or how to get started with their new company AI.

Systems and data must connect to allow full use of capabilities as if all information were native to each. And also, edgeways to present information to end-users, though data is evolving on a constant basis. The environment requires specialized insight and know-how to ensure a smooth and continuous integration thats both relevant and current.

The intelligent experience is all about leveraging AI to derive predictive insights that can be embedded in the workflow. Companies seeking competitive advantage must find ways to make their business operations more intelligent.

AI functionality is poised to be a game-changer, exploring possibilities and opening up new roles and more business-central activities. However, its important to first understand how intelligent experience can help improve? It starts with a shift in focus.

Artificial intelligence is edging into business processes across organizations, however, when an organization interacts with the use of AI correctly, that shouldnt be a sign AI is running the experience behind the scenes.

AI has the power to make customers feel they are making their choices, but its the machine learning and the algorithms that are handling those decisions.

The most useful sense, when it comes to shifting in focus, is vision keeping track of the ability to give suggestions on how to improve.

Artificial Intelligence is going beyond the senses and going straight to the source the brain. The very reactive tactic, oftentimes, companies are late, identifying customers likely when its too late. This is because there is a major difference between predicting significant changes in the economy and a financial sign that becomes apparent only after a large shift has taken place.

Artificial Intelligence aims to heavily impact a number of industries worldwide shaping online customer experience models. The AI technology will take hold across many industries over the coming decade, and businesses firmly need to decide how AI will help them to optimize conversions.

Automating most internal processes, the operational effort involved in maintaining and controlling devices is reduced. However, simultaneously shifting focus, the marketplace, significantly allows configuration.

More cost-efficiency is rising from artificial intelligence, so customers can focus on increasing the quality and operations of their processes with just an increase in resources.

It is crucial to assess the landscape of the acquisition time period. This often is where perceptive relations start to form. Customers are going to be comparing their initial experience to the expectations entrepreneurs set during the sales process.

Processes of Artificial Intelligence are making significant progress in reducing several walks of life problems. It also provides automation of not-get interpretation and grasping, restructure the information.

With AI, as per the market, you can spur on processes, get value from data, and provide clients with a better experience. All those benefits can help drive sales and boost revenue.

The application of the AI system may now be defined in considerable detail. As of a rule, the cost of Artificial Intelligence requires intelligence on the work being done for proactive development. The development work is usually split into several feasibility studies and set business and project objectives.

However, if Artificial intelligence claims to be a plug-and-play canned legacy, you need to be highly suspicious. You need to have someone trained to take care of this system. (source: coseer.com.)

The sufficient algorithm performance is a key cost-effective factor, as often a high-quality algorithm requires a round of tuning sessions. To decide between various algorithmic approaches towards businesses, one needs to understand how exactly inculcation takes place under the hood, and what can be done to obtain competency.

If it is not clear up-front, one may end up in a situation of not-more-performing. AI is certainly exciting, but business owners cannot jump into it without first laying the foundation with basic analytics.

With so many possibilities for applying AI across an organization, in all likelihood, deploying an AI system must be effective. AI is often considered solely from a technology perspective and little wonder since its capabilities rely onand continually improve throughtechnical innovations.

Deploy with quick-witted positioned skills and a variety of tools to create AI algorithms that can be inserted into enterprise applications. Quick wins bring an added bonus. Meaning that getting the most out of AI is about validating AIs ability to spark value, keeping momentum and funding, and going for longer-term projects.

AI doesnt thrive in a vacuum. Businesses that generate value from AI deal with it as a major business transformation initiative that requires non-similar parts of the company to come together and work with probable expectations. AI is the future of business operations.

When contemplating an investment in AI, be sure you have pragmatic predictions and have a setup that will allow you to embed insights into the daily workflow of your organization. Through the power of AI, you can start blurring the lines between sales, service, and marketing.

The power of artificial intelligence needs a hard edge at business processes and the majority of resources. From there, your company can use AI in a way that actually helps your business grow and ultimately boost your bottom line.

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Adedeji Omotayo is a Digital marketer, PR expert, content writer; the CEO, founder, and president of EcoWebMedia, a full-service digital marketing company. Adedeji is passionate about technology, marketing, and at the same time work with both small and big companies on their internet marketing strategies.

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Best Competency With Artificial Intelligence is by Having Intelligent Experience - ReadWrite

How Artificial Intelligence is Helping to Fight against Coronavirus in India? – Analytics Insight

With the number of COVID-19 cases crossing 18 million mark, the healthcare system across the globe has suffered a major blow against the management of COVID-19. In India, COVID-19 has proved challenging initially for identifying the COVID patients and diagnosing the disease. However, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the past few years, has rendered the Healthline workers and the government for solutions, to stall this roadblock.

Artificial Intelligence uses the technology of powerful algorithms which then processes the data, thus identifying patterns. Thus, for any Artificial Intelligence to be successful, big data is necessary.

Across the globe, as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is expensive and time-consuming, Chest X-rays are now used as a standardized procedure for the diagnosis of COVID-19. However, a simple chest X-ray cannot distinguish the disease and the extent of infection affecting the lungs.

Artificial Intelligence, in collaboration with Chest X-rays, helps in identifying the abnormal findings, thus diagnosing the ground glass opacities in the lungs, which is a classic feature of the COVID-19 disease. Many companies such asQure.ai, a Mumbai based start-up, andTata consultancy serviceshave used AI in a chest X-ray for the diagnosis of COVID-19. The AI developed by Qure.ai also helps in identifying the extent of infection affecting the lungs. This is usually valuable for patients who remain in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

In April, Apple and Google, the two big tech giants, colluded for developing a contact-based app to trace COVID-19 patients. The app works on Bluetooth and has been mostly used in western countries. In India, the government ruled out a similar strategy by developing the Aarogya Setu app.

In June, India told the UN, that drones and contact tracing apps have helped India in managing COVID cases. The app employs Bluetooth and location data to let the user know of any suspected COVID-19 patients nearby. This app is developed in 12 languages and has a user database of more than 10 million people.

Other mobile applications such as GoCoronaGo and Sampark-o-meter have also been developed for contact tracing by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and IITs.

In Odisha, the state health department co-operated with the IT industry for developing drones which were proven helpful in checking infringement of rules in containment zones.

Apart from using the Aarogya Setu app, for contact tracing, many states have exercised AI to identify people who are mask violators with the help of AI cameras.

InTelangana, due to a surge in the COVID cases, the police department has come up with installing a software tool in the CCTV cameras to identify the mask violators. After identifying it sends a notification to the police headquarters, which in turn sends the update to the patrolling police team.

This model is similar to the AI model developed by China for tracking mask violators. This kind of AI technology is initially installed in Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Rachakonda.

During the progression of the coronavirus, AI has facilitated manual repurposing of drugs to treat COVID-19. Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) has developed an AI model that can repurpose medicines according to the highest success probability against the disease, instead of going through the entire process manually.

Tata Consultancy Services is also using AI technology to crunch down the large molecule of drugs into highly effective molecules against the disease, thus reducing the time duration of the process.

Besides this, AI has proven effective in providing Tele-medicines and Tele-consultation, online consultation with health experts concerning a particular disease. In many states, likeChhattisgarh, AI is proven as a success by online training of the medics for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Kerala, Robots are used fordelivering hand sanitizersand delivering public health messages at the entrance of the office buildings and in isolation wards, to combat COVID-19.

The IIT and Stanford Alumni have also come up with a solution fordisinfecting public spaces. They have developed a machine called Robo Sapien, which controls the spread of the virus by ionizing the corona discharge.

Many start-ups are nowusing AIto come with solutions against the spread of COVID-19.

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How Artificial Intelligence is Helping to Fight against Coronavirus in India? - Analytics Insight

Artificial intelligence isnt destroying jobs, its making them more inclusive – The Globe and Mail

A new world of work is on the horizon, driven by artificial intelligence. By 2025, the World Economic Forum predicts that 52 per cent of total task hours across existing jobs will be performed by machines. By 2030, up to 800 million jobs could be replaced by technology altogether.

That said, the outlook is far from bleak. Rather than eliminating positions, technology is expected to bring about net positive jobs over the coming decade but a fact equally as important (and often overlooked) is that artificial intelligence presents an opportunity for a more socioeconomically inclusive career start.

Throughout much of the past century, a persons success in life could be largely attributed to their socioeconomic circumstances at birth. Studies have shown that children born into middle-class homes have greater access to opportunities that are more highly correlated with successful occupational outcomes, such as good schools and financial support. As a result, these children are far more likely to succeed in primary school, high school and post-secondary education.

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These advantages are compounded when it comes to hiring for jobs out of post-secondary school. Resumes, in this way, mirror our privilege.

The criteria for success in the future of work, however, presents an opportunity for a fairer system to assess job fit: skills.

If machine intelligence becomes a large source of expertise (i.e., cancer-screening detection, market research analytics and driving, just to name a few), people will need to adapt and change their skillsets to remain employable. A recent white paper published by IBM rated adaptability as the most important skill that executives will be hiring for in the future. Moreover, as technology continues to advance, our technical skills continue to depreciate (by approximately 50 per cent every five years).

As a result of all of these changes, we will have to upskill (which is the process of learning new skills or teaching workers new skills). Well have to learn and unlearn throughout the majority of our working lives. This changes the formula from front-loading education early in life to a life of continuous learning. It also places skills, like that adaptability mentioned above, more centrally as the currency of labour.

As the CEO of Upwork, one of the fastest-growing gig platforms in the world, wrote two years ago, What matters to me is not whether someone has a computer science degree, but how well they can think and how well they can code. The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, echoed a similar sentiment, stating that the reality is, the new world of work is about skills, not necessarily degrees.

Of course, degrees will still have value. It will also take some time to readjust our job-fit assessment infrastructures. However, paths that do not include a four-year post-secondary degree will also be included in the job-fit assessment as skills become central. This can make room for more inclusive opportunities for career advancement.

Having a more inclusive job-fit assessment infrastructure, however, will not happen automatically. There are many challenges that governments and employers will have to overcome, and actions they will need to take:

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The adoption of advanced technologies in the workforce will revolutionize work. In fact, our very definition of what it means to work may change. How governments and employers respond to these changes will have a large impact on whether this results in positive gains for more people. We have the potential to build a future that works for more people than it currently does, and it is up to us to make it happen.

Sinead Bovell is a futurist and founder of WAYE (Weekly Advice for Young Entrepreneurs), an organization aiming to educate young entrepreneurs on the intersection of business, technology, and the future. She is the Leadership Lab columnist for August 2020.

This column is part of Globe Careers Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.

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Artificial intelligence isnt destroying jobs, its making them more inclusive - The Globe and Mail