When looking at the IT industry in 2021, one thing is for sure… AI is no longer a buzzword or confined to futuristic movies with A-list stars. It's here right now, and it's here to stay. 

In fact, AI is now more crucial than ever. With the COVID-19 pandemic curbing human interaction, businesses have little choice other than to implement it. Thanks to AI technology there’s now chatbots that can answer a customer's question faster than R2-D2 can fix the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon. There’s also marketing platforms that can target specific customers to accelerate marketing efforts and increase revenue. 

But it's not only limited to chatbots or marketing platforms. Businesses are using a variety of AI technologies with great success in driving growth during challenging times. The McKinsey State of AI Report 2020 provides some fascinating insight into how the adoption of AI is driving revenue growth. 

Some Stats

So, what exactly is the link between revenue growth and AI? To start off, 22% of survey respondents said that more than 5% of their revenue growth can be attributed to the use of AI.

The most significant gains seem to be in Marketing & Sales, Strategy & Corporate Finance, and Supply Chain Management. Why? Because these functions influence customer relationships the most, and by now, you know that customer satisfaction drives revenue growth significantly.

For this reason, businesses adopting AI to increase customer satisfaction, promotion effectiveness, pricing accuracy, and forecast accuracy will have the best chance to up their profitability by 20%.

What's significant, though, is that businesses seeing value from AI are continuing to invest in it during COVID-19. In fact, most high-performing businesses have actually increased their AI investment amid the pandemic. In other words, the more you're willing to invest in AI, the higher the possibility for revenue growth.

How To Implement AI In Your Business

Do you want to implement AI in your business to drive revenue growth? 

Here's how:

Get familiar with AI. It's simple, you won't know where AI can help you if you're not familiar with modern AI and what it can do. Detect the problems you want to solve. Think about how AI can improve your current processes or solve problems in your workflow.

Prioritize value. Decide where the adoption of AI can add the most value to your business.

Don't forget the internal capability gap. You should know what you're capable of and what not. Remember, there's a marked difference in what you want to accomplish and what you're capable of accomplishing with your resources.

Start small. Try not to take on too much considering your resources and knowledge of AI. So, start small and expand your business's AI capabilities from there as you learn more.

Include storage in your plan. Keep in mind that AI thrives on data. This means you'll need space to store the data, so working storage into your strategy is always a good idea. 

Use it for your daily tasks. Use AI to augment what you do, instead of replacing it. 

Build with balance. To properly implement AI, you have to give equal attention to things like storage, computing power, networking, security, and budget. Skewing too much in one direction can lead to bad results. 

With the insights and automation benefits that AI brings, you'll be able to streamline many business processes, from finance, to customer service and marketing. AI can help to make your business more efficient, productive and attractive to customers, leading to overall revenue growth. 

Final Thoughts

Although many businesses had already started implementing AI in their workflows pre-COVID-19, the pandemic has accelerated these efforts significantly. AI capabilities will continue to be of enormous value to businesses as the new reality emerges post-pandemic. 

If you'd like more information on how you can implement AI in your business to drive revenue growth, talk to the experts at FinXL.