The Transformative Power of Artificial Intelligence across Industries

The groundbreaking launch of ChatGPT in 2022 brought its foundation into light: Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Since Alan Turing introduced computer machine learning in the 1950s, the journey of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption has been marked by a gradual evolution until the groundbreaking launch of ChatGPT back in 2022. It sent shockwaves worldwide and accelerated the embrace of AI technologies. This seismic shift highlighted the role of AI in reshaping the contemporary business landscape.

This article ventures into the diverse applications of AI that have been integrated across various sectors, showcasing its transformative potential to revolutionise existing business processes, enhance safety, and propel business growth.

Personalised Customer Experience
At the core of Netflix’s technological prowess lies its sophisticated recommendation system, which AI fuels. Netflix’s AI role extends to content optimisation, facilitating seamless categorisation and tagging of shows and movies for enhanced discoverability. More fascinating is the AI’s function to personalise recommendations. Consumer Research suggests that a typical Netflix member loses interest after 60 to 90 seconds of choosing.

The AI gathers a plethora of viewers’ data such as watch history, ratings and preferences; it can analyse a plethora of data, which allows it to suggest content that has higher relevancy to each individual.

Safeguard Financial Transactions
In the financial sector, security is a paramount concern, and Visa has embarked on a journey to bolster its defences through the strategic deployment of AI, too. Leveraging AI, Visa enhances its fraud detection capabilities by conducting real-time analysis of transaction data, enabling swift identification of suspicious patterns and proactive detection of potentially fraudulent activities.

At the heart of Visa’s innovation in fraud prevention lies the Visa Advanced Authorisation (VAA) system. Through cloud-based fraud risk models, VAA assesses transaction risks with lightning speed, facilitating the rapid approval of legitimate transactions while flagging potentially fraudulent ones for further investigation. A consumer may trigger a fraud alert during a high-value international transaction with their Visa card in a real-world scenario.

Despite the transaction’s authenticity, the AI-powered VAA system swiftly initiates a verification process that analyses over 500 unique attributes within milliseconds. Upon confirming the cardholder’s identity, the transaction sails through, showcasing the system’s agility and precision in thwarting unwanted fraudulent activities.

Reshape User Experiences
In the travel industry, ratings and reviews are essential in deciding whether to visit tourist attractions, which restaurants to dine at, or even where to stay for the next holiday.

Agoda, the online travel agency, has embarked on a transformative quest to enhance user experiences by harnessing the capabilities of AI within its review drafting process. Every time customers have booked an accommodation with Agoda, they are prompted to leave a review of their experience. Most online review processes can be daunting as it requires the user to think and write. However, Agoda has streamlined this entire process. With just a few simple criteria checks coupled with generative AI to draft reviews, customers can leave reviews “almost effortlessly”.

Furthermore, Agoda’s AI functionalities, such as automated sentiment analysis, content summarisation, language translation services, a review recommendation engine, and quality assurance checks, have not only streamlined Agoda’s platform efficiency but also increased the relevance and readability of reviews, fostering a more immersive and informative user interface. This has driven Agoda to new heights of excellence within the online travel industry.

The case studies above unravel the intricate tapestry of AI’s impact, illuminating how these advanced technologies, used correctly, are not merely tools but catalysts for innovation, driving businesses towards heightened competitiveness and sustained growth in an ever-evolving business world. AI is inevitable, like the industrial revolution. The key to harnessing AI’s capability to stimulate growth should not be limited to only traffic conversion to sales and revenue. We at BIC work with clients’ end-to-end business processes, identifying and enabling AI integration, which catapults their customers’ experience from good to great.

The deployment of AI has yet to be at its pinnacle point. What determines AI’s full functionality depends very much on the data it is fed. Streamlining business processes should remain pivotal in business growth or survival.

As AI exposure heightens and widens, we see many new hiring trends, preferring candidates with parallel knowledge of technologies.

Sam Kon is the COO of Beyond Infinity Consultancy (BIC) with 13 years of e-commerce experience. He is a Shopee Certified Enabler, TikTok Shop Partner, and a certified trainer by Alibaba Business School and Taobao University. He enables and empowers businesses to boost their revenues by going from offline to online (O2O).