With the change in technology, several things have changed, and so has the idea of conducting business. Technology, over the years, is evolving and has come to a point where the need of humans has reduced to an abysmal level. This modernisation in recent years has taken the shape of artificial intelligence; artificial intelligence is understood as a kind of technology that mimics the human intelligence in machines, which leads machines to think and act like humans.
A significant amount of people have welcomed the advent of artificial intelligence as it is cheap and reduces the errors committed by humans. In contrast, a large chunk of the population has been advocating against it as this will increase the already skyrocketing unemployment in the country. There are various examples of Artificial Intelligence in the business operations, such as Amazon Salon, IKEA studio app etc.
Therefore, like all other industries, businesses are not untouched and undisturbed by the growth of Artificial Intelligence in the world. This article shall explore the pros and cons of Artificial intelligence in business operations.
Advantages
The advent of Artificial Intelligence has had its impact on business operations. There have been various advantages of the AI which cannot be ignored. The developments in artificial intelligence in computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing can lead to many benefits. Some of those advantages of artificial intelligence are produced below –
1. Better efficiency - The market in today's day and age is expanding and ever-growing; with the expansion of the market, the competition is also increasing, and to stay in business and keep making profits, it's important that the businesses are functioning effectively and efficiently but to manage the same is not always possible with the help of the limited workforce, in such a scenario the new developments in the field of Artificial intelligence comes in handy. Artificial intelligence streamlines routine tasks and processes. The automated bot which handles the customer query helps the human agents to focus on more critical and complex problems. Furthermore, with the help of the AI financial system, businesses are helped to cut costs and make better financial decisions, which may elude the eye of human agents.
2. More productivity – Several tasks are required to be done in any business establishment; many of such tasks take up the time of the human agents employed instead of working towards better productive options. Artificial intelligence takes over repetitive, menial, time-consuming tasks, and the employees are left with more time to focus on value-based or strategic activities. In business operations, another way in which AI contributes is through project management; it helps with the workflow and real-time awareness of the project's progress. With the help of predictive analytics, it also helps find the problem in the production data and the required solution.
3. Better decision – Using Artificial Intelligence leads to analysing data from various sources. It helps create a trail of trend, insights, and predictions, all of which collectively helps in a better decision for the business. This decision-making is not limited to the general operations of the business but also in the financial field as well; the use of Artificial intelligence can lead to chalking out the best plan for reducing risk, cost saving and helping companies to make informed financial decisions for the betterment of the business operations.
4. High-level detection – 'to err is to human' correctly represents that humans are prone to commit mistakes; naturally, humans make mistakes when undertaking a job. However, some matters expect a high level of consistency and no errors. Artificial intelligence plays a great role in this as it identifies high-risk cases, the borrowers with a very high risk of default, and detects macroeconomic events and lifecycle in the case of small businesses. The detection and the accuracy thereof increase when artificial intelligence is employed as opposed to humans;
5. Industry-specific growth – Artificial intelligence can especially benefit different industries as they look for specific developments. The face of AI in different industries looks different; for instance, in the case of the pharmaceutical sector, AI can be engaged to perform the analysis on drug discovery, whereas, in the case of the financial industry, AI can be optimally used for detecting fraud. Therefore, AI is fluid, can be engaged in any business operation, and can be utilised with respect to the specific needs and demands of the operation and industry.
Disadvantages
It cannot be denied that there are several benefits of Artificial Intelligence in the business operation, but the same cannot outweigh the plausible cons of the same; some of the major problems related to the introduction of Artificial intelligence in business operations are noted below –
1. Costly affair – even though one of the reasons for adopting Artificial intelligence in the sector is to reduce costs, it cannot be ignored that this is a long-term benefit. In the initial years, the cost of introduction of Artificial intelligence is hefty, and not every business operation can afford the same, which leads to the diversion of the consumer base;
2. Need for education and training – Even though it is a well-known fact that Artificial Intelligence has a lot of benefits and potential despite the high cost, at the present moment, it is not being adopted at a faster pace because of the lack of understanding between people with respect to the utilisation of this technology. It is therefore important to impart the required training and education to train people to understand the use, benefits and solution of Artificial Intelligence so it can be employed properly in business operations.
3. Security threats – with the introduction of any new technique, the problems associated with it also arise; similarly, in the case of Artificial intelligence, the security threats at the online juncture have increased to a rate where the government has introduced various reforms to curb the same, some of such reforms are 'Cyber Surakshit Bharat' by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, similarly the ministry also introduced the 'Cyber Swacchta Kendra' which helps in the detection of the malicious programs. It is not just a national issue but a global one. Therefore, to deal with the same, the European Union came up with the regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation.
4. The risks of Artificial Intelligence – there are various uses and benefits of employing artificial intelligence, but that is not enough for business operations. To employ Artificial Intelligence, businesses also must take account of the risks posed by it, which are also significant. The European Union took note of the risks posed by Artificial intelligence and introduced the Artificial Intelligence Act, which covers the basic risks of AI as biometric identification, social scoring, and the use of Artificial intelligence in education, employment, law etc. therefore, before implementing AI these risks must be carefully calculated and understood by the business operation.
5. Less dependence on Human Resources – The need for human intelligence in these changing scenarios is depleting, leading to more unemployment; the businesses and rich industrialists are only concerned with profit maximisation and not employment generation in the age of growing dependence on Artificial intelligence technology the situation is getting bleaker for humans.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is the future of business and industries, and it cannot be denied by any means. The benefits of engaging Artificial intelligence in the sector are numerous; it helps counter fraudulent transactions with the advanced power of data analytics, and it further conducts anti-money laundering operations, which otherwise using human force would take hours.
With the help of this technology, a massive amount of data can also be handled at a very high speed. It is next to impossible to track and detect all the fraud and mismanagement manually, and thus, Artificial intelligence proves to be handy in such cases. However, this does not mean that the fraud committed by breaking into the cyber security of Artificial intelligence can be ignored. It is the need that better and more secure cyber guards are created to protect the system from fraud and that the need for human resources is given its due importance.
Source:LegaMart
