Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the buzzword of business right now. It’s the technology revolution we’re all talking about without really understanding, the revolution we all want to be a part of. In essence, AI is all about detecting patterns in data that provide answers to complex questions. It’s been touted as the be all and end all – the font of all knowledge and the maker of business success. Increasingly healthcare professionals are using AI to help detect disease – by cross-referencing information about their patients against hundreds of thousands of images and data references for diseases, they can diagnose disease with far greater accuracy and speed than humans. In the media, Facebook and Google use AI for programmatic advertising to reach targeted audiences. If you’ve got a small business, it’s possible that you’re already taking advantage of this intelligence without even realising it. Perhaps you’re advertising your product and services on social media – you’ve uploaded your database to Facebook and AI is there in the background matching your products and services to the consumers on your database. Then its applying machine learning to get your message out to a much broader group of potential customers with a similar personal or professional profile in Australia and beyond. If you’re running a complex IT system, you might be using AI to monitor your system for signs of fraud. The algorithms will have been built to understand normal behaviour, detect threats to your business and create alerts accordingly. Be Prepared For The Future Off the shelf AI platforms, like consumer profiling and risk management, have been developed by big businesses with massive budgets to afford powerful teams of high paid data scientists. Right now, these off the shelf AI platforms are about the only feasible way that small businesses, with limited budgets and resources can get involved. But don’t be fooled. Like all technologies, costs eventually come down, applications become easier to develop, and there will be access to previously created data banks that you’ll be able to apply to your own artificial intelligence platform. To prepare yourself for a future with AI, you need to develop a comprehensive database of information about your clients and your business, that can be used for your own AI platform or contributed to another. Make sure your data infrastructure is streamlined, in a compatible format, stored in a consistent manner and is easily retrievable for eventual use with AI. The future is just around the corner. At Ayers, we’ve invested in software applications to help you streamline your business administration, and manage your payroll and tax obligations. We can also help you arrange 457 Visas and onboard n experts to help your business prepare for the future. Contact an Ayers Group consultant today.